WV Attorney General files suit against 14 out-of-state drug dist - WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports

WV Attorney General files suit against 14 out-of-state drug distributors

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By David Iversen, Reporter - bio | email
CHARLESTON, West Virginia -

At a news conference Tuesday morning, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw announced lawsuits against 14 drug distributors for supplying drugs to "rogue drugstores," who in turn "prescribed them for non-legitimate medical purposes."

McGraw called the distribution companies key players in "pill mill" operations. 

"These out of state drug distributors have substantially contributed to, benefited from and gained improperly from prescription drug abuse in West Virginia," McGraw said. "We now ask them to accept responsibility and pay for their illicit actions just as our office has done with others."

State Police Sgt. Mike Smith, a member of the Drug Diversion Division, said the problem has only gotten worse over the past several years.

"Once you take a step back and take a look, you're seeing whole communities being devastated," said Smith. "Before, we didn't really see the housewife, we didn't see the school teacher, we didn't see the professional really getting into the addiction of pharmaceutical drugs."

The suit was filed in Boone County, an area McGraw described as ground zero of prescription drug abuse.