THE NEW DRUG DEALERS:SENIOR CITIZENS

It is confirmed by members of law enforcement and a review of court cases that retirement-age Americans have become a new source of prescription painkillers sold on the open market. To make ends meet or due to a financial crisis are why some sell their pills. Others are victims of drug dealers. The dealers target seniors for their prescriptions. In some cases, family members and caregivers are taking the medication for profit or to feed their own addictions. Poverty is not only what keeps this troubling trend growing. Also, it is the ability to easily obtain prescriptions from doctors. It becomes a temptation to supplement their income when they discover they can get $20 a pill on the street. Seniors who sell their medication do not operate like traditional dealers. Instead, they sell and share their pills through a network of family members and friends. Often they do not have a good understanding of the dangers of potential legal consequences. According to Sharon Walsh, director of the University of Kentucky Center for Drug and Alcohol Research in Lexington,"It's a culturally accepted thing to supply medication to a person who is in pain. People, especially in rural communities, they don't see anything wrong with selling prescription medications". While there are no precise statics to gauge the size of the problem, law enforcement officials say that older people selling prescription medication is a real issue. Federal prosecutors focus their efforts on large-scale opioid pushers. This is the reason for the lack of data. Local prosecutors say it is hard to prosecute older people for selling their small supply of prescription drugs. Law enforcement officials say judges are reluctant to give jail time. It is often the older drug sellers' first brush with the law. Most of the time they get probation. Sometimes, these individuals do not set out to sell drugs. Drug dealers, either with threats or promises of money, recruit them to get prescriptions. The drug dealers later sell the drugs at a steep markup. And in some cases older patients were left with more opioid pills than they need. This is due to fraudulent or careless prescribing. The opioids are not always a profit. Pills are often stolen by home health workers. They have been taken by family members and visitors from medicine cabinets. Sometimes the pills are just given away.