Pill Seekers

From a Rough Draft of a Paper I'm Writing:

On the other hand, while there are some local distributors and street level dealers in the pill trade, the provision of multiple legal outlets for prescription pills has led to aggressive abusers. Sometimes this manifests itself in a form of criminal activity which is bent toward the use of force to take pills, such as robbery or burglary. More commonly abusers seek to defraud a doctor or pharmacy in order to get drugs.

However, the most aggressive act taken by abusers is the seeking of pills from doctors and pain clinics several states away. As pain management clinics coalesced in states which are not properly regulating them, particularly in Florida, abusers sought them out with a vengeance. People drive from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia to mob these clinics. There is even a flight from West Virginia to Fort Lauderdale that is so notorious for carrying drug seekers that it is called the “O.C. Express.” As one law enforcement official in Kentucky stated, “We're just seeing a phenomenal amount of people from Kentucky going to Florida for these pills. They drive down there to Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, and they're getting bags full of pills, and they're driving back the same day.” Another Kentucky law enforcement official was more blunt. “We're inundated with it. Florida is killing us. There's a carload that leaves here so often -- hell, every week or so -- to go to Florida.”