By Angela Hatton
Mayfield, KY – The Mayfield Police Department continues to search for a suspect who took hundreds of dollars in pills, and several thousand dollars in cash from a local pharmacy over the weekend. Detective Lieutenant Shannon Keller says this is the fourth pharmacy break in within a year in Graves County. Keller says many other communities are seeing an increase in prescription drug abuse.
"They're easily accessed. I mean, we've had a lot of cases of doctor-shopping also where people are going to several different doctors and getting pills prescribed to them. Y'know if they get pulled over and they have pills in a prescription bottle with their name on it, they're not going to get in any trouble."
Keller says the punishment for prescription drugs is not as harsh as it is for other narcotics, like cocaine or methamphetamine. Mayfield Police have been advising pharmacy-owners to increase or update their security, particularly after a break-in. Keller says pharmacy workers should also watch for any suspicious-looking people.