U.S. Attorney Babara L. McQuade discussed the epidemic of pain-pill and related insurance fraud in Metro Detroit.

DETROIT — On the rise are money-making schemes to convert controlled, addictive and increasingly deadly prescription pills, like OxyContin, for sale on the black market.

A 60-pill prescription of 80mg OxyContin has a potential street value of $4,800, up to $80 per pill, says U.S. Attorney Babara L. McQuade, and networks of players — greedy doctors, pharmacists and home health carer providers — are acting as drug kingpins, securing prescriptions and filtering them through black markets that span to Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and beyond.

McQuade said she wants the public to be aware of the enormous scope of the problem, especially in Metro Detroit where two separate busts have snared more than 57 suspects.

She said it is the taxpayers who lose, but also addicts on the bottom rung of the prescription-pill food chain.

"The CDC has described prescription drug overdoses as a national epidemic," McQuade said. "More people will die from prescription drug overdoses than die from gunshot wounds.

"I have seen that analogy made that it is the new crack... It is the largest growing illegal drug addiction problem in America."

Nearly 12,000 people died of pain-pill related overdosed in 2008, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 475,000 emergency room visits in 2009 were the result of pain killer misuse.

The most sought after pills are opiates or synthetic opiates — often Oxycontin (a brand of the opiate oxycodone) and Vicodin — pain pills that affect the body the same way as heroin.

Michigan has a prescription drug tracking system that tracks every prescription issued in the state, including information about patients, how much they receive, what kind of drug and who prescribed it.

According to the

, there were more than 42 million doses of oxcodone (an opiate) or oxycodone-based drugs prescribed in Michigan, which has a population of about 10 million.

The enormous demand and profit margins have seduced doctors and pharmacists throughout Detroit. The effect is felt in cities across the Midwest as the pills are trafficked to places like Portsmouth, Ohio.

"Our opiate addiction rates were five times the national average," said Portsmouth Police Chief during an announcement in the U.S. Attorney's Office Wednesday. "Along with that came the associated crimes to support those habits, the robberies, the clinics, the pharmacies, the intentional killing of people to get their drugs, families being destroyed.

"We're not the only community that has been influenced by drugs originating in Detroit; Huntington, West Virginia; Charleston, West Virginia; Columbus, we all see it."

Ware said, knowing where the drugs originated and having already eliminated its 10 pain clinics, he approached Detroit law enforcement for help cutting off the source.

McQuade says Detroit is "an originating city" of prescription pills that are trafficked "all the way down into Kentucky, all the way down I-75."

"There have been theories as to why," she said, "There are a lot of people who are willing to give up their personal information for a few hundred dollars."

To illustrate, McQuade presented two cases, one involving a syndicate of 44 people who have been indicted, and

Between the two cases there was over $90 million in fraudulent billing for services and unwarranted prescriptions to Medicaid, Medicare and private insurers.

The participants make money on two fronts, by billing insurance providers, earning service fees; and by selling the medications on the black market.

Drug dealers, "marketers" or "recruiters" target low-income people or addicts at soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

"They say, 'Do you want to make a little money today, do you have Medicare or Medicaid?'" McQuade said.

Their information is collected for a kickback of cash or drugs then used to issue prescriptions that are filled at participating pharmacies and sold on the black market.

Just one of numerous pharmacies listed in the 44-member indictment issued 700,000 doses of 80mg OxyContin woth $14 million on the street; over 2 million doses of Vicodin, over 1 million doses of Xanax and more than 1,000 liters of codeine-based cough syrup, according to the complaint.

McQuade said some of the participants — "not legitimate doctors," but with medical licenses — would organize "parties" at which a number of pill-seekers would congregate to receive prescriptions.

Another byproduct of these opiates flooding the streets is increased heroin use, according to McQuade.

"That addiction to opiates then leads to young people seeking out heroin which has led to a resurgence in heroin trafficking," she said.