Methamphetamine not Opioids biggest Problem in Rabun County

Recently, national attention has focused on the opioid epidemic, but in Rabun County, the number one illegal drug continues to be methamphetamine, says Sheriff Chad Nichols.  “It’s meth and you can tell by the police blotters and the reports that come through. Probably back before I was sheriff there was an opioid problem but the government step in and did the Pharmacy Networking Act and that basically made it where all the pharmacies had to talk back and forth.  So, I think that probably has helped curtail the epidemic here and probably nationwide to some extent. You look at those figures for five years and in 2012, something like seven million pills distributed just in our county, so that is staggering to think about that many pills. I think the act might have come sometime around in there or maybe after that, but I think that has helped tremendously so you wouldn’t have somebody going to Walgreens and get a prescription and then trying to go across the street to CVS and getting it again.  So, I think that has helped out a lot by the government stepping in and doing that. We have had two busts since I have been in office where people were selling prescription pills. So, it is a problem, but I think here our epidemic would be more towards the methamphetamine than the pills.” A recent article in The Washington Post reported that from 2006 to 2012 there were 7,128,310 prescription pain pills or opioids, enough for 62 pills per person per year, supplied to Rabun County. Sheriff Nichols took office on January 1, 2017.