"I think a lot of the users think that if they get a prescription drug they're safe, because it is a prescription and they think they can't get hurt by it.  They certainly can because it's just as addictive as illegal drugs of cocaine and heroin and so forth," Attorney General Tom Corbett said.

Prosecutors say not only can they be as addictive; they're being abused at just as bad of a rate.  A number of dealers arrested in Cambria County over the last several months are charged with dealing prescriptions including Xanex, Methadose, OxyContin, Roxicet, Morphine, and Fentanyl. 

"This isn't just in a specific section of southern Cambria County…this occurs in all parts of the county, central and northern part of the county," District Attorney Patrick Kiniry said.

The attorney general says in most cases doctors are writing false prescriptions for so called patients.  Philipsburg doctors Larry Adams and Michael Fuentes are charged in connection with such incidents.  While the doctors’ alleged actions are more “white collar” crimes, the users are often robbing and stealing, just like their counterparts who abuse illegal narcotics.   

"We have a program in the northeastern part of the state where we've interrogated a number of individuals we've arrested in solving a number of other crimes because we don't ask them just about drugs, we ask them what all they know about all other crimes," Corbett said. 

Corbett says a number of children are also abusing prescription drugs they find in their family's medicine cabinets.  He says his office is focused on eradicating all types of drug abuse from area communities, but until they eliminate the demand the supply will always be there.  Corbett says it will continue to be an uphill battle.