LINCOLN, Maine — Several people in the Lincoln area have been arrested on drug charges after a lengthy investigation into trafficking in the prescription painkiller oxycodone, according to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
The MDEA said Tuesday the following suspects were arrested in June and July: Lance French, 41, of Howland; Michael Handy, 40, of Lincoln; Susan Kenneway, 47, of Lincoln; Craig McGaw, 40, of Lincoln; and April McGaw, 31, of Lincoln.
Early this summer, Lincoln police and MDEA agents opened an investigation into several individuals from the Lincoln area suspected of selling prescription narcotics, MDEA director Roy McKinney said in a statement. He said undercover agents purchased drugs from the suspects, resulting in their arrests.
French, Craig McGraw and April McGraw were charged with aggravated trafficking in oxycodone, a Class A crime, for selling the drugs in a school zone, while Handy and Kenneway were charged with trafficking in oxycodone, a Class B offense, McKinney said.
Also charged during the investigation, with Class C possession of oxycodone, was Tabitha Dill, 27, of Lincoln.
The total street value of the oxycodone, either purchased from the suspects or seized from them at the times of their arrests, exceeds $5,000, McKinney said.
The Maine State Police assisted in the investigation.
We really need to find some kind of solution to the pharmaceutical drug problem in this state.
My suggestion would be to mark every capsule with a tracking number and follow the chain backwards. It’s plain to see that as long as the major pharmaceutical campanies are paid for every pill, whether it is consumed legally or other wise, they’ll do nothing. We need to make them accountable for this poison.
How can anyone blame the drug companies for the abuse of their product? Are they the ones who tell you to crush, melt and inject their product? How about the huffers? Are the spray paint manufacturers responsible for the abuse of their product? The only ones accountable are the ones that chose to abuse.
A doctor somewhere over-prescribed these pills. Not every pill on the street comes from a pharmacy robbery, someone is selling their prescription.
The doctor may have (often do, it seems, because pain is hard to quantify) and the others are making money off the hooked. Once again, nobody can blame the industry, only the players. How can Home Depot control the spray cans of paint after they leave the store because some twit sprays it into a bag and ‘huffs’ it? Can Chevy be blamed because a guy hooked on the adrenaline of speed causes a devastating crash in his Corvette? Users are one thing, dealers are reprehensible, but the companies are blameless for the misuse of their (mostly) valuable products. :)
Why do we continue to fund this endless ‘war on drugs’? These are adults who made the choice of entering, or fallen into, the trade of dealing pills. These pills aren’t coming from out of our country or being used to fund gangs. These are simply ‘diverted’ pain pills that come from our corporate pharmaceutical dispensaries. As long as these pills continue to be produced and prescribed the public, they will be abused.
Adults that have made the choice of entering, or ‘fallen into’ the use of drugs are worthy of pity, but dealers are nothing but opportunistic leeches on other’s misery.
The pharmaceutical corporations and their dispensaries (drug stores) produce a product of which they have no control over after it reaches the doctor’s prescription pad (and there are far more people who chose to try the stuff than got hooked through prescriptions). Morphine is a valuable thing to have for those that truly need it, but abusing it for recreational use is just plain stupid.
Sometimes, I wished it was 1800’s. When people were bored back then they did physical labor to keep out of trouble. People have too much free time on their hands.
Ezekiel 16:49–50
49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride,dexcess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and edid an abomination before me. So fI removed them, when I saw it.
In the 1800s, the legal age of consent for a female was 10. Physical labor as entertainment? Not so sure.
The pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists, politicians and overprescribing physicians are responsible for this epidemic. We have created a society of drug enduced zombies who rely on the tax payers for their fix.
They aren’t completely responsible. The people who TAKE the drugs are responsible as well.
Just because it’s prescribed, it doesn’t mean you have to take it and keep taking it and keep taking it, etc.
Also, a lot of the people who become addicted to the pills start taking them at parties and such. They aren’t prescribed to them in the beginning- they take them because they hear that it gives them a high- and then they become addicted.
MOST people who take the drugs NEED them. My husband is going thru cancer treatment and he NEEDS these meds to assist with the pain management. The IDIOTS that steal and sell the drugs are the ones that are at fault…not the pharmaceutical companies and not people like my husband. Sometimes I wonder what some of you people are smoking that comment on here.
someone sure is faking pain just to get these pain killers to make money while those who really need it can’t afford it and have to go without
Hey MDEA…there is an easy follow to all this. Find the grandparents of the kid (stay at home son/predator) in the Howland area that makes $10k a month off of selling their script
Hey BDN, is it McGaw or McGraw? Just wondering.
They should adopt Southeast Asia’s laws on drug dealers…caught once…never offend again :)