It wasn’t breaking news that heroin and its related drugs were ravaging communities across Ohio, but the revelation that the state led the nation in opioid overdose deaths in 2014 put the problem into perspective. Ohio is the seventh largest state, but had more overdose deaths in 2014 than California, the largest state and the […]

Heroin kills.  It might as well be the slogan for Ottawa County’s drug problem these last few years. “It’s everywhere now,” said Carl Rider, an agent with the Ottawa County Drug Task Force. “This isn’t an inner-city issue anymore.” The county’s drug task force has dealt with a consistent and disturbing amount of heroin since 2011. […]

A former co-owner of a medical clinic which had an office in North Olmsted and a doctor who worked there were indicted last week on 170 charges involving medical fraud in what one law enforcement officer deemed a “pill mill.” Diane Javier, 71, and Dr. Stephen Bernie of the Medical Care Group were indicted last […]

An Ashland man will spend the next 10 years in prison following his conviction on drug trafficking charges during a three-day jury trial. John F. Wright, 47, of 714 Bellefonte Princess Road was sentenced to eight years for second degree aggravated trafficking and 24 months for trafficking. The sentences will run consecutively. The maximum penalty […]

There are now nearly daily reminders of the toll of heroin, and increasingly, fentanyl, both regionally and nationally, but even just a few years ago that wasn’t the case. Dr. David Keep had been working for the Lake County Coroner’s Office for two years when he approached the Lake County General Health District in 2010 […]