The street value of oxycodone continues to skyrocket, with individual pills selling for as much as $80, according to some law enforcers. Not surprisingly, news headlines bear out the desperate, and sometimes deadly, measures that some addicts or their drug dealers will go to for these painkillers. The pharmacy robbery in Long Island, New York on 19 June that left four people dead brought the issue to the forefront of the public’s attention.

But legislators had already noticed. In May, US Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat representing New York, proposed toughening the penalties for individuals who steal, traffic and tamper with medical products, including pharmaceuticals. The Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 2011, now in committee, would increase the prison sentences for medical cargo theft from 10 to 20 years and permit law enforcement to wiretap suspects to collect evidence.

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