CLAREMORE, Okla. -- The new war on drugs is now inside your medicine cabinet.
That’s what lawmakers and local agencies are trying tackle in our community.
Agent Chris Smith, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics,"it is one of the biggest problems nationwide and in Oklahoma for several years and until just recently prescription drug overdose deaths led the state and in nation in drug overdose deaths,"
It looks like table talk right now, but these are the people on the front lines fighting the opioid crisis in Oklahoma.
It's not the drugs from a dealer on the streets, it's the legal ones these policy makers are worried about.
“Since when did we think it was OK that we sent home a controlled narcotic in a bottle and call it controlled because it was and it was in a child-proof bottle?” said Rep. Markwayne Mullin, (R) Oklahoma.
When it comes to prescription pain pill abuse Attorney General Todd Hembree from the Cherokee Nation said Oklahoma is in the epicenter and his tribe is the epicenter within the epicenter.
“It is a war. So on a war you fight on many fronts," said Hembree,.
Of the 1.2-million Cherokee citizens, Hembree said 87-million opioid doses came into the tribe's jurisdiction in 2016.
His office is now suing the drug makers, distributors and pharmacies.
“This is no accident, this is a direct marketing ploy by the distributors, by the retailers and by the manufacturers. I've heard it been said these are drug dealers in lab coats, that's absolutely correct," said Hembree.
The companies named suits across the country have told other outlets they're already working to be part of the solution.
Hembree said the tribe is working tirelessly on addiction recovery services and also using state and local assets to hold those responsible, accountable.
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