ROANOKE RAPIDS, N.C. (WNCN) — Two Virginia men were arrested after Roanoke Rapids police said they tried to used fake prescriptions to get cough medicine with codeine.
On June 15, Capt. Hardy with the Roanoke Rapids Police Department was made aware of a person trying to use a fake prescription at a pharmacy on Becker Drive.
Hardy came in contact with the man and began to speak with him about the fake prescription, police said.
“Captain Hardy was familiar with the prescribing physician and knew the number of fraudulent prescriptions that have been given to people over the last several months,” Roanoke Rapids police said in a release.
The person had a fake name on the fraudulent prescription as well, police said.
The men, identified as Amir Villata and Evangelos Koukis, were trying to get the cough medicine promethazine with codeine.
Roanoke Rapids police said the medicine is used in the manufacture of a product known as “Lean,” also known as “Purple Drank.”
The U.S. Department of Justice said the effects of “Purple Drank” are a sedative and woozy or swooning euphoria. The drink mixture is highly addictive and has contributed to overdose deaths, the DOJ said.
Villata and Koukis were arrested and charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense, uttering/forgery and resist/;obstruct/delay.
Villata was placed under a $30,000 bond. Koukis was placed under a $50,000 bond.