Federal prosecutors have charged dozen of doctor’s in 5 states with illegally prescribing pain pills. In some cases, the medical professional was exchanging the pills for sex. Officials say more than 32 million pills were given out.

A total of 60 people have been indicted. Those arrested and charged include 31 doctors, 7 pharmacist, and 8 nurse practitioners and a few other medical professionals. Those arrested were either in West Virginia, Alabama, Ohio, Tennessee or Kentucky. The federal indictments came down earlier this morning from officials in Cincinnati.

The charges range from illegal distribution of a controlled substance to health care fraud. Each of the offenses carries a penalty of 20 years maximum in prison. One of the accused, doctor is actually linked to the Opioid death of a patient.

The Justice Department says this is apart of a national effort to confront the nations growing deadly epidemic of Opioid overdoses. In 2017, in the United States alone over 47 thousand people died due to an Opioid overdose.

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