As meth moves out, prescription drugs move in.

The crackdown on methamphetamines is working, but with that success comes another trendy drug, said Mike Burnett, the Weed and Seed/Meth Initiative program coordinator.

Prescription drug abuse has the possibility to be an even larger issue than meth.

"People see meth as an evil now," Burnett said, during Casper's fifth annual Methamphetamine and Substance Abuse Conference. "But the availability of prescriptions and the difficult detection make the problem even greater."

Darrell Stewart, a special agent with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, said in a presentation on Thursday that there are several main problems with prevention and prosecution of prescription drug users.

The first is availability.

Unlike methamphetamines, which require supplies and facilities to produce the drug, prescription drugs are readily available through multiple sources.

The pills are stolen from people's medicine cabinets, addicts write false prescriptions for themselves and for resale or complain of false ailments to doctors.

"It's not the kilos of coke on the table we are looking for," Stewart said to a room full of nurses, counselors, therapists and police officers nodding their heads. "It's the stupid pills we all have in our medicine cabinets."

These pills, including Percocet and OxyContin, which contain oxycodone and Vicodin, which contains hydrocodone, are also lucrative. These brand-name drugs are usually prescribed as painkillers.

Stewart said one 30 milligram OxyContin pill could sell for $30 to $60 on the street.

Casper's Crime Prevention Officer Pete Abrams said the number of home and car burglaries in Casper that involve stolen pills has increased recently.

Another problem with prescription drug addiction is the potential level of harm caused to an addict.

They're called "Skittle Parties" and are increasingly more dangerous and prevalent in Casper, said Burnett. Each party participant brings his own prescription drugs, put the pills in a bucket in the middle of the room and the partiers ingest the pills throughout the night. The partiers often don't know what they are taking or the possible drug interactions.

"It's like playing Russian roulette with pills," Burnett said.

Burnett said the city and state need to focus on prescription drug abuse through education and prevention before the problem becomes too big to handle.

The Methamphetamine and Substance Abuse Conference continues today at 8:30 a.m. and closes at noon at the Parkway Plaza.