| Federal authorities announced charges Tuesday against 11 doctors in Appalachia for the overprescription of controlled substances, including three physicians in Putnam, Boone and Wood counties.
During a news conference at the federal building in Charleston, Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said the charges against a total of 13 defendants were connected to pill mills across five Appalachian districts and involved more than 17 million opioid pills illegally prescribed and put on the street.
A number of other WV physicians have been charged and tried in pill mill cases, in most instances creating addiction problems in a number of small WV towns, mostly in southern WV.
Some of the nations major drug companies have been sued over what has been called a money making scheme.
Meanwhile, residents of the Mountain State are leading the nation with the disease of addiction. | 
