A Leesburg woman who worked as a security guard at Fayette County Memorial Hospital (FCMH) and stole opioids from an anesthesia box was sentenced Monday to 12 days in jail and two years of community control.

Janice Jones, 54, plead guilty to three charges of theft of drugs, a felony of the fourth degree. Jones was indicted May 15, 2015 after the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy conducted an investigation into missing medications from FCMH at 1430 Columbus Ave. in Washington Court House.

According to the investigation documents, Jones confessed to stealing from an unsecured anethesia box during her night shift as a security guard. Jones admittedly stole five fentanyl 2ml ampoules, two morphine 10 mg syringes, two hydromorphone 2mg syringes, one midazolam 2 mg vial, one ephedrine 50 mg ampoule and one propofol 200mg vial.

Fentanyl and morphine are schedule II controlled substances used in the treatment of severe pain.

In a January 2015 recorded interview with an Ohio State Board of Pharmacy compliance agent and specialist, Jones said she had drug use problems since 2014, when she turned to drugs to cope with an emotional and difficult breakup, according to reports. She told the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy that she would buy drugs on the street, including morphine, hydromorphone, and oxycodone, and said she took 10-12 tablets of morphine daily and then turned to using heroin.

She was working as a security guard at the hospital June 3, 2014, making sure doors were locked in three buildings, including the surgery area, when she said she went into the surgery area to go to the bathroom and observed the anesthesia box and noticed the padlock was not locked. She said she then took drugs from the box, attached the padlock, and went home and used the drugs.

Employees at the hospital noticed the drugs were missing. Jones said she had administered a syringe of morphine to herself just before being called in for a drug screen June 3, 2014.

She told the compliance agent and specialist that she had used the drugs in an attempt to commit suicide. She was treated for drug abuse in October of 2014 and was taking Suboxone, but said she soon “weaned” herself off drugs and was drug-free at the time of the January 2015 interview.

Jones had two days of jail-time credit and will serve 10 days in the Fayette County Jail. She was ordered to pay the costs for prosecution.

Failure to complete the terms of the sentencing could result in a year-and-a-half prison term.