AP Enterprise: Pharmacy robberies sweeping US

[ShockediSay]

Source: AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- A wave of pharmacy robberies is sweeping the United States as desperate addicts and ruthless dealers turn to violence to feed the nation's growing hunger for narcotic painkillers.

From Redmond, Wash., to St. Augustine, Fla., criminals are holding pharmacists at gunpoint and escaping with thousands of powerfully addictive pills that can sell for as much as $80 apiece on the street.

In one of the most shocking crimes yet, a robber walked into a neighborhood drugstore Sunday on New York's Long Island and gunned down the pharmacist, a teenage store clerk and two customers before leaving with a backpack full of pills containing hydrocodone.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-Enterprise-Pharmacy-apf-69112556.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

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Hate to say it but this is predictable with so many have nots and a very few filthy wealthy, like Mexico.

[azul]

1. So should pharmacists buy guns or bullet-proof vests?

Oh yeah, one of those choices is illegal.

It's a mixed-up world living in the US of A.

[TheWraith]

4. What do you mean? Neither of those is illegal. nt

[BeHereNow]

2. I wonder how healthcare- including rehabilitation, instead of prison

were it available to all, might reduce the number of addicts and thus lower the market demand
and crime?
Just T.O.L....
BHN

[bemildred]

3. Maybe we ought to let addicts buy what they want cheap?

Avoid all this mess?

[rsmith6621]

5. Have You Seen The Price of Viagra....

...2003....100mg pill $8.50........2011...$23.45 a pill on the original patent.

Never a story about the pharmaceutical industry ROBBING US.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Banks have armed guards. Guess we will see the same in drugstores soon.

Here is a suggestion. Keep the narcotics in a central location---like a "narcotic" bank. People filling prescriptions for these will have to travel a few extra miles but at least they won't get killed when they stop by Walgreens to pick up their kid's Amoxicillin.

[boppers]

16. Banks get robbed all the time.

The "armed guards" are there to deter idiots, not skilled people.

They're kind of like the "safety" on a ciggie lighter.

[hollowdweller]

7. Where I live has a huge prescription drug problem.

Now that they have tightened up on giving out prescriptions you have tons of jonesing people looking for a way to get high.

Old people get robbed and tied up OD is the leading cause of death for under 45 in my state.

Also heroin is coming in a lot now to fill the demand.

The overprescription of pain meds is a huge problem. I think we need medical marijuana for chronic pain rather than opiates except in extreme circumstances.

In this area the problem is really bad. Lots of robberies of drug stores and just robbery in general.

Lots of gangs moving in.

[Incitatus]

11. It's a growing problem in Florida too.

Lots of robberies are also targeting the residents medicine cabinets.

[NM Independent]

15. The repetition of "overprescription of pain meds is a huge problem." is a problem.

I am a chronic pain sufferer. I am no addict. I take my pills as prescribed, by a pain management specialist, for PAIN. Because of the repetition of your BS statement, I and others are seen as nothing more than junkies or "drug-seekers" by some people. Even people in the medical community who should be empathetic are that way. The never-ending suspicion from every new doctor that hasn't read my full chart is maddening.

Frankly, if I didn't have two beautiful boys and an awesome wife, I would immediately kill myself just to escape the pain and put an end to the torture. Please, think twice before you spout off that line.

[hollowdweller]

18. With All Due Respect

#1 I'm not talking about people like you. People like you are getting targeted for theft and worse in my neck of the woods.

#2 You don't live here so I'm not sure you would understand the impact to the community the overprescription of pain meds has had.

#3 Sorry your pain medications aren't working for you and for your pain.

[valerief]

8. We ARE Mexico now. nt

[bemildred]

9. AP Enterprise: Rising painkiller addiction, ruthless dealers drive US pharmacy robberies

NEW YORK — A wave of pharmacy robberies is sweeping the United States as desperate addicts and ruthless dealers turn to violence to feed the nation’s growing hunger for narcotic painkillers.

From Redmond, Wash., to St. Augustine, Fla., criminals are holding pharmacists at gunpoint and escaping with thousands of powerfully addictive pills that can sell for as much as $80 apiece on the street.

In one of the most shocking crimes yet, a robber walked into a neighborhood drugstore Sunday on New York’s Long Island and gunned down the pharmacist, a teenage store clerk and two customers before leaving with a backpack full of pills containing hydrocodone.

“It’s an epidemic,” said Michael Fox, a pharmacist on New York’s Staten Island who has been stuck up twice in the last year. “These people are depraved. They’ll kill you.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/ap-enterprise-rising-painkiller-addiction-ruthless-dealers-drive-us-pharmacy-robberies/2011/06/25/AGjM3nkH_story.html

[47of74]

10. This is probably part of the reason...

...my pharmacist sister got away from working behind the counter of a store and went to work for a mail order place.

[Harry J Asslinger]

12. Were it a epidemic of a new street drug...

The WOD would already have been escalated.

I cannot recall where I came across it, but the trend in times of economic woe is for the use of narcotics (by this I mean dulling drugs) to increase.

[Duer 157099]

13. People are in pain.

Physical pain, psychic pain, emotional pain, it's all pain and they want relief.

Maybe if we figured out what is causing all this pain...

[Rex]

14. Look...just cut off Rush's supply of illegal painkillers and I'm sure these

levels will diminish, nationwide.

[GeorgeGist]

17. 686/365 = 1.9 per day

for the entire USA.

FEAR, FEAR, FEAR.