By Amelia A. Pridemore
Night-shift convenience store clerks have never been able to turn their backs, knowing they could come face-to-face with a robber at any time.
Now, pharmacists have to keep looking over their shoulders.
Pharmacy operations are far tighter now that the prescription drug abuse problem has reached epidemic proportions. Pharmacists and other employees must be on the lookout for fraudulent prescriptions and undertake greater security measures.
Robberies are a constant threat, and police say these crimes have a high potential for violence.
“As a pharmacist, it’s frustrating because I have to spend part of my day being law enforcement instead of using that time to help people feel better and show them how to take their medications correctly,” said Patty Johnston, a pharmacist and owner of Colony Drug in Beckley.
Prescription drug abuse has always been a problem, but it is one that has grown “disproportionately” over the past 10 years, Johnston said.
“It’s gone from bad to horrible,” she said.
Johnston said pharmacists have to work to make sure that prescriptions are legitimate, that there is a definite relationship between the patient and prescribing physician, and that the patient isn’t someone who walked in off the street and paid a fee.
Pharmacists are seeing more people bringing in prescriptions from out-of-state, particularly from Florida. Prescriptions from Ohio are gradually creeping up, too.
“Florida has been a real problem,” she said. “I don’t know if the laws are looser. While I believe we have a good pharmacy, I don’t think someone is going to drive from Florida to West Virginia to get a prescription filled.”
At one point, Florida was the largest state without a statewide prescription database, according to the Miami Herald. These databases show what prescriptions a person has filled in one state and are designed to spot possible “doctor shoppers.”
Florida lawmakers passed legislation creating such a database last spring. Florida officials told The Register-Herald work on the database has begun, but it is not yet active.
Most of the people bringing in out-of-state prescriptions are also out-of-state residents who stop in while on the interstate highways, Johnston said.
“Ninety-five percent of the time, it’s not a local person,” she said.
Pharmacies now have to go through more security-related hoops.
All customers are asked for identification, and all picking up prescriptions must sign for them, she said. She emphasizes this is for customers’ protection, as well as the pharmacy’s.
Johnston said anyone clearly suspicious is first reported to the prescribing physician in case the physician was duped. Then law enforcement is called. But pharmacy employees also have to make sure information they receive is legitimate. Some people, like jilted lovers, will falsely report others are obtaining prescriptions without a legitimate need.
While some prescriptions are “fairly obvious” forgeries, Johnston noted some people can be rather crafty. They will often change a quantity from 10 to 100. People working at physicians’ offices have called in prescriptions for friends or themselves.
“You’ll notice a pattern when one person is calling in for certain people,” she said.
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The rampant prescription drug abuse problem has led some desperate addicts to go straight to the source, per se.
Beckley police Detective Sgt. David Allard said he has investigated 10 or 11 pharmacy robberies, plus one attempted robbery, during the past three years. He also pointed out the number of pharmacies in Beckley, providing a large quantity of controlled substances.
City police investigated four pharmacy robberies in 2008 and one in 2009.
“The number of pharmacy robberies has become alarming,” Allard said. “These drugs are very high in strength and power — very potent. The motive is not strictly to sell the drugs. Yes, there are some who sell the pills, as well, but the majority are doing this to support a personal habit.”
Those working to support other drug habits by criminal means have to first rob someone of or steal cash or steal items that can easily be converted to cash, Allard said. Pharmacy robbers have to commit only one crime to get what they want.
Getting the pills, he noted, seems to be their only goal. In the robberies he has investigated, none of the suspects ever took anything but pills.
“It was never for anything other than drugs,” he said. “It was never for money. It was completely about the prescription medications. In other robberies, the motive is money. There has never been any other demand for anything other than narcotics in the ones we’ve investigated.”
Local pharmacists who have become victims, Allard said, have remained calm during the crimes, and there have been almost no incidents of violence.
However, one city pharmacist was kidnapped, he said, and forced to drive the suspect to Fayette County. In another incident, the suspects lured a pharmacist from behind the counter, saying they needed help finding an item. One suspect then pulled a knife and forced the pharmacist back behind the counter, then forced the pharmacist to hand over controlled substances.
“These people are usually armed or have alluded they were armed,” he said. “Some of them have only brought in a BB gun or stuffed tire irons down their jackets, leading pharmacists to believe they had shotguns. But that perception leads to a great amount of fear for the victims.
“The pharmacists are very helpful in providing service or advice to their customers. Sometimes, people take advantage of that kindness.”
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Colony Drug has not been robbed — so far.
“I hate to say that out loud, but yes, that’s true,” Johnston said.
The pharmacy has undertaken security measures as a precaution, she said. Colony is in a former bank building designed with security in mind. Only one side is not visible from Robert C. Byrd Drive, and that is monitored by surveillance cameras. The surveillance system is digital, providing clearer pictures of anyone who enters the pharmacy. Employees are trained on what they should do in case the pharmacy is robbed, and they sometimes get a pop quiz.
“Anytime someone else gets robbed, we go over it again,” she said. “It sometimes happens in a series of two or three robberies before that person is stopped. Sometimes, I’ll just spring (questions about robbery procedures) on them.”
Pharmacy robberies are not a new phenomenon, Johnston said. She has been a pharmacist 32 years, 24 as owner of Colony Drug. She knew she was at risk at the beginning of her career. After graduation from pharmacy school, classmates working in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., were robbed.
“There’s always been a threat, but now, it’s happening everywhere,” she said. “Most of my closest friends who are pharmacists have been robbed at least once.
“I just continue working from day-to-day. It’s not something I dwell on, but we’re careful about how we do things. After we close, we don’t let people walk out alone. That’s one of the reasons why we close at 6 p.m. If you’re open later, it’s more dangerous.
“Of course, there are people who rob pharmacies in broad daylight. There’s no rhyme or reason for a lot of it.”
Johnston said Beckley police officers respond quickly and do their jobs to the best of their ability.
“I’ve been impressed with their response time,” she said. “If we find someone with a forged prescription, and he’s in the parking lot getting ready to go out, (city officers) are right there. They come any time we need someone to check out the parking lot. Sometimes, when there’s been a couple of cars in the bottom of the lot near closing time, we’ll ask them to check it out. In three to four minutes, they’re there. We really appreciate their support.”
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Almost all pharmacy robbery investigations are cleared relatively quickly, Allard said. One reason is most pharmacies are in more populated, urban areas. There are more witnesses. Most pharmacies, especially chain stores, are well funded and have excellent surveillance and alarm systems.
Pharmacists and other employees, too, have taken measures to protect themselves, Allard said. He believes another reason the investigations have been so successful is the employees giving detailed suspect descriptions.
“One thing that has impressed me is their very calm demeanor, even after the events they’ve observed is so traumatic,” he said.
Citizens, in general, have been vital in solving these crimes, he said. They often get to know their local pharmacists very well and take great interest in the employees’ safety. Their tips have helped detectives develop leads they can use to quickly solve the crimes, too.
The city’s narcotics detectives have been a tremendous help, Allard said. They have often dealt with the suspects or someone else who knows them through the drug trade.
“As soon as it occurs, our first contact is the narcotics unit,” he said. “We share resources and intelligence. That’s what we’re all here for. We may have different duties, but our ultimate goal is the same: catching the people responsible.”
Allard said a valuable resource in solving pharmacy robberies is RxPatrol, a service from Perdue Pharma. It is a pharmacy crime database for police throughout the country. It can allow officers investigating robberies with similar methods and suspect descriptions, for example, to compare notes from a distance.
RxPatrol also provides investigators’ names in case officers in different jurisdictions want to collaborate.
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Johnston is open to the idea of a federal pharmacy database, providing it could work like West Virginia’s. The idea sounds good on the surface, but a concern is whether a person who is truly in pain could be denied access to medications he/she needs as a result.
Such an undertaking would also have to be cost-effective. Out-of-state counties on West Virginia’s border do provide such data to the state database.
Even if a prescription drug comes from a physician, Johnston warned that people must only use them for legitimate reasons and as directed.
“Some of these drugs are so dangerous,” she said. “That’s why they aren’t available at the grocery store. Just because it’s a prescription drug doesn’t mean it won’t cause you any harm.”
— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com
