Area Walgreens pull theft-prone OxyContin

[NashVegas]

local story, but could be a trend?

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060526/COUNTY0107/605260407/1006/NEWS

The powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin will no longer be sold in Nashville-area Walgreens stores after a rash of robberies targeting the drug, company officials announced Thursday.

The Nashville market's 70 Walgreens locations will be affected by the change, said Carol Hively, corporate spokeswoman for Walgreens.

...Robberies of pharmacies by bandits seeking OxyContin have become common across the nation.

Abusers are often attracted by the drug's powerful and long-lasting high. Earlier this month, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh settled criminal charges in Florida accusing him of illegally obtaining large quantities of the drug. He admitted an addiction to the painkiller last year.

In recent weeks, at least three Nashville-area pharmacies have been targeted for OxyContin. Two involved a suspected serial robber at CVS stores.

The good news: Rush won't be moving here anytime soon.

[brokensymmetry]

1. What a shame for those who need it...

Really, what do those with a legitimate need and a
valid prescription do in a case like this?

[NJ_Lib]

2. Die, for all they...

... care... As long as a few of the "wrong" people don't get it, hey it's worth it...

[seriousstan]

5. So how would you handle it?

Armed robbery against an employee just trying to make a living.

[NJ_Lib]

20. This is all hype... How do hospitals, banks do it...?

Hey, there's been some bank robberies too, should we close down all the banks?

How do hospitals keep their drugs safe? Bottom line, if people need this drug, you can't just not carry it because of a few robberies... Furthermore, there are drug dispensers that will not open regardless of what you do, kind of like the safes at 7-11... There are ways around this...

[Warpy]

7. Put 'em on something else

that doesn't work as well and has more troubling side effects. Two alternatives are MS contin (long acting morphine) and a fentanyl patch.

The problem is that pain control is an individual thing, and often the drug folks are on is the last in a whole series they've tried to get relief while keeping their lives together.

Just end the stupid drug war, people! It's OVER! WE LOST! The more we keep up with this farce, the more of us who will suffer for it in the loss of civil liberties and the difficulties in getting appropriate medical treatment for pain.

[dysfunctional press]

31. i switched from oxyrush to methadone 6 years ago

i had lost my health insurance, and oxyrush is fairly VERY expensive, so my dr put me on MUCH less expensive methadone...which, with 10mg tablets, makes it easier to adjust the dosage.

btw- if they're pulling oxyrush, i doubt that they'll mave msrush in stock either...which is a real shame for the people who need something THAT strong.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

37. One controlled substance for another,

but there's still that profit motive.

If it were all OTC, imagine how simple this world would be.

And how mellow.

We were right in the sixties, and we're right now.

[dysfunctional press]

45. i'll probably be taking narcotics for the rst of my life...

chronic pain. the meds don't get me "high", just allow me to function without being curled into a ball from pain.
but- although i do favour legalisation of pot, i don't think that i'd want things as addictive and lethal as heroin/cocaine made otc...not in this society...although the gene pool is long overdue for a good cleaning.

[Ragin_mad]

39. Simple solution

They go to a different pharmacy.

[CountAllVotes]

50. you are right!

I was given an RX for Oxycontin after falling 3X in one month and had a HUGE hematoma on my knee the size of an orange. Not even a sheet could touch it as the pain was a 10++++++++++!!! I went to my doctor and I told her I could not sleep and that the pain was OUT THE WINDOW! She looked at my knee which was black by the time I got in to see her and she told me I needed a longer acting pain killer so I could get the rest I need and she gave me 30 15 mg. generic oxycontins.

I did not even take all 30 of them. I took 2 a day for about 10 days and once the pain became less intense I put the stuff away in the drawer. I didn't particularly care for it but it did kill the horrible to a point - enough so I could sleep anyway!

I did not ask for any "refills" and I don't want any.

I found it to be a drug that causes severe constipation and actually, it gave me a headache for some odd reason (?).

Still the same, I am glad I was able to get this drug for the short time I NEEDED it!

:kick:

[Oak2004]

55. Not an odd reason for the headache

All the opiates have the potential to cause or exacerbate both headaches and seizures.

I take MS Contin, and I need to have my pain meds adjusted downward every year or so for a few months when my migraines get out of control and I start to have periods of confusion and "missing" stretches of time.

The reason this builds in me, rather than occurred immediately upon my starting pain management, is that MS Contin (morphine sulfate continuous release) has an extra-active and toxic metabolite that builds up in the bloodstream over time. That metabolite is one of the big reasons OxyContin (oxycodone continuous release) is, or rather would be, the preferred drug for most people, were it not for the OxyContin crazyness, because oxycodone does not have toxic metabolites.

I myself can't take oxycodone (or codeine, or hydrocodone). I have the type of liver enzymes that can't properly process the codeine family of drugs, and so am stuck with the morphine family of drugs. If I were in another country, I could be taking Hydromorph Contin (continuous release hydromorphone, brand name for which is Dilaudid), which has no metabolites at all and is very well tolerated, but in the crazy world of the War on Drugs, it's better that tens of thousands of people be put at risk of seizures than that a new continuous-release pain medication formulation be approved which could result in a few dozen lethal overdoses among abusers. By keeping the drug off the market, these abusers are instead forced to overdose and die on something else, which they will of course since there's no money for drug treatment, just drug enforcement.

For the record: OxyContin and MS Contin are not "more powerful" pain drugs. They're the same pain drugs anyone who has ever had surgery has run into, but in a time release formula. This prevents that up-and-down effect where when you first take the drug you feel excessively groggy, then go through a short period of just-right medication, then by hour three (of an every four hour drug) you're in serious pain and desperately counting the minutes till the next dose. That's not the way to get any sleep, or live the rest of your life, let alone to control pain (it takes less medication to prevent severe pain than it does to beat it back once it begins).

Additionally the "contins" aren't compounded with Tylenol so that the dose can go as high as needed for as long as needed without damaging the liver, but this doesn't mean the dose is necessarily high. The dosage I take of MS Contin is the equivalent of about 8 Vicodin a day, or what most people would be taking after a wisdom tooth extraction. This lack of Tylenol makes the drugs especially desirable to abusers, but that is, or should be, a different medical problem, not grounds for suspending both health care and the U.S. Constitution.

[ET Awful]

3. It's not new, pharmacies started doing that quite a while ago.

I know of one in Mass. that will take your prescription, but ships the product to you instead of keeping it on site. So you have to drop of the presecription, give multiple forms of ID, and wait for it to be mailed to you so they don't keep it on site.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. Yeah, but guys can get their Viagra

right away, right?

What a terrible set of priorities we have in this country.

How this righteous mangling has hurt us.

[seriousstan]

6. People don't commit armed robbery for viagra.

What part of this don't you understand?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

8. You don't know the guys I know.

What part of THAT do you not understand, or is the idea of having a potent and effective painkiller available for people with intractable pain readily available to them not as important as your making a rightwingnut point at the expense of your credibility?

I'm sure that sentence was incomprehensible to you.

So, now, dwell forever in IgnoreLand, where no one will ever try to steal a painkiller, and god forbid anyone you love - or you - ever have to deal with the pain of something like terminal cancer.

But, if you do, you'll be comforted, if even you can't get adequate pain relief, that those damn criminals out there aren't using it for nefarious purposes.

[seriousstan]

10. Show me the link of people committing armed robbery for viagra.

Instead of crying and stomping your feet, explain what you would do to help the situation? People can still get their meds. They just don't store it in the store.

[eyesroll]

14. This kid was a former student of mine:

http://journaltimes.com/articles/2001/03/13/0313viagra.txt

(But your point still mostly stands -- This is a rarity.)

[Warpy]

32. If supplies of Viagra drop

or if even more complications surface (like blindness and death aren't enough) and prescriptions are restricted by docs who'd rather keep their patients alive than screwing, expect to see a LOT of Viagra robberies. Expect to see a huge black market.

A small black market exists now, mostly young guys with performance anxiety but no real problems.

[Hestia]

51. From what I understand about Viagra in younger men is that is does the

opposite. You start taking it at a young age, you will develop the problem of not getting an erection at all, period. This is something that should not be taken by healthy men. Crazy, eh?

[Kagemusha]

11. Um, what's the rightwingnut point in this case?...

Robbers don't check your party affiliation via the FEC database before robbing you.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. Simply that

it's all right to penalize the needy in the interests of potentially punishing potential criminals.

Got it?

[seriousstan]

13. You have the "SIMPLE" part right.

[BeTheChange]

15. Oxycontin is the new heroin

HS kids are paying 80 bucks an 80mg pill up here. Its alot easier to do then heroin. No needle stigma.

The little sister of a hs friend is an 18 year old former oxy user that moved on to heroin cause it is cheaper.

People can still get this drug, just not in the stores. When dealing with drugs like oxy, where you cant even get more then a 30 day supply, it isnt too crazy to think that this is not going to cut off their access to the medications they need.

[NashVegas]

16. If the State Won't Do Anything Real About Drug Addiction

What are the pharms supposed to do?

I had 3/4 or more of the contents of a bottle of Hydrocodone ripped off from my medicine chest, by contractors my apartment manager hired to install a bathroom floor. It was fortunate for me that I had long previously stopped needing it. It was fortunate for me that I'd had enough experience with recreational drugs to have no desire to go crazy on this stuff, simply because I had the legal ability to do so.

My hope is that someday the pharms will be able to find/create a pailkiller that doesn't give the recreational ride that some people are looking for.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

17. It's absurd

Drug addiction?

Have you checked the alcohol and cigarettes that are legal in this country?

There was never any "war on drugs"? There was only a mad, condemnatory, money-making scheme concocted by the government because the rightwingnut bluenoses told them that people taking drugs that couldn't be taxed was unAmerican.

I think everything should be legal, regulated, and available to everyone over 18. After that, watch our deficit disappear, watch our prisons empty, watch our crime rates drop dramatically, watch our courts stop being backed up, watch our tax base grow, and watch the need to fight ugly wars dissipate as the people feel good.

What's so bad about feeling good? I'd rather my neighbors buy their coke at a drugstore than going into bad DC neighborhoods to score.

It's about condemnation and revenue, and I'm opposed to condemnation on spurious grounds, while I'm in favor of enhanced revenue.

[NashVegas]

19. I Was Speaking of Treatment Programs for Addicts

I'm sorry you find that notion absurd.

I'm sorry you think anyone should be able to walk into a store and buy cocaine.

What's so bad about feeling good?

Ever try living with an addict? Ever try living with someone who puts their need for booze or pills or smack or coke - or even cigarettes - above their need for healthy interpersonal relationships? Above their childrens' needs for a stable parent?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

25. Everyone has a choice

Those "treatment programs" are a joke, in my experience. Yeah, 28 days - that length determined by insurance coverage, don't you know? - and a person's brain is rewired. Yeah. Right.

Some people are born to be addicts, of all kinds, and that's just the nature of the human beast. More often than not, the biggest problem any kind of addict has - ever live with a smoker who's run out of cigarettes and all the stores are closed? - is procuring the drug of choice. Make it easily available to them - booze and cigarettes, for instance - and life is simpler for them.

If someone is hooked up wth an addict and that's not going to change, that person has alternatives. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but life is harsh sometimes, and the choices we make are only for us. We can't force others to change, especially if they can't.

Sometimes all one can do is to accept how another person is, and then make the appropriate changes in one's life.

But, "treatment programs"? Please. If they were so successful, how come our drug "problem" continues to grow?

They're just another money-making hoax, not much better than snake oil salesmen, in my experience.

[NashVegas]

28. We Must Have Different Interpretations of "Real"

By your statements, you appear to believe there is absolutely no effective way to help addicts get their act together and get off of drugs. I've seen enough of addiction to believe that's not true.

If "everyone has a choice," then addicts, too, have a choice. In the case of the OP story, they have a choice whether or not to commit armed robbery.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

30. Nothing is absolute

On that, I'm certain we can agree, and I in no way implied that. That's your gloss.

People's brains are wired in different ways, and there are just some behaviors that will never be changed, no matter what is tried. I suspect you already know that.

No, people with brains so wired do not have a choice. That's a harsh and untrue statement, taking not at all into consideration understanding and compassion for people whose behaviors are determined by factors that are not only beyond their control, but also beyond your demands for control.

People do what they have to do, and not everyone is a paragon of virtue, especially as it is defined by those who lack the tolerance and simply want people to change so that their lives might be made easier.

For some folks, alas, there is no easy life, but the government's bluenose attitude towards drugs certainly does not make it easier.

Nor does yours.

[NashVegas]

34. More Contradictions?

No, people with brains so wired do not have a choice.

Sure looks like an absolute to me.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

35. Read the literature

You, for instance, are avoiding the substance of this thread, and that suggests to me that you're hardwired to avoid that which you know you don't know.

See how easily provable these things can be?

God, what's not to love about the empirical, especially when people hand themselves over so easily?

Thank you for the great Friday morning laugh.

Good luck.

[NashVegas]

40. The Substance of This Thread?

What substance?

All I see is you looking for people to jump on and call simpletons, for the crime of failing to see a class of armed robbers as poor sods who can't help themselves.

Even in countries with more liberal drug policies, treatment is standard in exchange for not going to jail.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

43. Namecalling?

I haven't read all the threads, but I did read - and respond to - the OP.

You fail to understand what I've been trying to say.

I guess you're just wired that way.

And, now, adieu, and I wish you good luck.

[NJ_Lib]

26. Got news for you, an addict is an addict...

... It's a deeper problem than having accessible Oxycontin... What do you think would happen if an addict's supply is cut off? They would quit...? Yeah right, not a chance, not until they're good and ready as they'll find something else to abuse, so taking this drug away only hurts the people who really need it...

All of your arguments would work for alcohol too, should we make that illegal?

[NashVegas]

29. A Junkie's Need for OxyContin vs a Cashier's Need to Not Have Guns Pointed

at them ....

hmmm, tough choice.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

36. Your agenda is showing,

as is your lack of understanding of the subject, so tuck up your slip, along with your agenda, and try to understand that not everyone can be as morally absolute (there's that word again) and incapable of understanding what you obviously perceive as a controllable weakness and moral failing in others.

You had better be living a life that is utterly beyond reproach to take this sort of posture towards those who might not be as fortunate as you.

[NJ_Lib]

38. A junkie's need for Oxycontin...?

... I believe you've missed the whole point here...

Have a great weekend!

[NashVegas]

42. The Point?

Silly me, I thought the point was that drugstores were resorting to extreme measures to keep their employees safe.

[NJ_Lib]

44. Right, and our government is going to...

... extreme measures to keep us safe...?


C'mon, if I don't know enough about a particular subject, I won't argue about it... That's a good policy to have... It's obvious you do not know enough about drug addiction to have such definitive opinions about it... Please do a little research about drug addiction and the human mind, spend some time with some addicts, past and present, and then come back and tell me how you feel about this issue... It's not as black and white as you think and not all addicts are "junkies", they come in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life...

If banks can keep tellers safe, and hospitals can keep their drugs safe, and state stores can keep their cashiers safe from alcoholics, so can Walgreens if the desire is there...

[mike_c]

41. I've lived with an addict and I still agree with OLL for the most part....

The war on drugs is an utter failure and should end. Hell, it should never have begun. Yes, people should be able to legally walk into a store and buy enough heroin to kill themselves if that's their choice. They should be able to buy PCP legally if they can find a source. They should be able to buy crack cocaine at the local pharmacy if the pharmacy wants to sell it.

Alcohol is one of the most addictive, destructive drugs around, yet we decided centuries ago, experiments with Prohibition notwithstanding, that alcohol use cannot be effectively banned and can only partly be regulated. Tobacco is in the same category. Nonetheless, society doesn't collapse and the group of people completely subjegated to their addiction is relatively small (the addict I lived with was one of those). Drug enforcement is one of the major preoccupations of law enforcement agencies. It siphons off ludicrous amounts of money and effort, and FAR more lives are ruined by drug enforcement than would EVER be ruined by drug use.

[NJ_Lib]

23. Agreed... If people need this drug, we must...

... make it available to them... Pharmacy robberies is nothing new... We've dealt with it in the past and we can again, if we really want to...

Until you or someone you love actually needs this medication to live a "normal" life, you can't really know what it's like...

We don't close down banks when there is a rash or bank robberies, do we?

[NJ_Lib]

21. Actually, this is a good alternative to...

... not carrying it at all... I think this would work with a little planning on the patient's side...

[UTUSN]

9. LIMBOsevic in town?

He ought to file his travel schedule for distribution to all outlets.

[KansDem]

33. LOL! My thought exactly...

Pharmas, get your Oxy off the streets! The Rush is in town!

[azurnoir]

18. Oxycontin

is one of the most mis prescribed drugs on the market. The literature from the company that makes it says it is intended for patients where "addiction is not an issue" which is a nice way of saying terminal. There are other drugs and techniques for patients with chronic pain, Oxy is a cheap quick fix for insurance companies, much like Prozac is for people feeling depressed.

[NJ_Lib]

27. I don't know... From what I hear...

... Docs are pretty stingy with the painkillers these days, they've got to be, they've got the DEA breathing down their necks, telling them how to care for their patients... What a total joke...

[dysfunctional press]

47. some won't prescribe narcotics at all.

i was recently looking for a new physician, and since i take pain meds for a chronic condition, i always have to ask if the dr. prescribes narcotics- which doesn't really make for a good first impression from the staff.

[NJ_Lib]

48. Forget about asking a doctor these days...

... to treat you for pain, long-term... HA! Good luck... If you haven't been through all of this, or watched someone you love go through it, you can't possible understand... The person I know who deals with this issue just sees an online doctor for their pain but says that won't last long either... It's a very tough position to be in for these patients...

[dysfunctional press]

46. "addiction is not an issue" doesn't have to mean terminal.

i used to take oxyrush, but was switched to methadone 6 years ago, when i lost my health insurance/prescription coverage. i take 70mgs./day fo chronic pain due to a disabling, but far from terminal spinal condition...am i addicted? probably- but i'll also be taking the meds for the rest of my life, so it's not an issue.

[Shakespeare]

54. Uh, Oxy is NOT a "cheap quick fix"

It's damned expensive. My husband requires pretty significant doses of it for chronic pain following a series of emergency surgeries last year. It doesn't make him high, and he couldn't function without it.

And they've already tried him on every other painkiller out there--some don't work, some cause adverse side effects, and some are too loaded with acetaminophin (hell on the liver). Others turn him into a zombie. He has a legitimate need for oxycontin, and thank GOD he's in an HMO that understands that and also understands how to prescribe and monitor it responsibly.

The contortions we make people in pain go through for relief in this country is hideously immoral. If pharmacies are getting robbed for it, then I suggest the stores find a more effective way to secure their inventory. Don't punish the patients.

[Oak2004]

56. What are these alternatives?

because those of us with chronic severe pain, those who treat it, and those who research it, don't know of any alternatives for the treatment of severe pain that actually work.

Nor do those of us with severe chronic pain know that it's so easy to get these drugs. I was once even detained by police at my doctor's office because my doctor was on vacation and hadn't charted in a clear and obvious way what drugs I was taking. The office concluded I was a junkie looking for drugs and called the police.

[LizW]

22. There was an armed robbery at the CVS near me

This was in a quiet suburban neighborhood in the early evening on a week night. Three armed, masked robbers came in and made all the customers and employees lie down on the floor, just like a bank heist. A woman driving through the drive through saw them through the window and called the police. There was an actual shoot-out in the parking lot. Two of the robbers died. The one who lived said they were after the Oxy.

This was just down the street from my house. Insane.

[The Flaming Red Head]

24. So are they pulling Percocet and Tylox

Same drugs different names and those have been on the market for many years.

[benEzra]

49. That's terrible. (n/t)

[SoCalDem]

52. Odd... people steal cars, but they are still sold all over .. n/t

[Lars39]

53. So instead of beefing up security for their employee and patrons,

they stop carrying a drug that has been a godsend for terminally ill people?
How corporate of them.