“I just want to get out of here alive every day; that’s my new goal,” said Howard Levine, the owner of a drugstore on Long Island, who has experienced two armed robberies in the past 14 months. “I’m numb. This has taken all the fun out of pharmacy.”
Pharmacies throughout the country have been shaken by a rash of bold robberies by gun-wielding criminals hunting for narcotic painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and other controlled medications, either to quench their own addictions or to sell. But nowhere has the face of this epidemic been more frightful than on Long Island, where a pair of pharmacy robberies 30 miles apart resulted in six deaths.
Some pharmacies now display signs making it clear that they do not carry oxycodone.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, there were 688 armed pharmacy robberies involving controlled substances in the United States in 2010, a 79 percent increase from 2006. In New York State, these crimes jumped to 30 in 2010 from just 4 in 2006. Pharmacists say there were at least a dozen robberies on Long Island last year.
The crime spree has prompted Long Island pharmacists to strengthen their security precautions. Some have gone so far as to install bulletproof glass partitions or entry systems where customers must be buzzed in. A few have hired guards, or are considering getting guns.
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Posted by retail manager March 16, 2012 11:21:21