Pubdate: Sat, 17 Nov 2001
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2001 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Author: Mark Bowes, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin)

PHARMACIES HELD UP

Apparent Drug Abusers, Some Women, Demand Oxycontin

Drug abusers seeking to score OxyContin are going to new lengths here to 
acquire the highly addictive prescription drug: They're robbing pharmacies.

Taking a page from the bank robbers' playbook, two women - or possibly the 
same individual - have robbed area drugstores in recent weeks by passing 
notes to pharmacy employees that demand OxyContin and other painkillers. In 
each case, the suspect indicated she had a gun, although none was displayed.

The holdups, both of which occurred in Chesterfield County, are the first 
such cases in central Virginia and possibly east of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

"This is the first that I've heard of this," said Nick Broughton, assistant 
special agent in charge of the Richmond office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration.

But about 12 similar holdups have occurred in at least three counties in 
Southwest Virginia, where overdoses and crime associated with OxyContin 
reached epidemic proportions last year.

Tazewell County Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Lee said he has prosecuted 
three or four such robberies since 1999, and authorities in neighboring 
Russell and Buchanan counties have had about as many holdups.

"We have three counties that pretty much have been hit the hardest here in 
our area, and probably between [them] we've had close to a dozen armed 
robberies of pharmacies for OxyContin over about a two-year period," Lee said.

In the most recent case in Tazewell, Lee said, a man walked into a pharmacy 
and threatened to kill a customer if the pharmacist did not hand over the 
store's supply of OxyContin. The robber kept his hand in a bag as if he had 
a gun, which he pointed at the customer.

"He walked out with maybe 800 tablets," Lee said. The man was later caught 
and sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

The first Richmond area robbery occurred Oct. 18 at the Eckerd drugstore at 
1102 Courthouse Road in Chesterfield. A woman who appeared to be six months 
pregnant walked into the pharmacy area about 10 a.m. and placed a product 
on the counter before throwing a note toward the clerk.

The note demanded that bottles of two prescription painkillers - OxyContin 
and Hydrocodone - be placed in pharmacy bags quickly. Hydrocodone is less 
potent than OxyContin.

The robber then placed her hand in her jacket and gestured as if she had a 
gun. The clerk was ordered to stay where she was while the pharmacist 
filled the order.

After getting the drugs, the woman quickly left the store and disappeared. 
A customer reported seeing a lime green Chevrolet cargo van parked beside 
the building. Investigators believe the vehicle, with a male driver, might 
have been involved in the holdup.

On Monday about 1:50 p.m., a woman entered the CVS pharmacy at 9201 
Midlothian Turnpike and passed a note to the clerk demanding OxyContin. She 
then motioned toward her pocket as if she had a gun.

The clerk gave the note to the pharmacist, who retrieved two bottles of 
OxyContin and placed them in a bag. The woman took the bottles and ran from 
the store.

Police said the woman in Monday's holdup did not appear to be pregnant, but 
they said it is possible the first robber was wearing a costume.

In both holdups, the robbers might have gotten away with 100 doses of the 
painkiller per bottle. Police did not have an exact count.

OxyContin, introduced six years ago, was designed to provide long-term pain 
relief. People who abuse the drug, however, learned they could get a quick, 
heroinlike high by chewing it, dissolving it in water and injecting it, or 
crushing and snorting it. Oxycodone is the generic ingredient in OxyContin, 
a medication that cancer and chronic-pain patients praise for its 
long-acting pain-control properties.

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or  ---
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