Pubdate: Wed, 27 Mar 2002
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Copyright: 2002 World Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.tulsaworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/463
Author: Becky Clark

OPERATION LORTAB

Pharmacist Todd Pendergraft of The Medicine Shoppe counts out 
Lortabs, the most common drug obtained by fraudulent prescriptions.

Broken Arrow Police Plan To Educate City's Pharmacists

Sometimes getting drugs illegally means buying them at the local 
pharmacy using a fraudulent prescription.

Operation Lortab, initiated by Detective Rick Smith and Officer 
Steven Vanscoy of the Broken Arrow Police Department, will provide 
information and techniques to local pharmacists, who are the last 
stop before drugs like Lortab fall into the wrong hands.

A training session for area pharmacists will be held at 7 p.m. April 
12 in the North Intermediate High School auditorium, 808 E. College 
St.

"I started the idea in response to the number of people trying to 
obtain prescription drugs by fraud, calling in false prescriptions or 
presenting a forged prescription," said Smith, who was recently 
promoted from patrol officer to detective.

Drive thru windows at local pharmacies are a mixed blessing, since 
they provide a great service to honest customers, but are a quick 
getaway for not so honest ones as well.

"The pharmacists would spot it was a false one (prescription), but 
before we got there the person would leave. Then we had a dangerous 
situation because a pursuit might develop, and we wanted a way to 
catch the person without endangering the public," Smith said.

Further investigation found there are no set procedures for 
contacting the police and stalling the suspect when a fraudulent 
prescription is identified. Smith even found some pharmacists knew 
the prescription was not valid, but sent the suspect back to the 
doctor instead of contacting police.

"So we had bad reporting and no set system. What we are trying to do 
is come up with a way that the pharmacists can identify the bad 
prescriptions to begin with, give them a little bit of training, tell 
them what drugs are targeted the most. And that's where we came up 
with the name Lortab, because nine out of 10 (most targeted) are 
hydrocodone, which is Lortab," Smith said.

Lortab, a pain reliever, is also in the class of drugs that can still 
be called in, plus there's a big demand for it now as the drug of 
choice, Smith said.

The members of Baker Squad, Smith's patrol group, came up with a 
formal problem-solving project and began with a survey of all area 
pharmacists.

"We found out some of them were waiting (to call police) until the 
person came to pick up the drug, even though six hours before they'd 
identified it as a false prescription," he said.

Advance notice to the department, informing officers that a bad 
prescription had come in, means a second and likely quicker call can 
be made to the department when the suspect arrives.

"That shaved a few minutes off the response time, so then we wanted 
to come up with some stalling techniques," he said.

Officers found the best method was to tell the suspect the pharmacist 
had a few other prescriptions to fill first, but ask the suspect to 
pay.

"Hopefully, they'll send a check or credit card in through the tube. 
Most pay in cash, but they will sit there for that extra few minutes 
because they have their $13, $14 or $20 through that tube," Smith 
said.

Suspects just kept waiting, without the excuse of other customers or 
the need to wait for change, can become wary and leave before police 
arrive.

"We want to be able to get there while they are in the parking lot. 
As soon as they show up and ask for the drug, the crime is complete," 
Smith said.

Suspects don't have to have the drug in hand, so pharmacists are 
never to give the drug to a suspect.

"If you want to put some marbles in something and send it out, fine," he said.

After gathering the information from the pharmacies, Vanscoy and the 
Street Crimes Unit began developing the seminar for pharmacists and 
their representatives to outline the survey results, stalling 
techniques and other procedures to follow.

An additional survey was also taken at the pharmacies to determine 
where materials used to make methamphetamine, usually purchased in 
quantities and-or shoplifted, were being displayed.

"Since these are not high dollar items they are usually in a back 
corner out of view, where the more expensive stuff was in view of the 
pharmacists so they could prevent shoplifting," Smith said.

Smith's group found the items needed to manufacture meth were being 
shoplifted left and right, and stores were even filling the shelves 
with 40 boxes of the product simply to give the shelves a full 
appearance.

"Then they come back and find the 40 boxes are gone," Smith said.

Some pharmacists got a little education during the survey, in advance 
of the seminar, and a few had the light bulb click on concerning a 
customer stocking up on questionable items.

"Some even said, 'You know, someone came in here four weeks ago and bought.'"
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh