PILLS BEHIND MORE HOLDUPS

Metro Addicts Increasingly Choose Robbery Over Fraud To Feed Vicodin Habit,
Police Say

CANTON TOWNSHIP -- Shortly before noon on a recent Wednesday, a man leaped
over a Walgreen's pharmacy counter, shoved a handgun in a clerk's shoulder
and demanded: "Give me the Vicodin now!"

When the shocked woman faltered, he grabbed two bottles of the powerful
prescription painkiller and fled.

Police and FBI agents cornered suspect Kevin Kolb at a Super 8 Motel room
Aug. 22, a day after the Canton Township drugstore theft. Over 12 weeks
beginning in May, detectives believe the 37-year-old Northville man robbed
up to a dozen Metro Detroit banks and three pharmacies in a desperate
effort to feed his Vicodin and cocaine habits. He's formally charged in one
bank robbery as other investigations continue.

Addicts are fueling a surge in prescription drug thefts throughout Metro
Detroit, authorities say. Medicines that once were obtained mainly through
forged prescriptions and other fraud now are snatched increasingly in
break-ins and stickups.

Local police in the three Metro Detroit counties have logged a 150- percent
increase in armed robberies of pharmacies for prescription drugs -- with 10
so far this year, up from four in 2001.

Many abusers target Ritalin, Vicodin, OxyContin and Tylox, which are highly
addictive when abused. As a result, some pharmacies reduced stockpiles of
those medicines -- or dropped them from inventories entirely, ordering a
small supply only when a valid prescription is presented.

The drugs are like "morphine in the sense that (they) numb the senses and
give the user a feeling of calm and detachment from reality," said Dr. Jim
Stevenson, pharmacy services director at the University of Michigan Medical
Center.

"Once people develop a tolerance for the pills, they need to take more and
more every day in order to get the same effect that had when they first
started using -- which may cause them to go to any length to get their
hands on the pills," he said.

Detective Sgt. Todd Mutchler of Canton Township said Kolb was gobbling up
"about a handful of Vicodin pills every few hours each day."

"That's an extremely significant amount," added Mutchler. "The average
person would not be able to take that many pills and survive."

In prescribed doses, OxyContin offers relief for end-stage cancer patients
and others in severe pain. Sixty pills, enough for a month, cost $83 to
$500, depending on dosage.

But on the street -- where it's known as Oxy, O.C. and even Killer -- the
drug passes hands for up to $50 a pill and is crushed, snorted or injected.

Numerous overdoses nationally have been blamed on overuse of the drug or
mixing it with other substances. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
this year said a review of autopsy data suggests the painkiller may have
figured in 464 overdose deaths over the past two years nationally. Of death
reports reviewed by the DEA, 146 were verified as OxyContin because the
drug was found at the scene or in the body. In the 318 other cases,
OxyContin was found during the autopsy along with other substances.

Lt. Joseph Quisenberry, head of the Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement
Team, said prescription drug thefts happen regularly.

"We're seeing it (OxyContin) with more frequency because of its huge
ability for profit," said Quisenberry. "It has spread fast over the past
couple years."

Nada Saad, a pharmacist at the Medicine Shoppe in Dearborn, said she and
colleagues feel fortunate not to have been robbed -- though a fake
prescription is brought in every few weeks.

"If it's not someone we recognize and we don't know the doctor's signature,
we typically don't fill the prescription or say we don't have what they
want. We want to be of service to the community, but unfortunately some
people with legitimate scripts might get turned away because of the fear of
people trying to get over."

Detective Sgt. Mutchler said Canton Township investigated 12 drug frauds
last year and has handled five through July.

A Canton man arrested this year made prescription forms from a computer and
entered various doctors' DEA numbers. "He was proficient enough that even
if caught at one pharmacy, he would continue at others," Mutchler said. "At
one time he was using up to 40 pills a day of Vicodin."

The most recent figures indicate drug loss reports are actually down across
Michigan, while the number of break-ins and armed robberies being committed
to obtain drugs at pharmacies have gone up.

Between October 2000 and October 2001, 132 drug loss reports were filed
with the Drug Enforcement Administration and state pharmacy board. Cases
included 19 break-ins, four armed robberies and nine shoplifting incidents.

From last October into August, 80 drug loss reports were filed --
including 19 break-ins, seven armed robberies and four pilferage cases.

In addition to Walgreen's in Canton Township, two other western Wayne
drugstores were hit for Vicodin pills last month -- apparently by the same
suspect, police say.

The Kmart pharmacy on Ann Arbor Road and Haggerty in Plymouth Township was
robbed Aug. 6 by a man who jumped over the counter and made off with 200
Vicodin pills. In Livonia six days later, a man walked behind the counter
at Rite Aid on Six Mile and Newburgh, stuck a gun into the pharmacist's
chest and said: "If you don't want to die, give me all your Vicodin, and I
know what it looks like," said police Sgt. Tom Goralski.