MAN ROBS PHARMACY OF OXYCONTIN

CRANSTON -- A man claiming he was armed with a gun robbed a Brooks Pharmacy
on Friday afternoon and fled with an undisclosed amount of OxyContin, a
highly addictive drug that is used to control chronic pain, the police said.

The suspect entered the Pontiac Avenue store at 4:45 p.m. through a back
entrance, approached the pharmacy counter and demanded the pills, according
to the police. He fled on foot.

The robbery came a day after the Cranston police met with representatives
from local pharmacies to brief them about a recent spate of robberies
targeting the drug.

OxyContin is more powerful than the prescription pain-relievers Percocet
and Pecordan. Addicts chew the tablets or crush them into a powder that can
be snorted or injected.

The drug, which has been dubbed "hillbilly heroin" because of a sudden
increase in its use in rural areas nationwide, has been targeted by
criminals in the Rhode Island area in recent weeks.

On Feb. 14, a Tiverton police officer arrested two Massachusetts men
accused of robbing a CVS store in Portsmouth a few minutes earlier. One of
the men presented a note to the pharmacy counter saying he had a gun and
wanted all the OxyContin, the police said.

They drove off with 1,400 tablets of the drug worth $4,700, according to
the police. The suspects were charged with robbery and ordered held without
bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

On Feb. 15, a man, threatening to shoot a pharmacist, robbed a Brooks
Pharmacy at 5 Tona Blvd., in North Attleboro, and fled in a car with six
bottles of the drug. The police said the robber handed the pharmacist a
note that said he had a gun, and he requested a specific dosage of OxyContin.

In the past year, pharmacies in Cranston, East Greenwich, Johnston and
Pawtucket have been robbed of OxyContin. In September, a Providence woman
pleaded no contest to theft-related charges for stealing the drug from a
nursing facility where she worked.