CHARGES FILED IN THEFT OF POWERFUL PAINKILLER

In separate cases, health care workers are accused of stealing Vicodin

Waukesha -- In the latest case of a health care worker allegedly stealing
Vicodin, a New Berlin pharmacist was accused Thursday of stealing more than
3,500 doses of the painkiller and giving the drugs to a friend.

The charge filed against William Karwoski, 43, came just three days after
another Waukesha County health care worker was charged with stealing the
opiate-like painkiller.

Assistant District Attorney William Roach, who filed a charge of obtaining
a controlled substance by fraud against Karwoski, said he has reviewed
several recent cases of drug thefts by health care workers.

"One of my concerns is these drugs seem to find their way onto the street,"
said Roach, the county's lead drug prosecutor. "These can be real addicting
drugs -- just as addictive as other controlled substances."

"It is very addictive," said Jim Meyer, a staff pharmacist at Froedtert
Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa who was asked by a reporter to talk
about the drug. "If it is used for four, five or six days, there's no
problem. Most people take it for a short period of time."

Earlier this week, Rosemary A. Cincera, 31, of Oconomowoc, argued that she
had permission to take about six Vicodin pills from the Aurora Health Care
Center, where she worked in the Town of Pewaukee. But that was not the
case, according to a criminal complaint charging her with theft and
possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.

Cincera, who was accused of stealing 14 Vicodin pills from the Town of
Pewaukee health care center in February, did not want to comment Thursday.

Cincera must appear in court Wednesday. If convicted, she faces a maximum
10-month jail term.

Karwoski, who worked as a pharmacist at Aurora Pharmacy, 15445 W. National
Ave., New Berlin, declined to comment when reached at his Greenfield home
Thursday.

He referred a reporter to an attorney, who also declined to comment
Thursday but said: "There's probably more to this than meets the eye."

An employee at the New Berlin pharmacy said that Karwoski no longer works
there. Calls made to Aurora company officials were not immediately returned.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Karwo ski:

He confessed to New Berlin police that over a period of 13 months -- from
January 1997 to February 1998 -- he took Vicodin from his pharmacy and once
or twice a week would give some to a friend for his back pain. Sometimes
Karwoski would bring the drugs to the friend's home. Other times the friend
would come to the pharmacy and pick up the pills inside the store or in the
parking lot.

Karwoski said he never asked for money and the friend never paid him for
the pills.

The pharmacist's friend told police that he never used all the pills he
obtained, the complaint says. He said that they would "stockpile in his
home and he would flush them down the toilet because he never had to worry
about getting new pills."

Contacted Thursday by a reporter, the friend said, "I don't want to talk
about it."

Karwoski was summoned to appear in court July 29. If convicted, he could be
jailed for up to four years.

Meyer said 3,500 doses of the generic version of Vicodin would cost about
$650 to $750.

"It's the same drug that (Brett) Favre had the problem with," Meyer said.
"Anybody can get addicted to them if they take it long enough."

Favre, the Green Bay Packers quarterback, in 1996 entered an inpatient
substance abuse treatment facility because of an addiction to the painkiller.

Meyer said the drug normally is prescribed to ease moderate to severely
moderate pain. It gives people a "euphoric feeling" and some people keep
taking it to get that feeling, he said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski