SUIT ALLEGES NARCOTICS LOST AT DEFUNCT CITY RITE AID

Federal prosecutors in Charleston are suing Rite Aid because of
allegations that its now-closed downtown Charleston pharmacy lost
track of more than 20,000 narcotic pills.

The suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court by Kasey Warner, U.S.
attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, says the drug
chain's Capitol Street store committed 19 separate violations of
federal law by failing to account for thousands of missing
painkillers.

A 1998 audit by the state Board of Pharmacy and the federal Drug
Enforcement Agency alerted regulatory officials to the missing drugs.
The government's suit said that the audit found that the store hadn't
been keeping accurate records on its distribution of controlled
substances such as Hydrocodone, Lorcet and Vicodin.

The suit also accuses the Pennsylvania company of knowing of some of
the problems in the pharmacy -- specifically a $20,000 shortfall --
since May 1997.

Rite Aid did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Warner's suit seeks civil penalties and attorney's fees.