PHARMACIES HELD UP

Apparent Drug Abusers, Some Women, Demand Oxycontin

Drug abusers seeking to score OxyContin are going to new lengths here to
acquire the highly addictive prescription drug: They're robbing pharmacies.

Taking a page from the bank robbers' playbook, two women - or possibly the
same individual - have robbed area drugstores in recent weeks by passing
notes to pharmacy employees that demand OxyContin and other painkillers. In
each case, the suspect indicated she had a gun, although none was displayed.

The holdups, both of which occurred in Chesterfield County, are the first
such cases in central Virginia and possibly east of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

"This is the first that I've heard of this," said Nick Broughton, assistant
special agent in charge of the Richmond office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration.

But about 12 similar holdups have occurred in at least three counties in
Southwest Virginia, where overdoses and crime associated with OxyContin
reached epidemic proportions last year.

Tazewell County Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Lee said he has prosecuted
three or four such robberies since 1999, and authorities in neighboring
Russell and Buchanan counties have had about as many holdups.

"We have three counties that pretty much have been hit the hardest here in
our area, and probably between [them] we've had close to a dozen armed
robberies of pharmacies for OxyContin over about a two-year period," Lee said.

In the most recent case in Tazewell, Lee said, a man walked into a pharmacy
and threatened to kill a customer if the pharmacist did not hand over the
store's supply of OxyContin. The robber kept his hand in a bag as if he had
a gun, which he pointed at the customer.

"He walked out with maybe 800 tablets," Lee said. The man was later caught
and sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

The first Richmond area robbery occurred Oct. 18 at the Eckerd drugstore at
1102 Courthouse Road in Chesterfield. A woman who appeared to be six months
pregnant walked into the pharmacy area about 10 a.m. and placed a product
on the counter before throwing a note toward the clerk.

The note demanded that bottles of two prescription painkillers - OxyContin
and Hydrocodone - be placed in pharmacy bags quickly. Hydrocodone is less
potent than OxyContin.

The robber then placed her hand in her jacket and gestured as if she had a
gun. The clerk was ordered to stay where she was while the pharmacist
filled the order.

After getting the drugs, the woman quickly left the store and disappeared.
A customer reported seeing a lime green Chevrolet cargo van parked beside
the building. Investigators believe the vehicle, with a male driver, might
have been involved in the holdup.

On Monday about 1:50 p.m., a woman entered the CVS pharmacy at 9201
Midlothian Turnpike and passed a note to the clerk demanding OxyContin. She
then motioned toward her pocket as if she had a gun.

The clerk gave the note to the pharmacist, who retrieved two bottles of
OxyContin and placed them in a bag. The woman took the bottles and ran from
the store.

Police said the woman in Monday's holdup did not appear to be pregnant, but
they said it is possible the first robber was wearing a costume.

In both holdups, the robbers might have gotten away with 100 doses of the
painkiller per bottle. Police did not have an exact count.

OxyContin, introduced six years ago, was designed to provide long-term pain
relief. People who abuse the drug, however, learned they could get a quick,
heroinlike high by chewing it, dissolving it in water and injecting it, or
crushing and snorting it. Oxycodone is the generic ingredient in OxyContin,
a medication that cancer and chronic-pain patients praise for its
long-acting pain-control properties.

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com