The assistant, Alesha Neault, worked at the rest home in a role that required her to provide a variety of basic care services to elderly residents. She also assisted licensed nurses with their medical tasks, which often involved the handling of medication for some of the residents within the home.

Neault had a drug habit that she was able to support through her employment. During her time at the rest home, Neault stole Fentanyl patches that had been prescribed to Riverside residents. While this action not only fed her addiction, it also denied legitimate patients their access to pain relief.

This crime opens up the debate for bigger questions surrounding the control of the prescription medication within the rest home and Neault’s legal access of these medications. The Riverside facility could face its own charges of negligence, lax standards and mismanagement of controlled substances that resulted in undue suffering for some patients.

As a result of her willful theft and the direct impact it had on patients, Neault was denied bail and remains in custody until her court date.
 

A recent Tampa Bay report focused on Patrick Whelan, an individual addicted to pain medications. The most recent supply he had was oxycodone, but he claimed his girlfriend stole them from him. His doctor refused to issue another prescription without a police report.

Unfortunately for Whelan, police officers were not very receptive when he made the call. They had a slightly different response when he decided to take matters into his own hands, however. He went to the local Walgreen’s Pharmacy with a gun in hand and demanded oxy be put into a bag. He gave the pharmacist one minute to load as much as possible.

The pharmacist responded by placing several oxycodone bottles into the bag. With his supply in hand, Whelan left the store. When an employee followed him out and noticed the car he used to leave the location, the tag number was recorded and the police were called.

According to Whelan, his addiction developed after a motorcycle accident that caused pain. He was legally prescribed medication, but that led to his addiction. Once officers searched his home, they found he had stolen roughly 600 pills. The handgun used in the robbery was also found – and was identified as stolen.

Whelan has been charged with armed robbery and remains detained, unable to post the $50,000 bond.
 

The man did not demand or take any cash. When he left the pharmacy with the stolen pills, he was chased on foot by witnesses. They report he pulled out his knife to confront them, waning he would cut them if they didn’t leave him alone.

The individual was said to then get in a bronze, four-door Jeep driven by an unidentified individual. The suspect was described to be in his late 30s, or early 40s, roughly 6 feet 3 inches tall and an estimated 185 pounds. He was identified as having a small patch of hair below his lower lip.

Crimes such as these continue to pop up in destinations all over the world. More and more individuals are finding themselves addicted to substances that were originally intended to relieve legitimate pain. Pharmacies are a key destination for robberies as they maintain high quantities of narcotic painkillers, such as OxyContin, Percocet and other drugs that are in high demand.

Law enforcement agencies are working to try and make it more difficult for addicts to target pharmacies, yet the process is bound to be slow and inconvenience law-abiding citizens.
 

Such an addiction was behind a gunpoint robbery recently in Eureka, according to a Times Standard report. A suspect used a gun to rob the Redwood Pharmacies of its stock of OxyContin.

According to reports from the Eureka Police Department, a man pointed a handgun at the clerk to gain access to the narcotic. He then ran out of the store and down the alley behind the building. The pharmacy was closed during the investigation.

One co-worker was alerted by another when the man entered the store. He reportedly had a black cloth covering most of his face. When the pharmacy worker ran to tell the pharmacist the store was being robbed, she turned around to meet the eyes of the perpetrator. The man told her he just wanted the OxyContin and would leave quickly.

Workers claim the individual was actually friendly about it, making the whole incident seem weird. When no one responded to his request, he asked for the drugs again and an employee pointed to the cupboard where the drugs were kept. The robber quickly took the OxyContin and left the pharmacy.

In talking with individuals at another pharmacy that had been robbed previously, the description of the individual, including his disposition and blue eyes, matched that of the Redwood Pharmacies robber.
 

In a recent Stuff report, New Zealand police in Christchurch have caught two men accused of a number of armed robberies at pharmacies throughout the city. Officers were called to one pharmacy after a knife-point robbery resulted in the taking of a large quantity of drugs.

Two of the offenders in this incident were able to initially escape; yet police caught them at a nearby intersection. The two individuals were arrested – both are listed as in their 40s and unemployed. The same two men are also accused of two other knife-point robberies which also included large quantities of drugs being taken.

These arrests came on the same day as another pharmacy robbery in a nearby town. Police were hunting for an armed man and later surrounded a house where the suspected robber may have been hiding. Officers were unable to catch the individual.

According to reports, this individual entered one pharmacy and demanded morphine. He was able to obtain a certain quantity of the drug.

A string of robberies have hit the area lately. And, while not all robberies have been pharmacies – one bank and a Post Shop were also hit – stores with pharmacy counters have certainly been the majority target over the last month.
 

A study on this particular subject is set to be published in the Journal of Pediatrics. In this study, researchers received cases of pharmaceutical abuse reported to the National Poison Data System, which included reports of instances where alcohol, painkillers, cough and cold medicines, sedatives and sleeping pills and antipsychotic medications were used maliciously.

More than 1,400 cases were studied in this project and nearly 14 percent concluded with moderate to major consequences. Some even included death. Of the children abused, nearly half were exposed to a minimum of one sedative. Motives for use can include punishment, amusement or a desire to seek respite from the responsibilities of childcare.
As the lead researcher noted, the danger associated with such use is criminal. In fact, he believes any time a pharmaceutical is administered through malicious intent; it should be considered child abuse. Doctors are encouraged to watch for this type of mistreatment and parents are warned that the misuse of pharmaceuticals can have dire results, including death.

He recommends that pediatricians and other physicians scan for specific drugs when examining a child and even suggests that parents be informed of the risks to their children.
 

In a recent WMBF News report, a man in Myrtle Beach robbed a CVS pharmacy, making off with hundreds of OxyContin pills. The man is said to have been armed during the incident.

According to police reports, the man handed a blue note to the pharmacist. The note included demands for a list of drugs. While the pharmacist was reading the note, the accused removed a handgun from his shirt, cocked the gun and gave the pharmacist 45 seconds to fill his order.

The man was able to make off with two full bottles and an additional open bottle of 40 mg OxyContin pills as well as one full bottle and one open bottle of 80 mg of the same medication. The combination of contents of all bottles totaled roughly 421 pills.

Upon leaving the pharmacy counter, the suspect warned the pharmacist that he would be shot in the head if he found the front door locked while trying to exit the store. The pharmacist revealed there was no way to lock the front door and the man fled the scene.
 

In August of 2009, GlaxoSmithKline reported that 25,600 Advair Diskus inhalers were stolen from its warehouses. This $5 million dollar hit was a surprise to the pharmaceutical as Advair is not always a target for theft. The bigger surprise was when the stolen products started showing up on pharmacy store shelves.
This theft and subsequent emersion of the product demonstrates another problem in the pharmaceutical industry. While some drugs are stolen for sale on the streets or to satisfy an addiction, others are taken to be resold back to the original pharmacy for which they were intended.

It is easy to always assume that the criminal is on the customer side of the counter, but this is a cutthroat industry and one industry survey shows that 34 percent of pharmacies have rogue employees who take both merchandise and cash. Another 44 percent of pharmacy chains report employee theft.

Consider one of the bigger cases when RSF Pharmaceuticals lost its license after the organization was linked with a prescription scam that involved the NFL Chargers. RSF was run by a former president of the San Diego County pharmacists association, demonstrating it wasn’t a back alley operation.

When you think about the amount of money that can be generated by one bottle of OxyContin on the streets – the pills have gone for $10 a piece or more – an employee able to sneak a few out each day can supplement their minimum wage pharmacy income quite nicely.
 

Police documents report the man burst through the back door of the pharmacy, grabbed a woman working behind the pharmacy counter and then demanded all employees produce their cellphones and surrender them to the gunman. At that point, the man demanded the pharmacists turn over all Percocet pills on hand.

One worker did manage to hit the store’s silent alarm before giving the robber everything he demanded. Police arrived on the scene, but came in the front door just as the assailant fled through the back entrance. The man made off with roughly $193 in cash. The stolen narcotic amount is yet to be determined.

A series of similar robberies have been reported across Trenton and nearby Hamilton over the course of 10 weeks. Police suspect this latest hit may be related to the others, but have no firm evidence on which to base this assumption.

If the robberies are in fact related, this latest hit would be the sixth such robbery in a run on instances that began at the Olden Pharmacy in Hamilton Township in April. This particular pharmacy was hit again in June. The robberies are being investigated by detectives from both the Trenton and Hamilton police departments.

Hamilton Pharmacy employees have noticed the increase in police presence since the incidents began. Only time will tell if this constant presence will thwart robberies or merely keep intended burglars on watch to find a window to commit their crimes.
 

According to a recent Seattle PI report, one of the latest pharmacies to be hit is the Mercer Island Albertsons Pharmacy. Police reports indicate that a man in his 20s approached the pharmacy counter, handed the pharmacist a note that included demands for a common narcotic drug.

The man proceeded to lift his outer shirt to reveal a bulge under his clothing on the left hip, implying that he was armed and ready to use whatever weapon he had hidden if the pharmacist did not comply with his demands. The pharmacist promptly handed over a bag of 382 tablets, said to be valued at $300.

The store manager noted the perpetrator was in and out of the store in less than two minutes. He also reported that there had been some conversation between the man and the pharmacists, although it was very brief. The man is still at large.

Albertsons Pharmacy did have surveillance video cameras running that evening and recorded the incident. Police are reportedly examining the tapes to capture an image of the man in hopes of identifying him.

While pharmacy robberies are increasing throughout the nation, Mercer Island authorities claim the area only experiences about a handful each year. Increases have been noted throughout the country, however, and Mercer Island may find they will have more to deal with in the future.