Inquiry into the misuse/abuse of benzodiazepines and other forms of pharmaceutical drugs in Victoria : final report / Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee.

  • Victoria. Parliament. Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee
Date:
2007
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Inquiry into the misuse/abuse of benzodiazepines and other forms of pharmaceutical drugs in Victoria : final report / Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    150/524 (page 128)
    There is breaking and entering into pharmacies, and during the time that temazepam capsules were favoured for abuse there was a spate of pharmacy thefts. | have heard a pharmacist [who was] the subject of a pharmacy break-in describe the observations of one of the shopkeepers across the road. People pulled up in a car and, with a sledgehammer smashed the door down, walked in, went to the pharmacy storage area where the drugs were stored, took all of the temazepam capsules and left the temazepam tablets, on the way out smashed a camera and took a few sunglasses and some perfume, and were gone within five minutes. There was also a series of ram raids where people stole cars, drove through the windows of pharmacies and stole temazepam capsules.!3 Also referring to pharmacy burglaries during the time when temazepam capsules were available, Mr Steve Marty described how: It used to surprise me that, on visiting pharmacies, | would look at the top shelves and say, ‘You must have a wish to be broken into, because if you’re going to have 12 dozen on display up there, you might as well have a sign at the front door that says, “After-hours drug supply, break glass and enter”’, because that is exactly what happened. There were ram raids, where they use a car, back into the front door, smash it and get in and out within a couple of minutes. Those capsules were sold for $5 on the street, so if they stole a couple of hundred bottles of 25, there was a big return for them.2!4 Anecdotal evidence suggests that as a result of Victoria's ‘Temazepam Initiative’?!>, criminal activity directed at pharmacies, particularly armed robberies and burglaries, may have decreased. Nonetheless such incidences still occur as the following quote from Steve Marty indicates. Narcotics, of course, are a source of armed hold-ups to pharmacies. It comes and goes. There was recently one in the Mornington Peninsula where the person demanded specific drugs. They would have done their homework to work out that that pharmacy happened to have a number of people taking Ritalin and oxycodone. They are well informed in this.2'6 However, it should be noted that there is very little recent data that accounts for crime directed at pharmacies. Indeed, it is of concern that the most recent data available with regard to crime directed towards pharmacies (theft, burglary, robbery and armed robbery) is for the financial year 2002-2003.2'7 Moreover, the little data available in this area does not differentiate between drug types. For example, it is almost impossible to get information as to the level of theft of benzodiazepines or opioids as a class of drug, let alone theft of individual drug types within that class (for example alprazolam or oxycodone). This is to be distinguished from the United States where more comprehensive and recent data with regard to the links between prescription drug abuse and criminal activity is collated (CASA 2005, RADARS 2007). For example, CASA reports that in the United States, concern about theft of drugs from pharmacies is increasing and in recent years OxyContin® has been the goal of the bulk of pharmacy robberies across that country (CASA 2005). 213. Dr Malcolm Dobbin, Senior Medical Adviser, Drugs Policy and Services, Department of Human Services, Briefing given to the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, Inquiry into the Misuse/Abuse of Benzodiazepines and Other Forms of Pharmaceutical Drugs in Victoria, 29 May 2006. 214 Mr Steve Marty, Registrar, Pharmacy Board of Victoria, Evidence given to the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, Inquiry into the Misuse/Abuse of Benzodiazepines and Other Forms of Pharmaceutical Drugs in Victoria, Public Hearings, Melbourne, 19 June 2006. 215 See discussion in Chapter 2.2. 216 Mr Steve Marty, Registrar, Pharmacy Board of Victoria, Evidence given to the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, Inquiry into the Misuse/Abuse of Benzodiazepines and Other Forms of Pharmaceutical Drugs in Victoria, Public Hearings, Melbourne, 19 June 2006. 217 This includes data from the Pharmacy Guild Insurance Group and LEAP data from Victoria Police as reproduced in NDLERF 2007.