Lewis: A tale of two pharmacies
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23453409/lewis-tale-two-pharmacies
From the Article:
Small-town pharmacist Robert McNeese was sentenced to more than five years in prison earlier this month. His crime: illegally dispensing oxycodone.
Walgreen admitted it failed to uphold its obligations as a DEA registrant. The DEA said Walgreen knew or should have known the oxycodone flying out its doors wasn’t for legitimate use. “National pharmaceutical chains are not exempt from following the law,” DEA agent Mark Trouville said in a press release.
Yes, but nobody at Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen is going to prison.
The agency, acting as Walgreen’s regulator, pursued the chain for what it called “an unprecedented number of record-keeping and dispensing violations” tallying in the “millions.”
Filed under: General Problems
First, the Walgreen’s pharmacies filled prescriptions that were questionable. I could be wrong, but I think most of the prescriptions were ‘legitimate’. When I say legitimate, I mean they were written by a physician and not forged. The problem was with prescription mills. Whose responsibility is it to put prescription mills out of business? Could we say the DEA? If all these ‘questionable’ CII prescriptions are floating around, who is responsible? First, it is the ‘bad’ physician and second, it is the DEA! We might ask why all those prescription mills were not shut down before much of a problem developed. If pharmacy inspectors saw the problem, then why didn’t they get the bad clinics closed before the whole matter got out of hand? Where was the BOP?
I came across this: “The DEA says that since 2009, its efforts to combat prescription drug abuse, in partnership with other law enforcement agencies, have resulted in charges against more than 172 people, including 51 doctors and 24 clinic and pharmacy owners.”
If you look at those numbers and think about the time period involved and the size of the US, those numbers look ‘pitiful’ to me. Makes me wonder if the DEA is doing anything much to get the prescription mills closed. There were about 3 or 4 prescription mills in a 75 mile radius of where I worked. So, those 24 clinics the DEA shut down are a pitiful low number. But, just look what a name they made for themselves by fining Walgreens! They got national headlines and I am sure Congress is falling all over its self to give the DEA even more money.
If Walgreens was responsible for so much drug diversion, then why didn’t Walgreen officials go to prison? You know that the big shots at the top of Walgreens knew that tons of CII’s were being filled for ‘questionable’ medical uses. But, just look…the DEA is 80 million dollars richer! It is all about the money.