That, however, is not the only way to get them.

“They’re going to find a way to get drugs,” said Shawn Hopper, pharmacy manager at Holly Pharmacy in Mount Holly Springs. “I would say it’s just as easy to get what you want on the street.”

Opioids are readily available on the street—through over-prescribing, stolen prescription pads and theft.

It’s the last method that has local law enforcement particularly worried.

Among the police departments that must deal with pharmacy robbery concerns is Hampden Township Police. The township has both a Rite Aid and CVS across the street from each other on the Carlisle Pike on Sporting Hill Road, which is just down the street from the police department.

Its proximity to police hasn’t stopped robbers and addicts from hitting the pharmacy.

“Last year, there was a rash of robberies at the CVS literally around the corner from (the police station),” Hampden Township Police Chief Steve Junkin said. “CVS had has more robberies than Rite Aid, simply because it’s more difficult to get in and out of Rite Aid, and bad guys know that.”

Junkin said some of the suspects have come from Camp Hill and Harrisburg, and a robbery a month ago led to the arrest of four people from Lancaster County.

“We are at Interstate 81 and Route 581 with ramps close by, making us a high-value target. Getting onto the interstate is also a problem for them,” he noted. “We know that’s an escape route. The last people we nabbed were on 581.”

Junkin said that this year, the police department hasn’t seen the kind of crime spree they saw last year. Part of that is due to the fact that the suspects this year have been caught.

Last year, the suspects in the robberies were rarely caught immediately, which Junkin said then fed the interest from others to hit the same pharmacy.

“We had one guy robbing us several times. There were also three different groups that hit us in a short amount of time,” Junkin said. “We were fortunate sometimes – one time a patrol was right there.”

The department increased patrols and established a relationship with CVS to catch suspects more quickly. When the robbers stopped getting away, the burglaries became fewer and farther between.

Still, the issue is a concern for pharmacies. Holly Pharmacy was robbed twice a few years ago, and Rite Aid has also taken the issue to heart.

“Safety and security of our customers and associates is a top priority for Rite Aid,” said Kristen Kellum, spokesperson for Rite Aid. “We’ve invested millions of dollars in risk policies and procedures, and technology and safety measures, to keep those inside our stores safe, and are always exploring new measures.”

And if there’s one thing the department has seen from its investigations into the robbery, it’s how to spot an addict feeding an addiction.

“They know what bottle to look for,” Junkin said. “They could just ask for everything, but they’re only asking for one pill. That’s when we know it’s an addiction. It’s really an economic cycle with addiction.”

With government and medical officials looking to prevent addiction at the front end of the problem, Junkin said it’s still a concern for law enforcement handling the back end of the issue.

“You have people who are out of money, and the habit is so bad they are willing to do anything to get it,” he said. “This is just a symptom of a very, very complex problem. When people talk about legalizing drugs, these are the kinds of problems that can result in that. We pay for higher prescription costs and higher home insurance costs because of burglaries, and it all comes down to an economic thing for all of us.”