Posted 6/3/2011 8:26 PM (GMT 0)
i witnessed a robbery a my Waigreens in VA beach, VA and i hate to say that i saw a shady looking character walking near the back by the pharmacy in the cold/flu/asprin isles acting like he was shopping but he was casing the place. no customers were back there and the second tech. had not arrived, it was 8:45am, i dropped off my Rxs and left for 10-15min. and when i pulled back up the shady looking guy was running out at a full pace and now wearing dark sunglasses and a black bandana, he jumped into his truck that was backed in and was gone. i was not out of my car yet and the police helicopter was circling. the employees are good friends of mine now and i was a bit angry when it set in, when 20 police cars pulled up. the pharmacist is a older man and the tech a nice younger girl and they had no defense whatsoever and if you are a pharmacy owner who is robbed repeatedly, if you hurt someone or kill them defending your own store they will prosecute you, it just happened in W. VA i believe. what makes me sick is when the state or fed government step in to stop the criminal activity the laws they implement only seem to effect the normal patients with horrible intractable chronic pain in more ways than one like; taking a drug off the market totally or maybe hmmmm, re-formulate a exsisting product to make it abuse-deturrant (sp?) and say that it has the same properties as the former one. that month when folks get their re-fill of a particular medicine they find out they have expensive junk! and you might be stuck with it for a month depending on your doctor. that particular medicine happens to be the robber's drug of choice and we know this because in the situation the pharmacist asked if he wanted the cash and he said, NO! and no other drug in that family except the particular medicine. i am rambling because this is a frustrating personal violation on the CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS that play by the stupid rules, or close anyway, that may end up making things much worse for us. i try to think of ideas to help fix this problem but it's a tough one, the only way we as in pain patients, can make a difference is in large numbers with legitimate practioners on our side. it is only about money, look at the Pharma. that makes that particular medicine, they have paid 15 billion in settlements and that is pocket change to the board of directors of that Pharma who are friends or buddies with the FDA congressional panel that decides if they live or die. the federal govt. should not be regulating pain management, what they should be doing is protecting the pain patients who cannot protect themselves. if we all say next month to any manufactures of "brand name" medicines we all take we are boycotting all your products we would get quick action/protection which is the fed. govt.'s job. God bless you all and have a pain free weekend.