Drugstore Robberies Target Oxycodone, Hydrocodone

The next time you refill a drug and find your pharmacist behind an inch of glass, or the next time your pharmacist tells you he no longer carries your pain killer, have a little compassion. Thanks to the nation's thirst for morphine-derived painkillers like oxycodone (OxyContin, Tylox, Percodan) and hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab), pharmacists are being held up at gunpoint with great regularity. According to the New York Times, more than 1,800 drugstore robberies have taken place in the past three years.

And robbery is only one way that criminals obtain these drugs. One of the most widely advertised (but seldom used) avenues for abusers to obtain the drug, via Internet orders, was cut off in 2008 with the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act. It mandated, among other steps to limit distribution, that the prescribing physician must have a face-to-face meeting with the patient.