Drug enforcement officials are investigating several CVS pharmacies in California over missing prescription painkillers – pills state officials fear may have ended up on the black market.
Investigators in the Sacramento office of the Drug Enforcement Agency are specifically interested in finding out what happened to more than 37,000 tablets of hydrocodone, a narcotic typically sold under brand names like Vicodin and Norco. The pills were reported lost or stolen by four CVS stores in Fairfield, Dixon, Turlock, and Modesto, according to the DEA’s warrant applications.
“Investigators believe there will be numerous record keeping violations related to the dispensation of controlled substances within CVS,” wrote Brian Glaudel, the DEA investigator who requested the four warrants, which were served on the stores last May. “The requested inspection is warranted to protect the public health and safety.”
Hydrocodone pills can sell on the street for $10 each, sometimes even $30 or $40, says Virgina Herold, executive officer of the state’s Board of Pharmacy, an oversight agency. That can be very tempting to unscrupulous employees.
“It’s basically working in a candy store,” Herold says. “In far too many cases, you've got someone in that pharmacy that is using his or her access to the drugs to sell them outside the pharmacy. And those drugs are going everywhere. They're going to our kids. They're going to people who set up on Craigslist.”