Shari Rudavsky

shari.rudavsky@indystar.com

Despite some targeted measures to protect pharmacies, Indiana isn't shedding its unwanted designation as the No. 1 state for pharmacy robberies.

Consider this statistic: Indiana had more pharmacy robberies from the beginning of 2013 to May of this year than any other state.

Indiana logged 367 robberies, while California — with a population about six times larger — came in second with 310 robberies in the same time period. In 2015, 175 robberies occurred, 132 in Marion County alone, more than the entire state of California for the previous year, said Donna Wall, president of the Indiana Board of Pharmacy.

On Tuesday, the members of the Governor’s Task Force on Drug Enforcement, Treatment, and Prevention mulled these troubling statistics and more as they heard from Wall and others fighting on the front lines to improve the situation.

Randy Hitchens, executive vice president of the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance, said he frequently fields calls from concerned pharmacists. Hitchens has little solace to offer.

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“We feel a little weak,” Hitchens said. “We scratch our heads about what we can do.”

Nor is it just traditional robberies in pharmacies. Every time the pharmacy board meets, members have to revoke the license of one or two pharmacy techs because they were diverting pills, Wall said.

But the bulk of the threat does not come from the inside.

Last year, 17 Marion County pharmacies were robbed three times, three pharmacies were robbed four times, and four pharmacies were robbed five times.

"Last year was just a horrible, horrible year," Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Craig McCart told the drug task force.

Many stores — especially those in Marion County — have taken steps to improve security, adding armed guards and time release safes to house the most desired medications, mostly opioids such as oxycodone.

Still, there have been 64 pharmacy robberies since the start of the year in Indiana. IMPD considers the fact that it has seen “only” 43 pharmacy robberies since January a relative success.

"It’s still a huge problem, but we really are looking at it as a bit of a victory because we are so far below where we were last year,” McCart said.

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Just because Indianapolis has made a dent in the problem does not mean the situation has been resolved, Wall and McCart agreed.

“As security measures in Marion County are ramping up, they’re going out to other places,” Wall said.

Whenever police in Louisville, Ky., Cincinnati, Kokomo, Danville or Muncie identify a pharmacy robbery suspect in their jurisdictions, the person almost always hails from Indianapolis, McCart said.

The people behind the robberies have a well-developed system, he said. Rarely do they use what they steal. Often they enlist juveniles, many with no criminal record, offering them $1,000 to $2,000 per job. The juveniles don’t stand to do much jail time even if they get caught.

In some cases, the juveniles take the pills and run out to an older guy, waiting in a car in a parking lot, McCart said. The criminals have become so savvy that in many instances, they have the juvenile give them the stolen pills but keep the bottles in case they are equipped with GPS trackers.

“They’re fairly sophisticated,” McCart said. “Right now, we’re having some degree of success. But it’s still obviously a huge problem.”

The problem has extended to pharmacies statewide, Wall said. Of the seven people on the pharmacy board, one pharmacist, who has his own store, has had a break-in in the past month. Another, who works in a chain, has had two attempted robberies in the past four months.

“This is the type of problem we’re dealing with, and this is why the pharmacy board is really anxious, and anyone in pharmacy is really anxious, about what’s going on here,” Wall said. “So far, we have been really blessed that no one has been injured. … But it’s really scary.”

Call IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.

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