I’ve been hanging out in a hospital a lot lately and passing by the pharmacy each day, and it occurred to me that there must be a huge turnover of painkillers through there on a regular basis. Now I’m curious how those large quantities of drugs get there in the first place.

Presumably drug companies don’t just put big boxes of Vicodin and Fentanyl in the mail. Are they shipped to pharmacies by armored car? Is there a special unmarked, heavily armed “drug truck”? I’ve never heard of such a vehicle being robbed. Or do they count on the UPS guy not realizing what a gold mine he’s sitting on?

What about non-controlled drugs? Does something like, say, Ampicillin or Synthroid just get sent refrigerated via FedEx?