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    Staring Down the Barrel
    Staring Down the Barrel
    Staring Down the Barrel
    Ebook124 pages59 minutes

    Staring Down the Barrel

    By Ken Fagerman

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    Pharmacy violence is on the rise and a subject rarely dealt with in an open format. This book details with how a group of local pharmacists began a program with police that stopped rampant pharmacy robberies and at the same time uncovered widespread organized narcotic diversion.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateJul 15, 2013
    ISBN9781481771726
    Staring Down the Barrel
    Author

    Ken Fagerman

    Ken Fagerman, RPh, MM, at the time of the events in this book, was a practicing clinical pharmacist, manager of infusion and retail pharmacies, and an adjunct professor of pharmacology. His career experience includes pharmacy clinical, retail, and managerial positions. He is a former president of the St. Joseph County Pharmacy Association and founder and leader of the described successful retail PCW. By working with police, this group caused the arrest of more than 30 diversion and robbery suspects, the breakup of two organized prescription fraud rings, and the end of an armed robbery spree of local pharmacies. In 2006, Ken was the recipient of the George A. Cooper Lifesaving Award and was also inducted into the St. Joseph County American Red Cross Hall of Heroes for risking his own life while on duty as a pharmacist to save the life of an office worker overcome by gas and unable to escape from an adjacent office building. Ken went into this dangerous area, restored the victim’s breathing (who coincidentally was a patient of his pharmacy), and maintained her airway while waiting for rescue and she made a full recovery. Ken has since relocated and has started another PCAN. You may send an email thorugh:alertpharmacists@aol.com.

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      Book preview

      Staring Down the Barrel - Ken Fagerman

      © 2013 by Ken Fagerman, RPh, M.M.. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 07/10/2013

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-7174-0 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-7173-3 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-7172-6 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013911697

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Ken Fagerman is not an attorney and cannot and does not warrant this information in any way or guarantee that pharmacists or organizers using this information are fully protected from legal action. PCW organizers and users are advised to use information with discretion and in doing so participate at their own risk and are advised to review advisories on PCWs from the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services and Health and Human Services summary of HIPAA.

      Contents

      About the Book

      Introduction

      Background

      Pharmacy Violence on the Rise

      The Risks

      A Safer Pharmacy Workplace

      The Threats

      New Tools to

      Counter Threats

      Common Prescription Fraud and Forgery Techniques

      How to Help Police Make an Arrest

      Community Pharmacy Crime Watch

      Taking Care of Our Own

      Cooperation is the Answer

      Appendix

      Resources

      Works Cited

      Endnotes

      About the Author

      About the Book

      Pharmacy violence is on the rise and a subject rarely dealt with in an open format. This book details with how a group of local pharmacists began a program with police that stopped rampant pharmacy robberies and at the same time uncovered widespread organized narcotic diversion.

      This book is dedicated to my loving wife, Denise, for her support in allowing me the time to pursue it. This work is also dedicated to the pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy workers who have lost their lives in pharmacy robberies while practicing their profession.

      Introduction

      In 2003, an OxyContin™ retail pharmacy robbery spree was underway in my area. A young couple with addictions was robbing pharmacies throughout Indiana and Ohio. This Bonnie and Clyde team of armed pharmacy robbers was eventually credited with committing between fifty and sixty robberies. The pair was finally stopped only because of the efforts of an FBI task force. In addition, in the immediate area, copycat thieves were holding up pharmacies almost monthly.

      South Bend, Indiana, was not immune to pharmacy violence: The 1990 armed robbery and execution-style murders of a pharmacist and two pharmacy workers was continually in the news as police continued to work this cold case. The constant reminder of this unsolved crime and general pharmacist apathy toward stopping the problem in the wake of an overwhelming onslaught of armed robbery, fraud, and forgery schemes persisted. Because of this, thieves were able to hold up pharmacies for drugs or money or commit prescription fraud and forgery nearly at will.

      The situation was clearly out of control, and no one knew what to do. Because of a partnership eventually created between pharmacists and police—a Pharmacy Crime Watch or PCW—control was regained of the prescription drug distribution system. Two organized prescription diversion fraud rings were broken up, nearly a dozen present and former physician office employees phoning and forging narcotic prescriptions were arrested, and several lone-wolf professional diversion experts were arrested. As a result, the armed robberies of pharmacies were stopped. This occurred over the course of four years and resulted in thirty-five public arrests.

      Initially, the focus was on stopping the armed robbery of pharmacies. These robberies were continuously in the media, and the number of incidents and level of violence was steadily increasing. As president of the local pharmacy association, I was deeply concerned and aware of the escalating violence and diversion efforts.

      Two particularly noteworthy events inspired me to take action. The first was the armed robbery of a local pharmacy during which the pharmacist and staff were bound and gagged. The second event was a late-night page and telephone call from an area pharmacist threatened by a diversion pick-up man. This pharmacist had resisted the narcotic diversion attempts of a nurse call-in/pick-up man prescription fraud team. It was late at night, and the intimidating pick-up man had threatened to wait for this pharmacist, showing her a knife and telling her, I’ll cut you later (implying when she left for her car at closing). I was out to dinner with my wife and had just left an area restaurant. Our PCW was in its early stages, and I was paged as we left the restaurant; my wife listened as I answered. She overheard the tears and sheer terror in this pharmacist’s voice as we talked on the phone and she

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