Indiana crackdown on opioids sparks more pharmacy robberies
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — As the nation's opioid epidemic intensified, Indiana cracked down on over-prescribing doctors and “pill mills” catering to people with addictions. The state also took aim at doctorshopping — the act of visiting multiple physicians to getmore painkillers.
The measures had an impact, but not what officials hoped for.
While making opioid prescriptions harder to get, the crackdown also helped spur a twofold increase in robberies of pharmacies that exacerbated the state's standing as No. 1 in the nation for those crimes. Between 2009 and 2016, Indiana had 651 pharmacy robberies — the most in the U.S. and more than the 597 recorded by No. 2 California, which has six times the population, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recordsshow.
The frequent holdups reflect a grim reality: With each regulation or law enforcement tactic, the opioid crisis quickly shape-shifts to evade new obstacles. Dealers and those strugglingwith addictions adapt, and the epidemic continues with little interruption.
Pharmacies and law enforcement agencies in Indianapolis, where most of the robberies have occurred, are fighting back. Pharmacy chains have installed time-release safes that won't open for several minutes, forcing robbers to risk arrest by waiting. Signs so far are positive. Robberies in Indianapolis numbered only eight through early June, compared with 55 for all of 2016.
Indiana's economic makeup has made it a breeding ground for opioid addiction for years.
The 2008 financial crisis hit the state's manufacturing economy hard, causing waves of layoffs. And physically demanding jobs have long left workers prone to injuries that could lead to prescriptions for painkillers.
Opioid addiction was behind the state's worst-ever HIV outbreak, in 2015, an epidemic that infected more than 200 people in a rural county north of Louisville, Ky. Most had shared needles while injecting a prescription painkiller. That year, Indiana ranked 17th in the nation in heroin and prescription opioid overdosedeaths.
Four years ago, the Legislature directed the state's Medical Licensing Board to draft rules requiring patients to visit their doctors periodically to keep getting prescription refills. The changes included requiring doctors to use an online database to check patients' use ofcontrolled substances.
But stemming easy access to opioids likely contributed to the 168 robberies in 2015, over double the previous year's total, as more people addicted to prescription opioids robbed stores seeking painkillers and other drugs, said Greg Zoeller, Indiana's attorney generalat the time.
The holdups — sometimes more than five a day in Indianapolis — flooded the black market with nearly 200,000 pills, mainly painkillers.
“We knew full well that if you reduce easy access, you're going to have these kinds of consequences,” Mr. Zoeller said.
Indiana's pharmacy robberies dropped to 78 in 2016, but the state still ranked second in the U.S., behind California. The latest effort targeting the robberies is a law taking effect in July that will lead to longer sentences for people who threaten violence or injure anyone during pharmacy robberies.