Pharmacy robberies occur at high rate in Ohio, Mahoning and Trumbull counties

Staff report

CHARDON

Pharmacies in Ohio are being robbed at alarming rates, according to Robert Hill, special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C.

Hill talked about the problem recently at a gathering of the Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services and the United Way of Geauga County.

Ohio ranks sixth in the nation in 2014 for armed robberies of pharmacies, Hill reported. Ohio has had 29 this year. First was Indiana with 62, followed by California with 51, Oklahoma with 49, Arizona with 35 and Pennsylvania with 30.

Mahoning County ranks second in Ohio in such robberies in 2014 with five, and Trumbull County is tied for fifth with several other counties that had one robbery each.

Franklin County had the highest number at 11, Hamilton County was third at four, and Brown County was fourth at two.

Ohio had a similarly high ranking in 2013 — eighth highest with 28. Neither Mahoning nor Trumbull County had a reported pharmaceutical robbery in 2013.

Hill works on pharmaceutical diversion and investigations, abuse trends, regulatory compliance and synthetic drugs. He also reported that opioid pain relievers are involved in more overdoses than cocaine and heroin combined and said parents don’t comprehend the amount of danger posed by prescription drugs.

“Parents believe that using prescription drugs to get high is safer than street drugs and that it’s OK for kids to use someone else’s prescription,” he said.

“It is important that the information presented by Hill is shared throughout our community so that lives can be saved,” said Lauren Thorp, director of recovery and youth programs at the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board.

“As long as there continue to be lax attitudes towards the misuse of prescription medications, more innocent people will become addicted, and more crimes to support drug habits will occur.”