Schumer: Increasing Theft of Perscription Drugs From Pharmacies Fueling Skyrocketing Rate of Drug Abuse in Orange County -- Announces Tough Plan to Crack Down on Dangerous Drug Theft

Press Release

Today, at Prestige Pharmacy in Middletown, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer announced his plan to crack down on prescription drug theft that is fueling an unprecedented spike in drug abuse in Orange County and throughout the Hudson Valley. In just the first few months of 2011, the Upstate New York Poison Control Center reports that there have been 144 cases of prescription drug abuse in Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties. If the current and disturbing trend continues through 2011, there will have been over 430 reported prescription drug abuse cases by the end of the year. Following a series of prescription drug theft and abuse arrests throughout the Hudson Valley, Schumer presented his detailed plan to fight drug theft. This plan comes just a few weeks after a Port Jervis woman was arrested on drug charges after a month long investigation of her residence showed that she had been selling Oxycodone, a prescription pain medication. Last year, a local man robbed a pharmacy in Port Jervis, and held a pharmacy employee at butcher knife point to get the narcotic OxyContin. Schumer's plan aims to combat theft at every point of the supply chain, from the drug warehouse to the delivery truck to the pharmacy, by increasing penalties, placing medical product theft under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, and giving law enforcement wiretaps access and other tools to combat dangerous drug rings.

Schumer was joined by Ajay Patel, the pharmacy owner, Jim Conklin, the Executive Director of the Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Council of Orange County and local law enforcement officials.

"There has been a disturbing level of prescription drug abuse in Hudson Valley, and the recent arrest of the woman from Port Jervis is yet another example of the prescription drug epidemic that is sweeping the country, leaving crime and tragedy in its wake," said Schumer. "All too often, drugs that end up on our streets are either stolen or obtained by doctor shopping, creating a robust supply chain that puts more and more prescription drugs in our neighborhoods, our schools, and on our streets. My plan provides enhanced sentencing and additional tools for law enforcement to crackdown on criminals peddling prescription drugs, and deters others from following suit. With recent incidents of pharmacy theft showing up in the Hudson Valley, we need to use every tool in our arsenal to keep prescription drugs out of the hands of dealers and away from our kids."

Orange County and communities throughout the Hudson Valley are feeling the effects of a prescription drug abuse epidemic sweeping the country. In just the first several months of this year, there have been 144 cases of prescription drug abuse in Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties, including suicide attempts, misuse and intentional abuse. If these trends continue, there will be over 430 reported prescription drug abuse cases by the end of the year. In addition to the growing rate of prescription drug abuse fueled by thefts across the country, Hudson Valley is beginning to see instances of prescription drug theft and resulting drug rings as well. In early March, a 26 year old Port Jervis woman was arrested on drug charges after a month long investigation of her residence showed that she had been selling Oxycodone, a prescription pain medication. Even more dangerous was a robbery in 2010, in which a local man robbed a Port Jervis pharmacy. In the robbery to obtain the narcotic OxyContin, the robber wielded a butcher knife and held a pharmacy employee at knifepoint.

While it's impossible to know exactly how many prescriptions are written for legitimate medical illnesses, doctors and counselors agree that the number of prescriptions filled far outruns the number of legitimate prescriptions. The latest figures showing 144 cases of prescription drug abuse in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster so far this year were released just weeks after law enforcement officials arrested the Port Jervis woman selling prescription drugs from her home.

Specifically, Schumer's plan and legislation would increase sentences for robbing pharmacies of controlled substances, and increase sentences for the theft of medical products and the transportation and storage of stolen medical products, and it would apply that increase to each current section of federal law that could be used by prosecutors to charge such crimes. Schumer's efforts also enhance penalties for stolen medical product "fences," including individuals and organizations who knowingly obtain stolen products for resale into the supply chain. The legislation increases sentences when harm occurs or trust is broken -- in other words, where the defendant is employed by an organization in the supply chain or where there was a death as the result of ingestion of a stolen substance. Finally, Schumer's plan allows for civil penalties and forfeiture of ill-gotten gains derived from medical product theft.

The heavy demand for prescription drugs is often fed by pharmaceutical theft, which, whether it takes the form of robbery of pharmacies, hijacking of pharmaceutical delivery trucks or other forms of theft, is a growing concern for law enforcement officials nationwide. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), the amount of Controlled Prescription Drugs (CPDs) stolen in armed robberies doubled from more than 500,000 milliliters to nearly 1.1 million in 2007, while the amount lost in transit increased from more than 1.4 million milliliters in 2003 to more than 2.5 million in 2007. According to the U.S. Division of Freightwatch International, last year $184 million worth of prescription drugs were stolen in the U.S., a 350% increase from 2007. Finally, since 2007 over 1800 pharmacies have been robbed. The crime wave has overwhelmed local law enforcement and drawn the attention of the federal authorities, but federal penalties for pharmacy theft are lenient and do not provide federal law enforcement with all the tools they need.

Pharmaceutical theft not only leads to more addictive and illegal pain killers on our streets, it also puts in jeopardy the health of a patient who unwittingly uses these drugs after they end up on the black market or find their way back into pharmacies or hospitals. Stolen prescription drugs may end up in the hands of counterfeiters who can re-label or replace their contents with other ingredients, and stolen infant formula that ends up on the black market can also endanger the health and well-being of newborns.

While cities and states can monitor and arrest local drug trafficking rings like the one recently busted on Staten Island, they often lack the resources to dismantle rings that operate across state lines. Schumer's legislation would increase the federals authorities' ability to crack down on interstate drug rings by combating theft along every point of the supply chain, from the warehouse to the delivery truck to the pharmacy.

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