Thursday, October 29, 2009

OxyContin violence escalates

From the Calgary Sun:
Digging in dumpsters to find used painkiller patches to chew on, drinking cough syrup and vomiting it into a bowl to pass to a fellow addict, holding up a pharmacy.

These are the desperate measures taken to feed drug addictions -- dangerous and, at times, deadly.

Calgary has seen an alarming spike in drugstore robberies with OxyContin the pill of choice -- another example of extreme steps fuelled by the need for narcotics.

Forty-three pharmacies have been hit so far this year, up from 17 last year and police are now looking for a culprit behind some half-dozen cases citywide over the last two weeks.

"It's either a crime of opportunity or a crime of need," police spokesman Kevin Brookwell says.

"Thank goodness, up until this point, no one has been hurt." ...more

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