NYPD looks to GPS bottles to combat pill bandits

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miles

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It's official: New York leads the country in stupidity. This sounds like a headline from The Onion. I almost fell on the floor laughing.

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The New York Police Department wants pharmacies in and around the city to fight prescription drug thefts by stocking pill bottles fitted with GPS tracking chips.

Police pharmacies to hide fake pill bottles fitted with GPS devices amid the legitimate supplies on their shelves.

The New York Police Department believes the so-called "bait bottles" could help investigators track stolen drugs and locate suspects.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly is expected to unveil the plan Tuesday at a La Quinta, Calif., conference on health issues hosted by former President Bill Clinton's foundation.

In prepared remarks provided in advance of his appearance, Kelly says the initiative was prompted by a spate of high-profile crimes associated with the thriving black market for prescription drugs, including the slaying of four people on Long Island during a pharmacy holdup in 2011. He also cites the case of a retired NYPD officer who, after retiring with an injury and getting hooked on painkillers, began robbing drug stores at gunpoint.

Prescription drug abuse "can serve as a gateway to criminal activities, especially among young people," the commissioner says. "When pills become too expensive, addicts are known to resort to cheaper drugs such as heroin and cocaine. They turn to crime to support their habit."

The NYPD has begun creating a database of the roughly 6,000 pharmacies in the New York City area with plans to have officers visit them and recommend security measures like better alarm systems and lighting of storage areas. Kelly says it also will ask them to stock the GPS bottles containing fake oxycodone.

"In the event of a robbery or theft, we'll be able to track the bottle, which may lead us to stash locations across the city," he says.

There have been similar attempts to track prescription drugs on a limited basis but the NYPD claims this would be the first widespread effort.
 
fyi....WalGreens owns a startup that is building automated dispensaries which will be like ATM's.

They'll be in secure locations, just like ATM's, and your Prescription and Credit Card will be used to make the pill "withdrawals" prescribed.

Pharmacists won't like it much, but Pharmacists are just pill counters and warehousers anyway.

APM's will end smash and grab pharmacy thefts.
 
fyi....WalGreens owns a startup that is building automated dispensaries which will be like ATM's.

They'll be in secure locations, just like ATM's, and your Prescription and Credit Card will be used to make the pill "withdrawals" prescribed.

Pharmacists won't like it much, but Pharmacists are just pill counters and warehousers anyway.

APM's will end smash and grab pharmacy thefts.

Is there a profession more overpaid than a retail pharmacist?
 
I don't know about the US, but pharmacists in Britain are far more than pill dispensers. There's a reason you need a degree in pharmacology before you can qualify.
 
I don't know about the US, but pharmacists in Britain are far more than pill dispensers. There's a reason you need a degree in pharmacology before you can qualify.
I think that goes for the US and Canada as well.
Up here it's pretty sweet money for a job that requires the ability to count and read.

They can do a lot more than that. If you are internet smart you can do your own research and just bypass them. If you are not however they are the primary source for information as per risks, interactions or whatever.

My mother once had a hysterectomy but did not have her ovaries removed. She was perscibed hormone replacement by mistake, an error which which was picked up by the Pharmacy. She never managed to get online and would have lost out in that situation without intervention.
 
Is there a profession more overpaid than a retail pharmacist?

Tell us more about how you object to the free market determining employee pay.

I think that goes for the US and Canada as well.

America doesn't use pharmacists for much. The UK and Australia incorporate them into treatment teams, meaning patients get better medical care. The reason for this is that the American for-profit private insurance industry doesn't want to pay for better care, they want to make a profit.
 
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OP said:
The NYPD has begun creating a database of the roughly 6,000 pharmacies in the New York City area with plans to have officers visit them and recommend security measures like better alarm systems and lighting of storage areas. Kelly says it also will ask them to stock the GPS bottles containing fake oxycodone.
Looks like this is well under way.

This looks good to law enforcement as it is cheap, targeted, pretty well undetctable (esp if done at point of manufacture) and would bring immediate results.

NYPD is known for being leadership in crime fighting and may have the resources needed to make a go of it.
 
I don't know about the US, but pharmacists in Britain are far more than pill dispensers. There's a reason you need a degree in pharmacology before you can qualify.

In the U.S., they are no more than pill dispensers -- but, for some reason, you still need a pharmacology degree to qualify.
 
It's official: New York leads the country in stupidity. This sounds like a headline from The Onion. I almost fell on the floor laughing.

.......................................

The New York Police Department wants pharmacies in and around the city to fight prescription drug thefts by stocking pill bottles fitted with GPS tracking chips.

Police pharmacies to hide fake pill bottles fitted with GPS devices amid the legitimate supplies on their shelves.

Why is that funny? Sounds like it would work. A drugstore cowboy is not going to take the time to open and check all the bottles, he'll just sweep them off the shelf into his bag and run.
 
Explain why you need a license to be a florist in the state of Florida:confused:

To maintain a standard of integrity in the profession. It's like a catering license or an interior decorating license.

And to protect the public from bad floral arrangements.
 
I guess a bad guy would never think to pour the drugs out and not take the bottle. Especially now that they are informed the bottles are tagged.
 
My point is that with an automated dispensary that uses the Doctor's Prescription as the "order", the Patient doesn't need an intermediary, because the pills are in effect being dispensed by the Doctor via the machine in his Office Lobby or at the Hospital, etc.

Therefore, the profession "Pharmacist" joins "Typesetter" on the Endangered Species list.

This is not to be confused with Pharacists...as you can see, there are lots of those here.

Mostly chinks.
 
Why is that funny? Sounds like it would work. A drugstore cowboy is not going to take the time to open and check all the bottles, he'll just sweep them off the shelf into his bag and run.


Do you think this will work?
 
Looks like this is well under way.

This looks good to law enforcement as it is cheap, targeted, pretty well undetctable (esp if done at point of manufacture) and would bring immediate results.

NYPD is known for being leadership in crime fighting and may have the resources needed to make a go of it.

NYPD is known for it's corruption and and a "I don't give a shit attitude"...
 
As far as pharmacist being overpaid. I used to work retail. They were making the most of any store staff, and were the only store staff allowed to get overtime, whenever they wanted. So the store managers would get reamed about going over payroll budget, but couldn't do anything about pharmacist milking the clock every now and then, other than to deliberately under-staff the rest of the store. So the single mom working the front register, and the college student in photos, would lose 6-8 hours to make up for the pharmacist milking the clock for an extra half an hour.

The pharmacist were filling double the recommended prescriptions per hour as recommended by the board, and the company got away with it by claiming other store personnel would come back and help when they were busy. Wrong, there wasn't enough other store staff to do that. So there were instances of wrong drugs being dispensed in the wrong bottles. More than consumers think.

Also, regarding the RFID chips, the technology has been available for quite some time. We were informed, after a robbery, that we don't want to recover the drugs, we made more money collecting insurance.

Also, during that robbery, the staff pharmacist thought she would save the company some money and handed over the generic drug, instead of the name brand. Well, the generic wasn't covered by insurance, so she got a final written disciplinary, nearly terminated, on top of having a gun shoved in her face.
 
I guess a bad guy would never think to pour the drugs out and not take the bottle. Especially now that they are informed the bottles are tagged.
They are not going to do it at the Pharmacy.:D

I am not really up to speed on what you can or cannot do with GPS devices. I would assume that to really develop this into a workable system they would have some way to imbed and cloak the device so it would not be easily detected.

Thing is that you only need one chip involved to get through to make the effort worthwhile. Besides it would take a while before the targets catch on. This reminds me a little of the "phony money" thing where the government tries to stay ahead of the copiers.
NYPD is known for it's corruption and and a "I don't give a shit attitude"...

Some of them I am sure. But I have seen references in the media about police from other juristdictions going there for training because they have just encountered problems that NYPD are alreadt familiar with.
 
Waste of money. It'll take ten seconds for the junkies to figure out to dump the bottle at first opportunity which will be half a block from the drug store they just robbed.
 
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