How Safe Are We?

As part of my method this month to find something to blog about, I typed the word "pharmacy" into Google and clicked on "News". Either Google just love to write about general gloomy goings on or pharmacy, broadly speaking, has some major concerns because I was shocked at the number of similar, disturbing results that I saw: "13 busted in drug theft at pharmacy...", "Greensboro man charged with robbing 2 pharmacies...", "Easter pharmacy theft suspects arrested..."

Fortunately, the above headlines came from American news sites but I've recently become worried about this as I'd like to pursue a career in community pharmacy, but it seems to me that such practices have become more common. UK pharmacy thefts, as far as I'm aware, are a lot more infrequent than US thefts (touch wood); however, is this changing? I have certainly heard a lot more about it in the general media:

Today, I read about the theft of two pharmacies in July, one in Southampton and one in Dublin, which resulted in the thefts of morphine vials and Dalmane capsules respectively. In Clackmannanshire last month, Viagra, among other drugs, was stolen from a patient who had just visited a pharmacy to collect their medication. The pharmacist at the pharmacy I worked at over summer told me about a time at work when she was in danger from being harmed by a violent customer. Even the last episode of CSI: New York that I saw just happened to be about a hospital janitor who stole drugs including the anaesthetic lidocaine from the dispensary to use for his "alter-ego" job as an illegal cosmetic surgeon...he needed the cash, apparently.

Working in a community pharmacy can, to some degree, have more dangers than working in a secure hospital environment and maybe it's time that more is done to protect community pharmacists and pharmacies.