Thefts last week at pharmacies in two small Newfoundland and Labrador towns have led to advisories for drug stores to reassess their security.

Don Rowe, registrar of the Newfoundland and Labrador Pharmacy Board, said the theft of narcotics from pharmacies in Chapel Arm and Musgravetown are the first robberies of their kind in at least a year.

Don Rowe said pharmacists should take time to review their security in the wake of two narcotic robberies last week.
(CBC)

"I guess it's worthy for all of our pharmacists to take note and say, 'Look this is happening, make sure that I am as stringent with my security measures as I should be," Rowe told CBC News.

Early Wednesday morning, two thieves broke into Ford Temple's pharmacy in Chapel Arm, in eastern Newfoundland. OxyContin, morphine and codeine were stolen from a locked cabinet.

Temple said the burglars knew what they were doing.

"They cut the phone wires so the alarm wouldn't work, and there was a loudspeaker siren system that should go off when the wires are cut, but they destroyed that first," he said.

"This was no snatch and grab — well-planned, well-executed."

Thieves also pried open a safe and took some cash.

In Musgravetown, another pharmacy was hit the same night. In that robbery, thieves smashed the front window and stole expired narcotics from a locked cabinet. 

The street trade in OxyContin, a powerful drug intended to ease pain in cancer and other patients, emerged as a serious public health and safety issue several years ago. A task force that reported in 2004 recommended more stringent controls on how OxyContin and other narcotics are prescribed and managed.