A series of drugstore robberies — including the weekend theft of about 10,000 painkillers from a St. John's store — has prompted pharmacies to change how they do business.

Pharmacists also say they are increasingly vulnerable because a once-abundant street supply of narcotics is drying up.

Pharmacist Tom Healy says customers might be inconvenienced as drugstores try to prevent robberies.
(CBC)

Thieves broken into a Lawtons Drug Store on Topsail Road early Saturday, taking powerful prescription narcotics that included OxyContin, Demerol and a type of morphine.

The theft came on the heels of three recent break-ins at pharmacies in smaller communities in eastern Newfoundland.

Tom Healy, who owns a pharmacy in downtown St. John's, said pharmacists are responding to the spectre of crime by keeping fewer drugs in stock.

"We don't … carry a big load ourselves anyway. Now we will reduce it even more," Healy said.

"Now patients are going to be inconvenienced. When they come in, we'll say, 'Look, I'm going to have to owe you 40 of those, or 100 of those, you'll have to come back again,' because you don't want to have that kind of stock around."

The Lawtons robbery was the first this year to involve an urban pharmacy.

Ford Temple, whose pharmacy in Chapel Arm was robbed in February, said he believes the street supply of prescription narcotics is drying up, in part because a prescription monitoring program has cut down on forged prescriptions and patients visiting multiple doctors to get prescriptions.

"They're very brazen and very professional," said Temple, describing the planning that went into the latest series of robberies.

"How far will they bring it? That's my question."

'We usually feel pretty safe'

Carol Jones, who manages Green's Drug Mart in Dildo, which was robbed last week, said small-town pharmacies are being targeted because thieves feel there is a smaller chance of getting caught.

"It's a scary feeling to know that people are leaving the St. John's area and moving away from the bigger centres and moving into the smaller community pharmacies," Jones said.

"We usually feel pretty safe around here."

Don Rowe, registrar of the Newfoundland and Labrador Pharmacy Board, said the latest robberies pose concerns for not only pharmacists but physicians as well. In the latest robbery, thieves entered the drugstore by first breaking into an adjoining medical clinic.

"If people have a determination to get into your building, they're going to get in," said Rowe, whose office issued a new advisory Monday to pharmacists about security.