News: New Info on Medford Shooter
(Long Island, N.Y.) Information has been released concerning the drug habits of the thirty-four-year-old man responsible for killing four people in the Medford Pharmacy Shooting. Approximately ten-thousand painkillers were stolen during the robbery massacre, and sources have claimed that a large amount of pills had been given to the shooter just days prior. According to reports, the husband and wife involved in the robbery visited doctors for drug prescriptions over ten times a month.
Over twelve-thousand pain pills were filled from prescriptions given by over ten doctors in the four years leading up to the incident. In the six months that passed prior to the incident, from January to June, between four and five thousand pills had been given to the couple from various pharmacies. A bulk of the pills came from prescriptions from three different doctors, one of whom treated both husband and wife as patients without knowing that they were a married couple.
Four hundred pills from six different prescriptions and five different doctors were given to the couple during an eleven day period in the month of the shooting. Days prior, the shooter’s wife filled a prescription for over a hundred pills. According to reports, the initial pills given to the couple should have been more than enough for a four-month supply.
The thirty-four-year-old shooter filled a prescription for hydrocodone at Haven Drugs four days before he robbed the pharmacy and murdered employees and customers. One doctor, who treated the shooter’s wife, claimed that she couldn’t pay for visits but wanted the medicine anyway. According to research, there are more overdose deaths from oxycodone than there are from heroin on Long Island.
Prior to the shooting, the State Department of Health has organized a database precaution designed to allow doctors to perceive if a patient is abusing drugs. Doctors are able to see if multiple prescriptions for drugs have been given to patients by other doctors in a short period of time. Unfortunately, very few doctors use the system and much support is needed to get them to continually check patients through the search tactic.
Part of the issue is irresponsible prescribing and the existence of patient privacy laws that may discourage the exchange of information between professionals. There is also a time gap in which pharmacies don’t have to report patients to the system until the following month of the prescription process, resulting in a lack of accurate information about potential drug abusers. There is also the concern that such abusers may make it difficult for those with genuine need to obtain painkillers and prescription drugs.
