Fired UW pharmacist took more than 27,000 tablets of narcotics, reports say

Amazing. Would have killed a nail, his tolerance so high. had no idea tolerance could get so high. Amazing, yeeah they ned a better inventory monitering system to say the least. This was wayyy preventable. Its mindblowing, that they donet ALREADY do randoms on Pharmacists. I just assumed with professions like that (handling medicines for many people) that they ALREADY did randoms. Well at least it wont take rocket science to fix it. Poor guy that got the wrong shot in 2005, wonder if the drug use was an issue, I dont believe Pharmacist JUST started later. They just glossed over that guy, but this is a LIFE they are talking about, and I imagine Quality Wise , his might as well have been taken. No control anymore, sucks, really very sad, and angers me. His credibility is not anything, zip, zilch, nada.
Mysticcherokee Methadone Forum, Topix

mysticcherokee wrote:

Amazing. Would have killed a nail, his tolerance so high. had no idea tolerance could get so high. Amazing, yeeah they ned a better inventory monitering system to say the least. This was wayyy preventable. Its mindblowing, that they donet ALREADY do randoms on Pharmacists. I just assumed with professions like that (handling medicines for many people) that they ALREADY did randoms. Well at least it wont take rocket science to fix it. Poor guy that got the wrong shot in 2005, wonder if the drug use was an issue, I dont believe Pharmacist JUST started later. They just glossed over that guy, but this is a LIFE they are talking about, and I imagine Quality Wise , his might as well have been taken. No control anymore, sucks, really very sad, and angers me. His credibility is not anything, zip, zilch, nada.
Mysticcherokee Methadone Forum, Topix

Didn't it just piss you off though at the thought of these medications being for the use of cancer patients, not the pharmacist...glad they caught him, so that the patients will get there proper medications now. Once when I was on a methadone clinic, yrs ago, a woman came in from out of state, Chicago I think, and she was being dosed 300 mg a day of liquid methadone, which way exceeds the dose allowed without prior gov. approval (or something like that, the dr has to get permission from someone before ever dosing anyone that high...anyway, yeah, she had to go there twice a day a get divided doses...

Porozmawiajmy wrote:

<quoted text>
Didn't it just piss you off though at the thought of these medications being for the use of cancer patients, not the pharmacist...glad they caught him, so that the patients will get there proper medications now. Once when I was on a methadone clinic, yrs ago, a woman came in from out of state, Chicago I think, and she was being dosed 300 mg a day of liquid methadone, which way exceeds the dose allowed without prior gov. approval (or something like that, the dr has to get permission from someone before ever dosing anyone that high...anyway, yeah, she had to go there twice a day a get divided doses...

Totally j. and to no end. more of this crap on the news that I see, i jsut want to scream at them the DEA, to get it together, come up for air and see the big picture. not in our lifetime Hun, sadly. i really don't know, their prioitis seem to be all over the place. Change day by day. I'd sure like to know the method to their madness. They are bustin street hustlers and the like with diverted drugs AND mable 80 Fixed income sellin to marge down the street not much income and needs more for arthritis than she canget, whatevr reason, this instead of randomly teting pharmacists.

Ya know we are Stars! Hi everybody! All the different forums. This here is Jeanette and she is from the Oxy Forum, mines listed with my post. j i didn't know when I posted that it would popup on my thread and certainly over here. How cool is that. Everbody I stand for not liking diverion, Chronic pain patient Rights and all things anti- methadone (I say m'done)catchy eh?
EVERBODY HAVE A GREAT PAIN FRREE, BE WELL DAY!

Sincerely, Mysticcherokee

You'd be suprised at how many pharmacists get high. I used to do inventory for many different pharmacies and I can't even count how many pharmacists I have seen with pinpoint pupils and glossy, half shut eyes. Some even joked around about "the good stuff" whenever I would get around to counting the OxyContin.
I remember one pharmacy that had a 1000count bottle half full of broken vicodin that the pharmacist told me not to inventory because those were the ones that somehow got broken in the original bottles... 500+ pills that broke? Strange that the ONLY bottle of broken pills they kept in that pharmacy was vicodin.

I'm not naive about a bunch of stuff, but I have not used recreational drugs since high school. Just prescription,since an injury at 19, and then off and on( quite a while) till permanently on. and I wouldn't have needed this if it hadn't been for some injuries.

Unless Fibromyalgia(one of the things I have), in no way starts with either a minor injury or major, and then blows IT entirely out of proportion, or just starts on its own period. What I have read deals with injury mostly, and THEN the FMS comes to rear its ugly head.

Getting way off the original point of this post.Simply that before I came on Topix, I thought the 6 Hydrocodone that I took then was like the highest just about you COULD tgake. I had no idea that one wouldn't overdose taking a LOT more. Thought they warned me/everyone to stick with exactly the amount thats prescribed(for fear of OD) because any more and it was kaput. Kind of like in a recipe. They say 1 tsp of salt any more and you spoil the dish. i though it was an exact science and trust for your health kept this from happening. Thought people were nuts to not follow drs. orders on pain meds and the like. When I asked PCP if I coiuld have more once, she said no that is the very limit on that drug ( I thought she meant OR OVERDOSE) thats why they put a limit. When people OD and I read about it, I fugure maybe they took 12, at the most. Thats why when I read this article even as soon as tghis a.m. I felt it so unbelievable and incredulous that this guy could ingest this much. I have seen some post about large amounts of Oxy contin and others, but Im but im not familiar with a lot of this stuff, or just in passing, not much. Also I figured they might be gilding the lily a bit.

I guess, because I am other wise rather wordly, maybe I have survived in a bubble of ignorance of THIS stuff while older, yet not about other issues non-drug related. I suppose thats why I come across the way I do. People find it so difficult to believe that I am naive, about this stuff. Some may think for whatever reasons I am hiding something cause things dont add up, a wordly presentation of myself, but not when it comes to drugs. Guess thats what happens you are hurt very young. You can go down pretty fast w/ a serious tolerance like M.J., so very sad 1984 burns on head-2009, or dragging it out which was how it happened to me. Not going up in strength keeps you in the script scene some, but not enough to find out about strong stuff, limits, OD and the like.

Strange story mine, but true. Hope this explains me.Or anything, its hard to put what Im trying to say into words, new one for me:) I find the tolerance issue and THIS GUY, UW pharmacist as strange at the very least, as my story, if not totally bizarre. Have a nice week end all, and thanks Reader. Ya didn't have to, but ya did.

Sincerely, Mysticcherokee

KMKStoner420 wrote:

You'd be suprised at how many pharmacists get high. I used to do inventory for many different pharmacies and I can't even count how many pharmacists I have seen with pinpoint pupils and glossy, half shut eyes. Some even joked around about "the good stuff" whenever I would get around to counting the OxyContin.
I remember one pharmacy that had a 1000count bottle half full of broken vicodin that the pharmacist told me not to inventory because those were the ones that somehow got broken in the original bottles... 500+ pills that broke? Strange that the ONLY bottle of broken pills they kept in that pharmacy was vicodin.

Wow, thats all cept my word, wow! M.

““This is not just the run-of-the-mill situation where a nurse shows up on the job drunk,” he said.

Leonard, where do you work that this is run-of-the-mill?!? I have worked as a med-surg RN for 7 years, and have NEVER seen an employee come to work drunk or otherwise impaired. I cannot imagine a health care facility where they wouldn't immediately fire someone who came to work under the influence. Don't they have urine drug screens where you work? We had to pass one prior to employment, and agree to random pee tests as a condition of employement. This is for all hospital staff, not just the health care providers.

I also cannot imagine how an employee could divert controlled substances from our locked cabinet, as all controlled substances are counted by two licensed RNs every 8 hours. Partial dose wastes are witnessed/documented by two licensed RN immediately after the medication is removed from the cabinet. The cabinet records the amount of the dose, which must match the amount documented in the MAR. These data are reconciled on a regular basis, and the cabinet generates reports auditing timeliness of drug wastes.

What has the world come to?

This is Mysticcherokee, and for some reson I was felled by this story. just hard to comprhend in this day and age, that he did this unnoticed, i guess, and they dont have random ua's, for ALL medical professional, enforced. Earlier i posted that it wouldn't be rocket cienceto fix this, fortunately.

I found an article. The article speaks of patients of this "pharmacist" and their families. Both make comments, and this gentleman is one, who is being interviewed. As I understand he is the brother of one of the guys former patients. This former patient was being trated for end stage AIDS and eentuallu,unfortunately passed. the deceased brother is a Nurse and works at a Medical Facility, and in this interview I have copy,pasted speaks of his employers method of inventory of the "drug cabinet." This was exactly my point in the prior post. This is how I thought things were handled in almost 100% of entities that handle major quantities of drugs.
So, as I aid it is NOT rocket science, and there is already a good plan in place, just not at this U.W. Medical Center. Mores the pity and they wonder how these drugs get diverted. Ridiculous!
Mysticcherokee

When I read this article, I was definitely shocked. I live in Milwaukee, which is about 1 hour from Madison - my sister went to UW-Madison, so this kinda hits close to home.

In one way I am outraged, but in another, I feel for the pharmacist, at least on the addiction level. As it says in the article, it starts with one pill, and with access like that to all of the meds, it must have been near impossible to just quit, so it is a snowball effect, turning into 23 pills per day of very strong opiates.

Being a Pharmacist was his livelihood, and that was also his demise - and now his career will be gone. He sounds like a good guy, and it sounds like he helped many people. I think many people read stories like this and don't realize that nobody is immune from addiction, and sometimes its the last person you would think.

I do hope he can recover and get his life back on track. I'm sure he has a family and this must be devastating - but for 1 Pharmacist or Physician who gets caught, imagine how many there are who don't (or haven't yet). Unbelievable!

MilwaukeePain wrote:

When I read this article, I was definitely shocked. I live in Milwaukee, which is about 1 hour from Madison - my sister went to UW-Madison, so this kinda hits close to home.
In one way I am outraged, but in another, I feel for the pharmacist, at least on the addiction level. As it says in the article, it starts with one pill, and with access like that to all of the meds, it must have been near impossible to just quit, so it is a snowball effect, turning into 23 pills per day of very strong opiates.
Being a Pharmacist was his livelihood, and that was also his demise - and now his career will be gone. He sounds like a good guy, and it sounds like he helped many people. I think many people read stories like this and don't realize that nobody is immune from addiction, and sometimes its the last person you would think.
I do hope he can recover and get his life back on track. I'm sure he has a family and this must be devastating - but for 1 Pharmacist or Physician who gets caught, imagine how many there are who don't (or haven't yet). Unbelievable!

I saw some comments about this article in their comments part of the page the article is actually on ay the bottom, and many had the same perspective as you. There are going to be many viewpoints of course, but give the guy a chance

wasnt amongst my first thoughts. Ther IS no solution with amess like this. Preventing it happening again ia ALL that can NOW be done.There are addicts in places all over here where they shouldn't be, but our health care system, common on! To this degree, amazing, bad amazing. not a slight on people of Wisconsin, or its Professionals. Locks keep out indiscrimnately, thieves, period.Simple, not science. The people in charge, DEA or whomever in this case are asleep at the wheel.Playing the blame game, personally I'd bet on them. This WAS PREVENTABLE, and that bothers me a lot when I think about this.
It might have prevented the ruin of how many lives. At least one, and he's paralyzed, his life not better, certainly.

This "Pharmacist" will face the justice system for being fallible, with the theft of the drugs,
and he will meet his maker to answer if he was an addict, when this gentleman was given a drug in the spine erroneously. The drug, which could have killed him, paralyzed him instead. God will hear and judge the truth as it is.

The paralyzed victim is the only one I give sympathy to at this time. Not the Pharmacist.

Sincerely, Mystic

mysticcherokee wrote:

I'm not naive about a bunch of stuff, but I have not used recreational drugs since high school. Just prescription,since an injury at 19, and then off and on( quite a while) till permanently on. and I wouldn't have needed this if it hadn't been for some injuries.
Unless Fibromyalgia(one of the things I have), in no way starts with either a minor injury or major, and then blows IT entirely out of proportion, or just starts on its own period. What I have read deals with injury mostly, and THEN the FMS comes to rear its ugly head.
Getting way off the original point of this post.Simply that before I came on Topix, I thought the 6 Hydrocodone that I took then was like the highest just about you COULD tgake. I had no idea that one wouldn't overdose taking a LOT more. Thought they warned me/everyone to stick with exactly the amount thats prescribed(for fear of OD) because any more and it was kaput. Kind of like in a recipe. They say 1 tsp of salt any more and you spoil the dish. i though it was an exact science and trust for your health kept this from happening. Thought people were nuts to not follow drs. orders on pain meds and the like. When I asked PCP if I coiuld have more once, she said no that is the very limit on that drug ( I thought she meant OR OVERDOSE) thats why they put a limit. When people OD and I read about it, I fugure maybe they took 12, at the most. Thats why when I read this article even as soon as tghis a.m. I felt it so unbelievable and incredulous that this guy could ingest this much. I have seen some post about large amounts of Oxy contin and others, but Im but im not familiar with a lot of this stuff, or just in passing, not much. Also I figured they might be gilding the lily a bit.
I guess, because I am other wise rather wordly, maybe I have survived in a bubble of ignorance of THIS stuff while older, yet not about other issues non-drug related. I suppose thats why I come across the way I do. People find it so difficult to believe that I am naive, about this stuff. Some may think for whatever reasons I am hiding something cause things dont add up, a wordly presentation of myself, but not when it comes to drugs. Guess thats what happens you are hurt very young. You can go down pretty fast w/ a serious tolerance like M.J., so very sad 1984 burns on head-2009, or dragging it out which was how it happened to me. Not going up in strength keeps you in the script scene some, but not enough to find out about strong stuff, limits, OD and the like.
Strange story mine, but true. Hope this explains me.Or anything, its hard to put what Im trying to say into words, new one for me:) I find the tolerance issue and THIS GUY, UW pharmacist as strange at the very least, as my story, if not totally bizarre. Have a nice week end all, and thanks Reader. Ya didn't have to, but ya did.
Sincerely, Mysticcherokee

Good Morning Mystic,
Just wanted to tell you I hope you have a good Saturday, free of pain and hassle. Have you been pain free lately, I was reading a post where you said you came to the conclusion, that you may have spoke to soon about the opana not working, did you post that after six days or so you finally got some relief (no buzzz) just pain relief. Did I read your other post right, that yes opana is finally giving you a little relief, I sure hope so honey, honestly constant pain is so friggen aggravating at times, yes? I will always wish you all the best in life!
Much Love
Jeanette

im sure all the patients still got there medication, what are you ignorant, its not like he stole all the pills he Pilfered t hem, meaning he took quantities at a time thinking it would go unoticed, he didnt rob themblind

Porozmawiajmy wrote:

<quoted text>
Didn't it just piss you off though at the thought of these medications being for the use of cancer patients, not the pharmacist...glad they caught him, so that the patients will get there proper medications now. Once when I was on a methadone clinic, yrs ago, a woman came in from out of state, Chicago I think, and she was being dosed 300 mg a day of liquid methadone, which way exceeds the dose allowed without prior gov. approval (or something like that, the dr has to get permission from someone before ever dosing anyone that high...anyway, yeah, she had to go there twice a day a get divided doses...

sam wrote:

im sure all the patients still got there medication, what are you ignorant, its not like he stole all the pills he Pilfered t hem, meaning he took quantities at a time thinking it would go unoticed, he didnt rob themblind
<quoted text>

Sam,
If you know the correct defintion of ignorant, yes I am about some things...ignorance simply means not knowing, not knowledgeable. Everyone is ignorant of something in life...everyone! How ever it totally went down, glad the dude's caught, and like I said glad people will not ever be shorted, given the wrong medication in order to replace what he stole. Someone suffered because of this man...period. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out!!!