DEA: 80% more drugs taken during pharmacy looting during Baltimore unrest than previously reported

[TexasTowelie]

The amount of drugs looted from Baltimore pharmacies during the unrest related to the death of Freddie Gray last year was substantially higher than initially reported, with about 80 percent more doses of drugs including powerful opioids taken, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Twenty seven pharmacies and two methadone clinics across the city were looted after Gray’s death in police custody in April 2015, alarming law enforcement officials and public health officials.

At the time, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said, “There's enough narcotics on the streets of Baltimore to keep it intoxicated for a year.”

Treatment specialists, however, have said it is difficult to say how fast drug users would absorb the increase in supplies, likely all since sold on the streets, according to Don Hibbert, the DEA Baltimore district’s assistant special agent in charge.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/blog/bal-drugs-stolen-during-unrest-story.html

[GreydeeThos]

1. I have a little bit of skepticism about this report

How many of those drugs were stolen by pharmacy employees, and the loss blamed on 'looting'?

[TexasTowelie]

2. Of course that is a possibility,

but the end result remains the same--most of the drugs will find their way onto the black market (unless the thief keeps some for personal use).

[GreydeeThos]

3. I was thinking more along the lines of product deficit

The pharmacy has been selling controlled substances on the side, but the books show they still have it in stock. The store has a bad night with civil unrest and boom - the ledger sheet conveniently becomes balanced and nobody is the wiser.