Something got me wondering, how big of a problem are thefts by pharmacy employees of various narcotics and other "high value" meds? Speaking mostly within the US, but anywhere is fine. For the prices that these medications go for, its almost like handling gold so the temptation has got to be there for the pharmacy employees. Also, when these thefts happen, do they largely go unreported? I figure between the price value of certain pills plus the fact that many of them are addicting its gotta be somewhat common?
I figure there are two main ways for an employee to steal: they outright just snag some pills here and there from the dispensers. Although since many are now Schedule II, esp the newly scheduled norco, this may be difficult as I assume that these meds are locked away and only accessible by very few employees - maybe even just the pharmacist. The other way whcih would beat audits, would be to steal from the customers' bottles and hope they don't notice. Does this happen often?
I once had a situation that got me thinking. Basically a script was severly underfilled, I called them out on it, they actually acknowledged it almost immediately and corrected the problem. It was strange, like they knew they shorted me right away b/c they didn't argue about it, as soon as I walked in, someone behind said "Oh sorry, we accidentally didn't give you the full amount, here ya go." And I had actually left the pharmacy and didn't notice until I was driving away, so I was shocked that they acknowledged it since they could have accused me of trying to get extras.
I doubt it happens often at pharmacies, the real thieves are nurses. A lot of nurses are addicts and replace your dilaudid or morphine with a pill that looks a lot like it (placebo) and just pocket yours. They often don't have any fail safe to protect the patient against this.