March 21, 2007

Pharmacy Ring Busted

Rice: Oceanside pharmacy sold more than 3x the Vicodin than NY average

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that her office, in conjunction with the Long Island Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Narcotics & Vice Bureau of the Nassau County Police Department, has taken down a pharmaceutical drug ring that includes more than 28 residents of Nassau and Queens Counties.

“A pharmacist selling drugs that feed destructive addictions or underground criminal enterprises is no different than someone selling drugs to our children on the playground or the street corner,” said Rice. “We are witnessing the beginning of the prescription drug epidemic. We must take the fight to the dealing doctors and pharmacists that are poisoning our streets.”

Rice has charged the ring’s leader, Howard Topchik, with Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree. Mr. Topchik and his wife were the owners of Terrace Pharmacy in Oceanside, a business that sold nearly twice the amount of the powerful painkiller Vicodin as the average pharmacy in the United States in 2005. Terrace Pharmacy sold almost three times more than the average pharmacy in the State of New York during that time period. The pharmacy was sold to CVS in April 2006.

The pharmacy’s inordinate sale of Vicodin was uncovered by detectives during an investigation into a series of burglaries and one armed robbery that had occurred at the pharmacy between October and December of 2005.

In 2005 alone, Terrace Pharmacy sold more than 149,300 doses of the prescription drug. The drugs were purchased with phony prescriptions that in some cases were photocopies of originals or had changes in patient’s name. Some prescriptions even included crayon writing or names other than the customer’s. The investigation revealed that Mr. Topchik rarely, if ever, asked for identification and sometimes didn’t even bother to look at the prescription at all. All sales were cash transactions.

DEA Special Agent in Charge John P. Gilbride echoed Rice’s comments in saying, “In the last five years prescription drug abuse has risen more than two-thirds nationwide, it is the DEA’s responsibility to work with our law enforcement partners to monitor prescriptions and ensure that legitimate pharmaceuticals are not diverted for illegitimate abuse.”

"The arrest of this dishonest pharmacist is the direct result of the cooperative effort of the law enforcement community working together to cease the distribution and sale of illegally possessed narcotics in our community," said Deputy Commissioner John J. Haviken, Nassau County Police Department.

Many of the 27 defendants charged with Forgery in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree have been de-briefed by the District Attorney’s Office and some have been given the option of drug treatment, if deemed appropriate. The debriefings have led to numerous ongoing investigations into the secondary market of prescription drugs.

Vicodin is a brand of hydrocodone, a powerful and potentially addictive painkiller that can have a street value of anywhere between $2 and $4 per pill.

Mr. Topchik faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted of the charges. He will be arraigned this afternoon in First District Court, Hempstead.

Handling the case for the District Attorney’s Office is Assistant District Attorney Jennine Mazzola, of the District Attorney’s Street Narcotics & Gangs Bureau.

The charges are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.