Pharmacy robberies for narcotics on track to triple this year

After four years of relatively stable numbers, pharmacy robberies in Hamilton this year are close tripling last year's total.

Police have been called in to investigate 19 pharmacy robberies so far this year, compared to seven in 2014. In all of therobberies, thieves targeted prescription narcotics.

In some cases, the same pharmacy was hit more than once, Const. Steve Welton confirmed. This is a problem that spans the entire city, and isn't focused on any particular location, he said.

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Police are investigating robberies in Binbrook, Stoney Creek and Ancaster, as well as the east, Mountain and Central parts of the old city.

"Like any theft where there is a demand in the criminal marketplace, there will be individuals who choose to steal and sell the property illegally to people," Welton said in an email.

The narcotics "vary in nature," Welton said, and he wouldn't specify the exact amount of drugs that were stolen.

Staff Sgt. EmidioEvangelistatold CBC News that it's tough to say whether this spike is indicative of a widertrend.

"It could be two or three people that all of a sudden do four or five robberies, and then that's the increase," he said. "I arrest them, and then it goes back to the average."

The street value of prescription drugs has gone up, he says in part because doctors are actively trying to prescribe these drugs more selectively.

"It's a terrible disease that can be lethal," he said.

Hamilton's well-documented opioid problem has been an increasing problem for years. Drugs like oxycodone, Percocet and morphine are all proving to be an issue.

Fentanyl an extremely potent painkiller that is 80 times more powerful than heroin has also become a problem in the city. In 2014, police issued warnings about a batch of "bad heroin" that was likely mixed with fentanyl that caused a spike of heroin overdoses in the city.

According to a recent study from The Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use, the drug was involved in 655 deaths between 2009 and 2014.

One of the city's most recent robberies happened on Tuesday, when a 20-something man armed with a knife robbed a Main Street East pharmacy.

On Friday, police released images from a Halloween pharmacy robbery at a Rexall at 930 Upper Paradise Road.

"The Hamilton Police Service BEAR Unit assigned to investigate continues to work in partnership with other police services in the sharing of information during investigations," Welton said.

"As with any crime there is always a possibility that suspects may move between regions to commit these crimes."