Greenleaf Pharmacist Takes Stand Against Painkiller Abuse

Over the past year Michael Altman, owner and head pharmacist at Hastings' , said he had received a disturbing number of phone calls from people asking whether he carried the highly addictive and widely abused pain killer Oxycodone.

Then, after a man shot and killed four people robbing a pharmacy of hydrocodone pills in Long Island, Altman decided to take a stand.

"I don't want the kind of clientele that's using prescription drugs for business," Altman said. "I wanted to be off their radar."

Altman has posted a sign outside his store and above the pharmacy's cash register telling the community that his store no longer carries Oxycodone (OxyContin). 

"There have definitely been more calls lately about these drugs," he said. "The callers often ask to pay in cash; it's clearly to sell on the street."

A bottle of painkillers that costs $100 through insurance may have a street value of $5,000, Altman said. "It can be a lucrative business, but I don't want to be involved in any part of it."

Altman's local clients have been receptive to the decision. 

"People come in and thank us all the time for no longer providing those drugs," said Greenleaf employee Karen Palumbo. "They tell us stories about family members who have struggled with addictions to prescription pain killers."

Palumbo also said she felt safer in the store knowing it wouldn't be a target. 

"I want to keep my store a safe haven—not a drug haven," Altman said. 

He joins other pharmacists around the country such as Dan Fucarino of Carrollwood Pharmacy in Florida, who told Tampa Bay Online he worried about being a target.

Read more about the fatal shooting in Long Island here on the Patchogue Patch.