Stealing Prescription Medication

Do you know anyone who has stolen or has had prescription medication stolen to satiate someone's addiction? If so, how did you handle the situation? I hear stories about this happening quite frequently, but you never hear how they dealt with the problem after the deed was done.

Did you confront them?
Did they fess up and apologize to you?

I have not personally known anybody but I have seen many cases in the courts around here where that has happened. People who are working for other people and they steal their meds from them or are working at a Pharmacy.

I think if you know that somebody has stolen meds from you that you should confront them if you feel it is safe to do so. I am not sure if they would apologize or just deny it. I think it most cases they would just deny that they took them rather then admit that they had a problem.

I've seen a lot of people stealing prescription medication, fortunately I've never had to deal with one. From what I've seen painkillers or sleep medication is the most common stolen medication, which instead of helping people it makes them even more addicted.

I don't know anyone personally who has, but I have had people tell me that when they've been on hard prescription pain medication (OxyContin for instance) that people said they would pay for their leftover pills.

I also have never known a person yet that stole medications, but that is quite awful, it's no different from a regular burglar. I do see some people do that on Tru TV though and they would even hostage the employees of the pharmacy.

Well that's just dumb. No I haven't seen that. I did have a roommate when I was in LA that after a few weeks after I moved in I realized she was a dealer. She was selling prescription drugs. She was something. Every day was like a party with her. I could never tell if she was actually on anything other than caffeine or beer.
Somebody who wants to do something like steal px drugs would have to line up with someone that has what they want. This is a lot of work. Maybe randomly someone might want to swipe something but the way it is today. People just offer stuff. They like to share. What's the sense in being stingy when your husband has you on his prescription plan. Lol So many people have insurance so they pay hardly anything for it. Most people who have stuff like that on a constant basis are so ripped up. How are they going to know anyway? Count? People on prescriptions for pain or the psychotropics are so jacked up on whatever it is they take that there is no way for them to be sure of anything. They could of taken too many or an extra dose. Dropped some. The prescription drugs today will also, some of them, make the person seem like they are straight and on completely nothing. But if you pay attention to them their behavior is way off.

That is sad that we have to do more than just put money in safes but also rx drugs. We have basic meds like asperin for headaches and cough medicine but nothing heavy duty unless we are truly sick. Rx drugs can be expensive without insurance but then the insurance itself is an expense so you must be careful of where you place the rx in the house.

I have never had prescription medications stolen from me, however I have heard of it happening to other people. One way to prevent theft of prescription drugs would be to keep them in a locked cabinet. Theft is often considered a crime of opportunity, so when people open your medicine cabinet and see the prescription drugs sitting there, they are easy to conceal in a pocket and will most likely not be missed while the thief is in your home.

Personally, I never knew of anyone close to me that stole prescription medications. But of course, I know it isn't such a rare occurrence and many people, teens even, resort to prescription medicine to get high. For me, if that happens to anyone close to me, I would confront them but not in a humiliating way. I would confront them in a way that they know that I care for them and want them to get better. It's better not to accuse them but to help the confess the truth themselves.

This hasn't happened to me so far, but my bio dad had something like this happen to him. His then neighbor stole several pills from him when he was outside the room for a bit. He never confronted him, but we all knew what this guy had done... he is an alcoholic by the way!

I don't know any body who steals prescription medication. I guess you should treat them like any other drug addict and keep them away from you. If someone is stealing from you they can't be around you because they can't be trusted. If someone is addicted to prescription drugs keeping them out of your house is best for your safety and there's. Someone could OD on prescription drugs and as long as they don't have access to yours, that would buy them sometime to seek treatment.

This happened to me before. Someone stole some of my prescription medication after I got out of the hospital. I could tell right away when I went into the pill bottle that some was taken. I confronted the person and was very angry with them. It's incredibly disappointing especially when it's someone very close to you.

I am willing to bet that this is more of a problem that a lot of people may think it is. I remember hearing a couple of stories on the news not too long ago about a pharmacy that got into a lot of trouble after one of its employees was caught tampering with the drugs and selling them. I would like to think that I would confront someone and tell the authorities, but I have luckily never been in that position.

I do know someone personal that has stolen prescription drugs not from me personally but from her own parents. And the thing is, they condoned it saying she really just must have needed the pain pills that bad. That is just enabling them. If they have no problem stealing from family,then they wont have a problem holding up a drug store or pharmacy either. It is a problem that gets worse as time goes on and leads to other criminal activity to get the income to supply these pills.

I am very surprised at some if the response here I for one have had my pain scripts stolen and let me tell you it is not easy to just confront someone cuz no-one who steals is going to say they did and it was said on here that people who are in pain meds are out of it anyways so they prob count wring or take to many......... That sounds just like what the people who steal mine say!?!?! Trust me it is no easy road to be in this situation and yes I even got a safe lol they just either figure out the cood or break it I finally just quit getting them so now I can't even walk most days due to serious back and medical problems but that is what I have to do so I am not in anyway responsible for those people getting the pills but trust me they are still getting them from somewhere addiction is hell and will destroy families and lives

I used to steal everything in site and especially prescriptions. I would confront the person about wronging you. Be open to discuss their overuse of prescription drugs if they want to talk about it with you. They probably won't and they will probably lie and deny doing it and I really doubt you are going to get that apology any time soon but I'm sure the world will keep turning and the sun will keep burning.

Your response is wrong and very insensitive. You say everyone on narcotics are jacked up and know nothing....you are SO wrong and don't seem to understand people who suffer chronic debilitating pain. I have severe back, hip, neck, knee pain issues from a car wreck caused by someone else. I have had almost 30 surgeries. I have been on pain meds for years thru a pain clinic. I know at all times exactly how much med I have, have taken, have left. I am not ever all jacked up. And I take 60 mg morphine and 12 mg dilaudid 6 times a day. I do not ever get jacked up. I do not ever enjoy a high. It helps the pain. I work and raise a family. I am not a stupid ass. You need to get your facts straight and learn not all people on pain meds are druggies....before making such judgemental comments do your homework. It's very offensive.

I've also heard of such cases, but I don't know anyone personally. But this is an interesting topic, thank you for your thoughts. If we talk about substance abuse treatment, then I can say that it was fremont doctors who helped my husband cope with this. We have 10 difficult years of unsuccessful treatment behind us and I can't believe that we were able to go through with it. And now I'm so happy that we found real specialists and saved our marriage. So, I wish everyone who reads these lines health, strength, and courage to overcome all difficulties.

Debsta writes>>>Your response is wrong and very insensitive.<<<

I support your point of view, you’re reading ignorance (lack of experience).

I’ve posted many times on this forum, that there’s a distinct difference between a drug addict (junkie) and pain management patients. While abstinent, some junkie’s are still psychologically addicted, that’s why there’s a high relapse rate. Where pain management patients that are not junkie’s, are not psychologically addicted, while medicated, and aren’t psychologically addicted after being weaned off medication.