ANNA M. MARTIN
The attentiveness of a local pharmacist has led to a woman’s arrest on drug charges.
Anna M. Martin, 42, of 1510 Fox Fire Dr., Marysville, was arrested earlier this week, charged with deception to obtain a dangerous drug, a felony of the fourth degree, attempted deception to obtain a dangerous drug, a felony of the fifth degree, and illegal processing of drug documents, a felony of the fourth degree.
Lt. Jeff Stiers, of the Union County Sheriff’s Office and the Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement (M.A.D.E.) Task Force, said Martin allegedly tried to call a prescription into Dave’s Pharmacy in Marysville. He said the pharmacist recognized that it wasn’t a known doctor or representative. He said the pharmacist sensed something wasn’t right.
“The pharmacy did a little more looking into it and called the doctor’s office,” Stiers said. “The doctor’s office had not called in a prescription for that drug she was trying to obtain.”
At that point the pharmacy contacted police who notified the task force.
Tuesday, detectives from the Union County Sheriff’s Office and the Marysville Police Department that are assigned to the Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement (M.A.D.E.) Task Force executed a search warrant at Martin’s home.
“The M.A.D.E Task Force continues to investigate evidence found during the search that may result in additional charges when the case is reviewed by the Union County Prosecutors Office and presented to a Union County Grand Jury,” according to a release from the task force.
Stiers said he could not talk about specific evidence collected as part of the search warrant.
Dave Burke, owner of Dave’s Pharmacy said he was not the one who identified the allegedly fraudulent call. He said the pharmacist that did is “an experienced pharmacist.”
Burke said that pharmacists go through extensive training and part of that is in identifying fraudulent prescriptions and requests.
“The sad part is that people do it,” Burke said. “Unfortunately, pharmacies carry products that some people don’t need, but they want.”
He explained that after a while pharmacists get comfortable and know what to expect when getting prescription information. He said there is a “natural rhythm in dealing with doctors and doctor’s agents.”
Burke said his pharmacy is not alone. He said he believes that all the pharmacies in the county are very responsible and actively work to deter and report fraud.
“I think I can speak for all of the pharmacies in town, that the nature of the pharmacist is that they want to help people, but nobody want to be taken advantage of, to have their education used against them and when that trust is broken, we all have zero tolerance for that and this is a textbook case of that type of behavior,” said Burke.
Stiers said this case “speaks for itself” about the value of pharmacies being a first line of defense against opiate abuse.
“Without their help, we wouldn’t be able to put a lot of these cases together,” Stiers said.
Burke said his pharmacy wants to “make sure the right person, gets the right medication at the right time.”