CVS to pay $77.6 million in meth case

Source: CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- CVS Pharmacy Inc. has agreed to pay $77.6 million in fines and returned profits in a case alleging improper control in the sale of an ingredient used to make methamphetamine, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said CVS, the largest operator of retail pharmacies, repeatedly failed to properly monitor sales of pseudophedrine, which is contained in some cold medicines and is also used to make meth.

Through failing to monitor these transactions, the pharmacy helped methamphetamine traffickers in Southern California and the area around Las Vegas to get their hands on "large amounts" of pseudophedrine, the prosecutors said in a statement - adding that the sales fueled a rise in methamphetamine production in California.

As part of the pharmacy's agreement with prosecutors, CVS will pay a $75 million fine, the largest civil penalty ever paid under the Controlled Substances Act, the prosecutors said. They also said CVS will forfeit $2.6 million in profits received from illegal transactions.



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/14/news/companies/cvs_meth/index.htm?hpt=T1

People go to prison for MUCH less.

as though they were selling oxycontin freely or anything.

I'm guessing it was just lax controls, not an attempt to make a killing on selling cold tablets. But I could be wrong.

What good does it do?

Honestly - if you want to put meth labs out of business, legalize it and sell it over the counter.

two boxes of 24 count generic Actifed. They told me what I'm allowed to get but I didn't pay that much attention as I don't use it all that frequently. But I'd think you'd need a shitload to make any decent quantity of meth, wouldn't you? :shrug:

If it is a large batch obviously you need more but you can make a small amount with a box.

I'm sure that CVS will make that fine money back up in a week or two. As with the banksters, until these and other corporate-pirates are sent to prison, they'll never stop breaking the laws -- nor robbing us.

Hate on CVS, but the law is absurd. It just results in more meth from Mexico.

some years ago on this topic, in response to a knee-jerk mailing from her office on how wonderfully the Allergy Sufferers Harassment Law is working.

In my old neighborhood, robbery and muggings increased considerably when the ASHL was enacted. They're going to get it from somewhere, so if they can't buy Sudafed, they'll bop you over the head or worse, take your wallet and valuables, and buy Mexican meth from the local scum meth dealer. Thus enabling the the dealer, the Mexican drug lords, and the narcocorrido artists, to successes they might not have recognized without such help.

Boxer is really good about answering messages about her mailings and communications, but on my response to the ASHL, dead silence.

Welcome to DU

:hi:

Thanks!

:hi:

are that where CVS were possibly somewhat lax in their controls in some areas, NOW they're creepily over-vigilant, setting a limit that is BELOW the actual legal limit, to the point that they prevent sick people from obtaining needed medicine.

I've been buying Claritin-D and Zyrtec-D for years, and I have a pretty good idea of the limit vs. my purchases. Never had a problem anywhere, until very recently with.... CVS.

I was all out of Claritin-D recently. I am the only one in my household who takes it. I went to CVS to buy more... and their "Meth Tracker" program flagged my purchase and would not allow it. And of course this makes one look like, and be treated like, a criminal, because being told by a cashier that you set off the "METH TRACKER" doesn't exactly create a great personal image.

There is NO WAY I was at anywhere even near the ACTUAL legal limit for pseudoephedrine purchases. I had bought the box of Claritin 15 days before, and it was a box of qty 15.

So, because their tracking program was majorly broken, the immediate reaction was to change it to set the program's purchase limit so low that actual allergy sufferers could not obtain medicine when it was needed.

Ultimately I did "outsmart" the new BS threshold setting, by a quick analysis: If the program won't let me buy 15 Claritin-D 24-hour pills when I am all out, maybe it will let me buy 15 Zyrtec-D 12-hour pills. BINGO.

Eventually the tweakers are going to figure out how to directly methylate Adderall, which they'll get by robbing pharmacies. Right now the hillbilly junkies are robbing pharmacies for Oxycontin; they could certainly get amphetamine the same way.