Burglars seeking drugs worry pharmacies

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 26

Burglars seeking drugs worry pharmacies

PA Wellington One in every two retail pharmacies in New Zealand was hit by burglars seeking drugs last year, says a spokesman for the Chemists’ Guild. Although the number of chemist shop burglaries fell slightly in the first six months of this year, figures were still worrying the guild, the police, and the insurance industry', the spokesman

said. . Last year, 671 pharmacies were burgled — half the number of retail pharmacies in New Zealand. About 270 of these were reported in the first six months. The figure fell to 195 for the same period this year but previous trends suggested that a rapid rise would be recorded until the end of the year. "The number of burglaries is totally and unacceptably

high,” said Mr Bruce Jenkin, executive director of the Chemists’ Guild, in an interview. He said chemists took no comfort from the small drop this year. “We feel a sense of despair about the whole thing. The more successful the police and other law-enforcement agencies are in curbing the hard-drug scene, the more it seems chemist shops are broken into.” he said.