Police are searching for the gun-wielding thug who held up the Whitestone Pharmacy on Feb. 6, forcing the employees into a bathroom while he looted the shelves of hundreds of dollars’ worth of pain medication.
The thief wore a scarf over his face and a dark hoodie sweater during the holdup. But instead of grabbing cash from the pharmacy register, he went right for the shelves and snatched $600 worth of an opiate called Fentanyl, police said.
The drug is sold in patches — like a nicotine patch — and is prescribed to people with chronic pain and for pain management.
Like morphine or other opiates, Fentanyl is a high-strength painkiller that is often abused by people addicted to opiates.
Among Fentanyl’s legitimate purposes is treatment of cancer patients, who have built up a tolerance to morphine as a painkiller.
The man fled on foot from the 14th Avenue store without taking any cash. Police describe the suspect as 5 feet 9 inches tall and 165 pounds, and said the investigation is ongoing.
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