AUBURN – Investigators were examining the inventory of prescription drugs at Rite Aid Thursday trying to determine how many pills had been illegally dispensed from the pharmacy and at what cost.
The investigation was continuing a day after 24-year-old Robert Halcomb Jr. was arrested at the Union Street store and charged with furnishing the painkiller Vicodin to people without prescriptions.
State agents were counting pills at the store and trying to determine how much medication had been illegally dispensed.
“It appears there may be some discrepancies in the stock count,” said Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Supervisor Gerry Baril.
The investigation into the case against Halcomb was launched by the MDEA. But on Thursday, investigators from the Maine Office of Licensing and Registration were at work examining the Rite Aid inventory.
What remained to be learned, police said, was how much Vicodin had been illegally peddled and whether or not Halcomb profited.
“That’s half the reason for the audit,” Baril said.
By Thursday night, Halcomb remained at the Androscoggin County Jail charged with four counts of aggravated furnishing scheduled drugs. He was being held on $10,000 cash bail pending an initial court appearance.
While he was being questioned by police Wednesday night, Halcomb claimed he provided Vicodin to addicts because he felt sorry for them, investigators said.
A local woman who was hospitalized after overdosing on the painkiller helped police with the investigation before Halcomb was arrested.
While state officials continue to probe allegations of Halcomb’s illegal narcotics dealing, drug investigators said Vicodin and similar drugs remain troublesome.
An opiate containing the drug Hydrocodone, Vicodin is considered one of the most commonly abused prescription drugs. Investigators say abusers take the drug in pill form, chew it or crush it and snort it like cocaine.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, use of Hydrocodone-based drugs has increased by 300 percent since 1990. In the same period, there has been a 500 percent increase in the number of hospital visits by people who have abused the drugs.
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