Another small business bites the dust as Kew Gardens pharmacy shuts down after 40 years

 

NY Post

A beloved Queens small business fills its last prescriptions Monday.

Many are mourning the demise of Metropolitan Pharmacy, a 40-year-old small business on Metropolitan Avenue in Kew Gardens near the Richmond Hill border, as well as its sister business, Metro Pharmacy II, in Forest Hills.

The closing of Metropolitan Pharmacy will be a great loss, residents say, because owner Ira Lisogorsky has selflessly served the neighborhood.

“I needed some medicine, but my insurance card wasn’t going through because of a technical glitch,” recalled Suzanne Hall, a Kew Gardens resident and a longtime customer.

“Ira knew how much I needed the medicine, gave it to me immediately and told me that he’d settle the insurance issue later on,” she said.

So why is Metropolitan Pharmacy shuttering?

Lisogorsky, who fills thousands of prescriptions, said he has problems with drug companies as well as regulatory and city policies.

“The city doesn’t care about us,” he said. “They look at us as a cash cow, and yet it is small businesses that made this city.” He cleans his sidewalk each day, but said “if the wind blows, suddenly I have a fine.”

The nearest pharmacy is a CVS down the hill on 126th street and you can buy candy and beer there too. Good thing we got big retail options.

Oxy suppliers shut down

From NBC:

A pharmacist, her husband and another man have been accused of hawking oxycodone out of a pair of New York City storefronts in a multi-million dollar drug scheme, authorities say.

The scheme was run out of two pharmacies, both named "Chopin Chemists" in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Ridgewood, Queens, both owned by the pharmacist, sources said. The pharmacist, Lilian Wieckowski, and her husband, Marcin Jakacki, allegedly conspired to sell the drugs out of the two pharmacies "any way they could," according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

"We've shut down one of the largest pill mills in the city," Bharara said.

Authorities say they began investigating Wieckowski's pharmacies after a civil audit revealed that the Brooklyn pharmacy was requesting more oxycodone from drug makers than anywhere else in the zip code -- which included several large, nationwide pharmacy chains. One year, Bharara said, Chopin Chemists in Greenpoint requested more than 250,000 more pills than the next pharmacy.

Pharmacies also filthy

From PIX11:

Pharmacies aren’t just for prescriptions anymore.

From anti-freeze to light bulbs, cough medicine to milk, they sell it all. But are they handling it all?

A PIX11 investigation uncovered filthy conditions inside city pharmacies, clawing through state records to expose conditions that could make customers sick.

Prescription drug abuse out of control

From Metro:

There’s a battlefront in New York City’s war on drugs, and it doesn’t involve crack cocaine or heroin.

Prescription painkiller abuse is now one of the top concerns for law enforcement officials and doctors.

New York City has seen an 80 percent increase from 2007 to 2010 in admissions to crisis drug treatment programs for those addicted to pills like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet, according to state health officials.

“It’s a fast-growing problem in northern Manhattan as it is across New York City,” said the city’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Bridget Brennan, at a meeting last week with White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske to discuss the burgeoning epidemic.

Painkiller addiction poses a unique challenge because of the medical infrastructure. “These drugs are prescribed by doctors and obtained through legitimate pharmacies,” Brennan said.

Young adults and teens are particularly at risk for pill addiction, warns Dr. Deni Carise, chief clinical officer at the Phoenix House rehab center, because of the availability of drugs in their homes and the existence of “pill parties.” “Everyone grabs pills from medicine cabinets, puts them in a bowl, takes a handful and sees what happens,” said Carise.

Where's the outrage?

From the Times Ledger:

Seven small businesses along Queens Boulevard will not see their monthly leases renewed and will have to clear out of the block above the Continental Avenue subway station to make way for a large national tenant.

The businesses, some of which have been at the same location for nearly 30 years, will have to leave the premises as part of a long-term development plan by Cord Meyer, the owners of the property. But a Key Food on one end will remain open.

“The whole building will be demolished,” said Anthony Colletti, a spokesman for the company. “The new building will be built one story high and house a national retailer.”

Rumors that CVS will be the next tenant were neither confirmed by Colletti nor the pharmacy.

Where are the protests over the loss of small businesses? Why were no elected officials quoted in this article?

Robbers run rampant in Sunnyside

From Sunnyside Post:

Two masked men entered the Sunnyside Pharmacy on Skillman Ave. on Nov. 15 and approached the owner with a knife.

The two men then blindfolded the proprietor, sat him down in a corner of the store, and then began riffling through the prescription drug section. They then stole Oxycodone, a crude subsititute for heroin, and took off with cash.

“These people knew me and the store,” the owner of the pharmacy, located at 48-11 Skillman Ave., said. “They knew I wouldn’t have that many customers in the store at 5:40 pm when it happened.” The police—then detectives—arrived shortly after the robbery, he said, but he has not heard from them since.

Today, a police spokesman said no arrests have been made in the case.

Meanwhile, across the street at 48-06 Skillman, Victor Alvarez, the owner of Via Classic Emporium, said his store was burgled in the early hours of Jan. 1. “They took my computer, photo equipment, antique jewelry and other items—totaling more than $10,000.” He added the burglars also trashed his store, up ending china cabinets and smashing lamps.

No arrests have been made in this case either, police said.

Pharmacies robbed for controlled substances

Police: Masked Men are Responsible for 11 NYC Pharmacy Robberies

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New York City police are looking for two masked men suspected of robbing at least eleven pharmacies in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

Among the establishments burglarized was the Fair Deal Pharmacy in Elmhurst, Queens. The store's manager says the men were looking for controlled substances including Percocet, Vicodin, and Oxycontin when they entered the premises last November.

Fair Deal's manager said the incident happened so quickly he only remembers the culprits' eyes, adding all pharmacies can do to keep safe is “be cautious.”

Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or texting 274637 (CRIMES) and entering TIP577.

Billionaire Mayor Says Drug CEO's Don't Make a Lot of Money

NEW YORK (AP) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending pharmaceutical companies and their CEOs, declaring that they "don't make a lot of money" and shouldn't be scapegoats in the health care debate.

The billionaire mayor made the comments on his radio show Friday.

Abbott Laboratories Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Miles White's compensation was $25.3 million in 2008. Schering-Plough Corp. Chief Executive Fred Hassan's was $16.2 million.

The mayor is running for re-election and often battles criticism that he is out of touch with regular people.

It was clear someone realized his gaffe during the radio show. After a break, Bloomberg said he looked up the pay of some pharmaceutical executives, acknowledging some do make a "decent amount of money."

Photo from AM-NY.

Police looking for pharmacy robbers

Pharmacies soon required to translate everything

From the Daily News:

A new bill requiring chain pharmacies in the city to provide translation help along with their pills isn't going down too well with some critics.

The City Council bill calls for pharmacists to speak any foreign language spoken by 1% or more of the people in any community district.

A Department of Consumer Affairs' representative testified the bill would impose "an especially cumbersome and expensive set of obligations" on both businesses and the department.

Photo by dumbonyc on Flickr