Texas Woman Jailed For Trying To Fill A Prescription

[Newsjock]

Source: CBS Dallas/Fort Worth

Anne Lenhart never thought filling a prescription at CVS Pharmacy in Dallas could land her in jail.

... With the help of several men, Lenhart climbed out of the area and after a 3 1/2 hour trip to the nearest hospital in Port-Au-Prince, she underwent reconstructive surgery with no general anesthesia.

... Still on crutches and unable to drive, a friend of Lenhart’s, drove her to a CVS Pharmacy in Oak Cliff. She wasn’t able to pick up her prescription because a police officer arrived to pick her up. ... The officer then took her the Dallas County jail, where she remained overnight. After she was released on bond, she was charged with obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, a felony.

... Dallas police later dropped the charges after speaking with Lenhart’s doctor. The Dallas Police Department declined to talk to CBS11 about Lenhart’s arrest. Now she is suing CVS Pharmacy for False Imprisonment, Defamation and more.

Read more: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/05/04/woman-jailed-for-trying-to-fill-a-prescription/

[Meiko]

1. Good to know

the police are being used for such important things.

[iscooterliberally]

2. She was on crutches and had an IV line hooked up?

You would think that would have been a huge clue for the arresting officer.

[meeksgeek]

40. No, you see...

Clearly the crutches and IV line were props to help this criminal mastermind commit her crime.



At least that's probably what the cop thought.

Just to be clear - I am now boycotting CVS! The list just keeps growing. I am dealing almost exclusively with locally-owned businesses now.

Lesson to take from this - know your pharmacist, they are as important in your healthcare as your doctor.

[bayareaboy]

41. The boycotts get bigger and bigger and then you find yourself ...

shopping on Main St again!

Out here in Northern California, There was a chain called Longs that was better than the rest. Then about 5yrs ago CVS took them over and I swear they brought in sales help from some other star system. So even though I have two CVS stores close, I go elsewhere.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. More stupid war on drugs shit. CVS needs to pay up.

And Dallas PD, too.

[HappyMe]

4. When I was sick, I had to pick up the

'controlled substance' prescriptions personally. Sign for it too.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Interesting..I pick them up for my neighbor often.

Has a lot to do with living in a small town, I think, who know the elderly woman and know me.

[HappyMe]

12. That's true.

Also, me signing and such just may be the company policy. Before that I was never sick, so the pharmacists didn't know me from Adam.

[cstanleytech]

18. Yup my mother has to take morphine as she is in pain and confined to a wheelchair

as some of the disks in her spine are being crushed and they only supply her with a months worth of meds then my brothers or I have to go and pickup the new prescription as the doctors office as its not something they are allowed to call in, its a pita a bit but *shrug* I can can understand why they have so I can live with it.

[RebelOne]

24. My mother had terminal cancer

and I or my sister had to pick up her prescription of morphine. We never had any problem.

[cstanleytech]

27. Same here, just a bit of a pita that the doctor cannot call it in like he can most of her meds but

again like I said I can and do understand why as its a very easy drug to misuse and or abuse which is also why we dont leave the bottle anywhere near my mothers bed where she can reach it because she also has a tendency to forget that she already had her medication.

[cali]

36. Yep. I have to pick up my pain scrip from the

doc's office, or have someone pick it up because they can't call it in. I usually get a scrip when I go see the doc so it's not a big deal.

[modem77]

42. My wife couldn't even get Vicodin right after surgery

and had to wait 2 days to get DEA number at Wal-Mart pharmacy.

[ellie]

5. I hope Ms. Lenhart

becomes a very rich woman after this.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. she will. bet she doesn't even have to go to court.

[tblue37]

7. Can you imagine how much pain she must have suffered, locked in a jail cell overnight

with no pain medication and no “comforts,” because those cells are not designed to coddle a person’s body! She also was forced to go cold turkey off the narcotic pain killers she had been taking, so she probably suffered withdrawal symptoms, too.

She is going to get a handsome settlement from CVS, I bet!

[Warren Stupidity]

8. End the war on people now.

I have had enough.

[RainDog]

29. amen n/t

[jerseyjack]

9. BTW, I saw a listing of ALEC members. CVS is listed as a member of ALEC

I moved my prescriptions out of there.

[Quantess]

22. Hmm. Good to know.

[Smilo]

10. I would sue the PD also - for false arrest and imprisonment....

taking the word of someone that someone else is --- place whatever insinuation you want here -------- and then not correctly following up to see if the claim was true or not.

I thought this was America, not Iraq.

[happynewyear]

13. CVS should be sued

from here to hell and back!!!



I'd join the lawsuit with this lady if I could manage it!!!

[noiretextatique]

14. what a waste of taxpayers' money

why didn't the pharmacy call and verify the prescription? why didn't the police do that BEFORE arresting her?

[Cass]

15. She had reconstructive knee surgery without general anesthesia!

Damn skippy! This poor woman must have been in agony.

Since this was a refill rx, you'd think this have been previously authorized when she filled it the first time. It was pretty obvious she had a medical issue - she had an IV in her arm, where is the common sense from CVS and the police?

Maybe these geniuses should have double-checked the phone number they called for authorization -- they probably dialed the wrong number.

[DaveJ]

16. It strikes me how lackadaisically people are arrested

Arrest first, ask questions later. They don't think twice before messing up someone life.

[vanlassie]

17. CVS buys nice neighborhood pharmacies

And guts them. Adds crappy smelly cheap carpet and signage. They're the Bain Capital of pharmacies

[louis-t]

19. I've never seen a CVS that was not a new building.

They buy a corner lot and are usually the anchor store. Just sayin'.

[vanlassie]

32. In California they have trashed the former Longs Drugs Stores.

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. How nice is that neighbor pharmacy if they sell out to CVS?

[vanlassie]

33. Nice enough not to be able to compete with the Big Three- Walgreens and RiteAide.

Not to mention Walmart and Costco.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. I don't know why shes whining. They gave her the premium, cushy DEA treatment.

She's lucky they didn't lock her in a room for 5 days with no food and water.

YAY DRUG WAR!!!!!

[spanone]

23. and the hooooooooooooooome of the freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[mwooldri]

25. I do not trust CVS with controlled substance prescriptions.

Had one bad experience with them, and one bad experience concerning the health of your family especially after they left hospital is one bad experience too many.

This particular branch broke promises on getting a prescription filled. One staff member recommended I went to another pharmacy - an independent one. If you are in need of a decent pharmacy in Greensboro, NC I cannot recommend Gate City Pharmacy highly enough. Prescription medication *is* their main business, unlike the chain drug stores. I can't get washing detergent, a family pack of mixed chocolate candies, beauty make up or the latest edition of the National Enquirer at Gate City but I can get the medications the doctor prescribes for me and my family. They also do compounding which the chain drug stores do not do. If it is a hard to get medicine, they will tell you when they will get it - usually it is the next day. They fully understand what "product selection permitted" on the prescription means - and it isn't just substituting the brand medication for the generic, it also means issuing higher or lower quantities of the prescribed drug if the prescribed dose is not in stock.

To summarize: if you have a special drug need, go to a specialist pharmacy. C2 and C3 schedule drugs - just don't fill them at the chain pharmacies or supermarkets or wallyworlds or warehouse clubs.

[Aerows]

37. I don't trust CVS, period

They screwed up my Dad's prescription, and luckily, he recognized that they gave him the wrong thing. It's blood pressure medication, for God's sake.

We don't go there anymore. They weren't even very apologetic about it.

[onethatcares]

26. look on the sunny side of this

at least they didn't tase her four times

[HCE SuiGeneris]

28. The "new" age of America is showing very nasty tendencies.

What it amounts to is a plutocratic, dictatorial relationship between the people that live here in the country, vs. those that think they own the country. The striking examples of abuse continue to increase.

Thank dawg for the watchdog integrity of our Fourth Estate though...

[BlueIris]

30. Only in Pathetic Texas.

Although I could see this shit going down in Asshole Arizona or F-U, Florida.

[Heywood J]

31. Who could possibly predict CVS doing something bad?

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/12/01/suit_says_cvs_sells_expired_products/

NEW YORK - CVS Caremark Corp., the operator of more than 7,000 US drugstores, was accused by Connecticut of selling expired products, less than a month after the company settled a similar suit with New York.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5055982&page=1

A statewide sweep by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that more than half of CVS stores and 43 percent of Rite Aid stores were selling expired drugs, milk, eggs and baby formula.

In some cases, over-the-counter medication was being sold two years after the expiration date, according to Eric Corngold, the head of the economic justice unit in Cuomo's office.

http://consumerist.com/2012/01/if-cvs-sells-you-something-expired-its-your-own-damn-fault.html

As evidenced by this shelf-hanging sign, CVS has deputized its customers to monitor the freshness and safety of its products.
<...>
Whereas inventory planning and management were formerly the responsibility of store clerks or suppliers, customers are now advised to "immediately notify" a CVS employee if they find an expired product.

No word yet as to whether customers will be taught stock rotation, or given the opportunity to do medication consults.

[edhopper]

34. Thank God

the SCOTUS now allows criminals like this to be strip searched.

[marble falls]

35. The Patriot Act/Homeland Security new paradigm: every man a cop and every cop a judge.

[southernyankeebelle]

38. Wouldn't it have been a novelity that the CVS dr would of called her doctor in the first place.

All this could of not happened.

[frazzled]

39. I don't think you should be on Norco for more than a month anyway

That stuff is highly addictive.

My husband had a bicycle accident and broke 4 ribs, collapsed a lung, and fractured his shoulder (in addition to contusions and a large hematoma). Norco was prescribed, but after the first few days he got himself down to taking it only at night so he could sleep, using Tylenol only during the day; and within a few weeks got off it altogether. I think these opioids are prescribed far too often and generously. You should always try to manage the pain with the least drastic method possible ... of course, never letting the pain get ahead of you.

It was certainly ridiculous to arrest her, but someone screwed up on the verification. Shit like this happens. However, they're right to try to verify that such a high-level painkiller is being appropriately prescribed.