Date: 3/30/2015

Subject: MWA #1
Rhetorical Situation
Cover letter
For my counterargument, I decided to take the position of the
district pharmacy loss prevention manager within the Albuquerque
area. Given the situation, I chose to write in a more sensitive tone
because my main goal in this essay was to convince my employees
that I do, in fact, care about their wellbeing as well as their opinions. In
my personal experience with district management, when they fail to
empathize with my current work situation, its always difficult to
believe that anything they are telling me is true --even if their ideas
are great. I thought that trying to empathize with my employees, I
would be able to ease my readers into the meat of the paper, where I
argue the method that time-delayed safes are more feasible and deter
robberies. These time-delayed safes would require the robber to wait
20 minutes for two bottles of a controlled medication to dispense,
which my research supported. Thus, this paper effectively swayed my
opinion from what it originally was, which was interesting because it
goes to show that thorough research prevents people from being
ignorant.
Honestly, the process was difficult. However, I found that after
writing this paper and completing and reading all of the relative
research, I actually understand why my opposition holds the certain
beliefs they do. I think the topic for the essay was great, but the
acquisition of relative research was hard to come by. Thus, my
argument was based on a lot of emotion and logic that I have
previously gained from pharmacy knowledge. The reason why I think
my topic lacks research is because of the spike in pharmacy robberies
is only a recent occurrence and hasnt been heavily monitored since
the early 2000s, so a majority of the statistics I found were fairly
unreliable. This came to light especially when I was looking up
information about the pharmacy robberies my own pharmacy was
involved in. Since it is still under investigation, the news was only able
to show pictures of the robbers and didnt really disclose much about
the case, such as what made us so vulnerable to a robbery and who
these people were.
In order to complete this essay, I contacted Zimmerman library
in order to gain access to some articles and find statistics on the
certain methods I was arguing for or against in my paper. A large part

of writing this essay was sifting through all of the research articles
regarding substance abuse and loss prevention in retail pharmacies.
Another thing was, I talked to my colleagues at work in order to gain
different perspectives when writing this, as I really wanted to know
what they wanted to hear from corporate in order for them to be
convinced.
If you worked for one of the largest retail pharmacy chains in
America, would you feel like your employer genuinely cared about your
wellbeing? Do you think their solution to implementing time-delayed
safes would prevent further robbery? Does the research help support
that claim? Do the citations interrupt the flow of the essay, if so, what
would you suggest for future reference?

Protecting New Mexicos Pharmacies

As the loss prevention district manager for one of the most renowned retail
pharmacy chains in New Mexico, I know I have difficult job, but I also believe that I am
incredibly fortunate. In fact, I know I work with some of the most compassionate and
versatile medical professionals in the retail pharmacy business. However, the recent
robberies that have occurred in pharmacies that reside in my territory, have, undeniably,
devastated all our employees and patients involved. When I was informed late at night
that the some of the pharmacies had been robbed, I, too, experienced a sense of
surrealism. I thought to myself not my district, not my pharmacies, but then reality hit
and my heart immediately went out to the pharmacy personnel involved and their
families.
Though I have yet to experience an armed robbery first-hand myself, I am very
much aware that looking through the barrel of a gun is unequivocally one of the most
traumatic situations anyone could ever endure. And, in some cases, victims require
intensive therapy in order to cope with such a dramatic incidence, which the company
does offer in addition to several days of paid leave. We, as a company, strive to alleviate
the ramifications produced from these incidences as well as ensuring our staff that further
incidences such as these will be thwarted. However, in order to achieve this goal, the loss

prevention management at the district office was in the process of compiling and sifting
through research along with its data to arrive at the most feasible solution.
We do apologize for any inconvenience or frustration that might have arose from
the delay of our decision, but we full-heartedly believe our intentions had our employees
best interest in mind. However, as a consensus, we have now made the executive decision
to introduce time-delayed controlled II safes. Time-delayed safes functions to keep the
controlled II medications locked, but only allow 1 bottle of a requested medication in
twenty-minute time intervals. The individuals at corporate, with myself included; believe
it would be wise to approach this problem with logic and all emotions set aside.
With that being said, I held a few meetings with multiple pharmacy personnel and
most of them counter my argument with fear still locked in their eyes and understandably
so. Although, I do understand your concerns as well as your faith in other methods, let me
explain to you why I think our decision is the most pragmatic in addressing the recent
pharmacy robberies in the Albuquerque area as the most cost effective. With our
compilation of research, we can foresee the time-delayed safes potential in effectively
deterring future robbers.
As a company, one of our main missions is to create an optimal work environment
for our employees and reflecting that into our community. However, as our pharmacies
are blundered with successive robberies, this is very difficult to achieve as our schedule II
medications inventory is pouring into the black market against our will. As pharmacy
professionals, Im sure most of you are aware that we reside in a state that is riddled with
addiction. In fact, the Center of National Disease Control, asserted in their study, Signs:
Overdoses of Prescription Opioid Pain Relievers --- United States, 19992008", that

nearly 75% of all deaths due to prescription overdoses in the United States resulted from
opioid pain relievers and concluded that New Mexico ranks highest for this specific
prescription overdose. In our pharmacy, we carry, arguably, the most commonly abused
controlled II pain relieveroxycodone hydrochloride. As pharmacist and pharmacy
technicians, it is common knowledge to you that controlled II medications hold the
highest classification of commonly addictive substances in our retail pharmacy setting.
The immediate release version is more frequently abused than its extended version
OxyContin. The immediate release version of oxycodone lacks the gel-like tamper-proof
component, which allows it to be inhaled or injected intravenously when crushed and
modified. Opioid abusers often admit, that when altered, oxycodone can induce a similar
euphoria to heroin as it contains a lot of the same constituents, or chemical makeup.
When administered intravenously or by inhalation, it takes less time for the blood
concentration of the drug to increase rather than taking it by mouth. Undoubtedly, this
increases the chance of experiencing severe overdose symptoms, such as respiratory
depression, comma, and hypotension all of which are fatal. With that being said, it is
safe to assume that with the increase of oxycodone on the street, we could expect a rise in
fatalities due to opiate misuse.
Effectively, we have been made aware that the prescription pain relievers we
stock in our pharmacies are in high demand in the Albuquerque area. Im sure we all
agree that its one of main reason why our pharmacies have been ransacked for its
acquisition within recent events. Furthermore, I would like to share with you some of the
research we conducted on loss prevention specific to pharmacy. Nationwide, pharmacy
robberies rose 81% between 2006 and 2010, according to the article written by Pharmacy

Mutual Companies. (Perspectives on Pharmacy Crime"). These statistics are astounding

and incredibly difficult to look at especially since we all have experience in the retail
pharmacy setting. However, as a company, we have the opportunity to react to these
numbers in efforts to quiescent their future growth. Pharmacy Mutual Companies fails to
assert that any company should take one course of action or another, but it does provide
us some statistics from previously used methods to base our decision on. Although most
pharmacies involved in a successful robbery had video surveillance and/or alarm systems,
both, of which, had failure rates of 62% and 88% respectively, according to the article.
However, of these successful pharmacy robberies, only 38% had a controlled II safe
present (RxPatrol). While controlled II cabinets inhabit our pharmacy, these statistics
undoubtedly reflect the quality of the cabinets we own now as we continually fall victim
to these crimes. In fact, a few of our very own personnel remarked in our incidence
reports from recent crimes that the offenders were able to rip open the controlled II
cabinet and gain access without the possession of the cabinet key. After examining our
reports and finding these statistics, we were convinced that we needed to upgrade our
controlled II cabinets to controlled II time-released safes.
Simultaneously, in the event a robbery were to occur, the perpetrator would be
required to wait at least twenty minutes before the safe would allow anyone access, even
the pharmacy personnel. The attempted robber would be forced to flee before he could
gain access to the safe in order to escape being arrested. However, I have received several
inquiries concerning the time-delayed safes small size. It is understandable to worry
about the possibility of the entire safe being stolen because they are fairly expensive as
each one is a $3,000 investment. Furthermore, you should be rest assured knowing that

the district office has resolved this issue by planning in detail where we want to store the
safes in each pharmacy. Since these time-delayed safe contain the more desired
controlled II narcotics, we agreed that it should be placed next to the other controlled II
substances; however, it will remain bolted to the ground and furthest from the main exit
and entrance. This placement would thus mitigate any possibility of the safe itself from
being stolen and decrease visibility of the amount of these substances we have in stock
from our patrons. This could effectively avert a criminal from planning a successful
robbery.
Another determining factor for the management at corporate was the cost of these
time-delayed safes. While they are not the cheapest, they are definitely more
economically favorable as opposed to bulletproof windows. While each time-delayed safe
only costs, on average, $3,000 each, bulletproof windows cost anywhere from $15,000 to
$20,000 a store ("The Cost of Bullet Resistant Glass System"). Even though corporate
considered it, we realized that this would be a huge cost to the company and could
potentially further jeopardize the budget for hours at each store. Not only that, but the
efficacy of bulletproof windows in efforts to deter robberies was not as convincing as
implementing time-delayed safes due to lack of solid evidence. In fact, according to the
Center of Problem-Oriented Policing, The FBI recommends highly robbed businesses
install bandit-barriers, but also states The prevalence of bandit barriers and the extent of
their effectiveness is not known. In the late 1970s, 44 percent of banks in the Washington
D.C. area had bandit barriers; these, however, did not prevent robbery (Weisel).
However, admittedly, there are not that many studies on time-delayed safes either, but we
have talked to other districts within the company, which, have already installed these

safes. While being interviewed with their local news stations, the loss prevention
management has noted a drastic decrease in the number of pharmacy robberies within the
area and the employees already feel safer at work (Goforth).
Lastly, I would like to address the companys intentions to contact local
newscasters to inform the public on our new time-delayed safes. This would further steer
potential robbers from even attempting to attack our pharmacies for controlled
substances. Nevertheless, the loss prevention team at corporate values public awareness
in our efforts to maintain the safety our customers and employees as well as to quiescent
Albuquerques opiate abuse problem. We could only hope to lead by example and further
influence other retail pharmacies in Albuquerque to counteract future pharmacy robberies
for narcotic pain medication, so we could return to normal business where pharmacy
solely focuses on patient care.
To summarize, I appreciate all of your patience as our investigation and research
unravels as we are still in process of assessing demographics and considering possible
solutions. I urge anyone, within the district that continues to have any concerns or
questions following this update, to please contact me at the district office. I am open to all
suggestions, statistics, and mitigating circumstances that you feel the district office
should be aware of.
Regards,
District Loss Prevention Manager
Walgreens Co.
505-111-1111

Works Cited
"THE COST OF A BULLET RESISTANT GLASS SYSTEM." Total Security Solutions.
11 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. <http://www.tssbulletproof.com/cost-bulletresistant-glass-system/>.
Goforth, Dylan. "Walgreens' New Pharmacy Safes Installed to Deter Drug Robberies."
Tulsa World. BH Media Group Holdings, Inc., 31 July 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crimewatch/walgreens-new-pharmacy-safesinstalled-to-deter-drug-robberies/article_c19df261-a137-5ed3-8c4e86da2faa6883.html>.
"Perspectives on Pharmacy Crime." Pharmacists Mutual Companies. 1 Jan. 2011.
Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.phmic.com/solutions/pharmacy/Documents/PerspectivesOnPharmac
yCrime8-11.pdf>
"Pharmacy Robbery." 770 KKOB News Radio. Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, 12 Dec.
2014. Web. <http://www.770kkob.com/2014/12/12/pharmacy-robbery/>.
Center of Disease Control and Prevention. "Policy Impact: Prescription Painkiller
Overdoses." Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention. 2 July 2013. Web.

<http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/rxbrief/>.
RxPatrol."Rx Pattern Analysis Tracking Robberies and Other Losses. 2012 Purdue
Pharma L.P., 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.rxpatrol.com/aboutrxpatrol/>.
Weisel, Deborah. "The Problem for Bank Robbery." Center for Problem-Oriented Policy.
Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, 1 Jan. 2007. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.popcenter.org/problems/robbery_banks/print/>.