The Problem

As part of Walmart's corporate policy, pharmacy technicians--employees under the pharmacist who fill prescriptions, process transactions, and do other work in the pharmacy--cannot use water bottles or consume snacks within the pharmacy. Only pharmacists can do this. Pharmacy techs can't use bathrooms in the pharmacy, either--only the pharmacists can use these.

Reasoning Behind the Policy

The idea behind the policy is that such regulations will prevent pharmacy techs from stealing drugs by hiding them in snacks, dissolving them in water, or taking them to the bathroom area. Theft by pharmacy employees is a real concern. The DEA reports that employee pilferage accounts for 46% of all stealing from pharmacies (http://bit.ly/1pVxzzW), and much of it is by pharmacy techs. But while the policy is understandable, the fact that pharmacists don't face the same restrictions defeats its purpose. Other measures, such as conducting more extensive background checks may be better deterrents to employee drug theft.

Pharmacy Employee Crime is Also Committed by Pharmacists

Walmart is, of course, trying to protect against drug theft by its own employees. Reports of pharmacy technicians stealing drugs are sadly all too frequent. In 2008, an article in the Las Vegas Sun reported on the frequency of pilfering by pharmacy employees. Pharmacy techs are often sources of in-house stealing because they move from job to job more frequently than pharmacists and need less training to qualify. 

However, Walmart's policy ignores another source of theft: pharmacists themselves. A March 2014 article by the Wall Street Journal entitled "Pharmacists, guardians of drugs, sometimes steal them," cites an example of pharmacist theft in the state of Wisconsin. The few pharmacists caught stealing in Wisconsin make up a large number of the cases investigated by the state Pharmacy Examining Board (http://bit.ly/1rhGVd3).

Recent headlines about pharmacist theft include this one in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 17, 2013: "Walgreens pharmacist arrested on the job in Jennings in theft of drugs"; and this one in The New York Post on July 8, 2014: "Pharmacist arrested for stealing $5.6M in painkillers."

So while trying to prevent theft among pharmacy techs is a valid goal, Walmart's policy proves discriminatory because it does not also apply to pharmacists, who can also be a source of drug theft.

There are Better Ways to Deter Pharmacy Theft by Pharmacy Technicians

Walmart's policy may reduce the number of ways that a pharmacy technician may steal a drug, but it will not reduce the access to drugs or the creative methods with which desperate drug abusers will steal them. The only true way to prevent employee theft is to install security cameras in the pharmacy and bathrooms, have pharmacy employees work in the nude, and conduct prison-like patdowns. Even then, desperate people find ways around the most restrictive measures. Walmart's policy is not preventing theft; it is creating prejudicial inconvenience.

Walmart is using the wrong approach. The right question in this case is not how to prevent employees from stealing but how to prevent the wrong people from being hired in the first place.

In 2007, U.S. Pharmacist suggested that more extensive background checks could curtail the stealing problem. A thorough background check would include professional licensure verification and review; education verification, a healthcare fraud, abuse, and malpractice check; a state criminal background check; a web-based search; and a credit report, among other things (http://bit.ly/1rhJrA7).

Reward All Employees

In conclusion, by giving pharmacy techs the privilege of having their own water bottles, eating snacks, and using the pharmacy bathroom, Walmart is not enabling criminals; it is giving its employees the gift of wellbeing and convenience that they deserve. By doing so, Walmart will cease to discriminate between job positions and reward all employees for their service and qualifications.

Cover photo by sean dreilinger via Flickr creative commons