Calgary pharmacies increase theft-prevention measures amid robbery spike

Pharmacies are often the target of robberies in Calgary, as thieves look to get their hands on narcotics.

After a recent spike in robberies, the Alberta College of Pharmacy has moved to make time-delayed safes mandatory to store drugs in pharmacies across the city.

Barry Strader with the Alberta College of Pharmacy says it’s just one of several steps pharmacies are taking to better secure themselves.

“Time-delayed safes are definitely one aspect in making pharmacies safer for pharmacy teams and for members of the public,” Strader said. “They have proven to be very effective in other provinces that have already implemented this requirement in pharmacies, so it’s part of the equation but it’s not just that magic answer that will fix everything.”

Strader says the new measures should have a positive impact in Calgary. He points to the decreased number of robberies in British Columbia since time-released safes and other measures were brought in there.

“Time will tell if that happens. We’re only a couple months into this being completely mandatory for all pharmacies across Alberta. It’s a little early to tell yet what the impact will be, but we’re certainly hopeful that this will make a significant difference in the number of robberies that take place.”

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Jiwan Sidhar and his wife were in their southeast Calgary pharmacy when it was robbed in in mid-August.

Sidhar, who owns and operates Walden Medical Pharmacy, had already ordered a time-delayed safe to comply with the new rules, but it hadn’t arrived when the robbery happened.

Although the safe is now in place, Sidhar is calling for an increased police presence in the area to deter further robbery attempts.

“In this area, there are a lot of pharmacies, a lot of cannabis stores, a lot of liquor stores,” Sidhar said.

Sidhar hopes that just having a time-delayed safe in his pharmacy will stave off any other robbery attempts. He says it was traumatizing to be the victim of a robbery.

“To be honest, myself, my staff, all [of us] are scared by this thing — [scared] that they can come back. So actually, it’s very hard to work in this situation.”