BAYONNE After receiving a tip earlier in the day, Bayonne police arrested Friday a town resident and pharmacy technician who admitted to stealing more than 2,000 Oxycontin pills over a six-month period, officials said today. Mena Mekhael, 21, of Lord Avenue, was arrested as he was leaving the Jerry's Drug & Surgical Supply at 455 Broadway near West 21st Street, at 6:45 p.m. Friday, police said. He was hit with a slew of drug charges, including theft of a controlled dangerous substance (CDS), possession of CDS Oxycontin, possession of CDS Xanax, possession of CDS with intent to distribute, and possession of marijuana under 50 grams, police said. The store's head pharmacist reported to police Friday morning that 2,119 Oxycontin pills were missing from the pharmacy's inventory, Bayonne Acting Police Chief Ralph Scianni said. When police arrested Mekhael he was carrying 20 Oxycontin pills and 17 Xanax pills in his pockets, Scianni said, adding that a search of Mekhael's car turned up six more Oxycontin pills and four more Xanax pills, as well as a bag of marijuana. During questioning, Mekhael admitted to stealing over 2,000 pills since he started working at the pharmacy in December and using the profits to … Continue reading →

By Carlos E. Medina Correspondent The Federal Drug Administration, which is tasked with ensuring the safety of drugs in the nation, has limited oversight over compounding pharmacies like Franck's because of a 74-year-old law that allows pharmacists to compound, or create unique variations of existing drugs for patients. But that law, and the FDA's lack of authority over the practice of compounding, may draw new scrutiny in the wake of a well-publicized mistake at Franck's that killed two dozen prized polo ponies in 2009 and the production of contaminated solutions that reportedly damaged the vision of 33 eye surgery patients in recent months. Compounding pharmacies make medications and other medical preparations from scratch. They cannot make straight copies of commercially available medications and can only make medications when they are ordered by a doctor. These pharmacies fine tune drugs to a patient's need, whether that means creating a specific dosage not offered by a manufacturer or a liquid form of a drug only available in pill form. Historically, compounding was the way most people got their prescription medicines. As recently as the 1960s pharmacists routinely ground and mixed compounds in their stores to make the medicines prescribed by local doctors. … Continue reading →

Q: I am a very active Army physical-training instructor. I am 45 years old and have always had a great sex drive until I started taking Crestor six months ago to lower my cholesterol. My sex drive has totally disappeared. I am unable to maintain an erection and feel tired all the time. It has been causing me a great deal of stress and anguish. Is Crestor causing my erectile dysfunction and libido problems? A: Sexual side effects have been reported with some statins, such as lovastatin, pitavastatin (Livalo) and simvastatin. The official prescribing information for Crestor, however, makes no mention of low libido or erectile dysfunction. There is reason to believe that all statins may have a negative impact on sexual function by lowering testosterone levels (Journal of Sexual Medicine, April 2010). Cholesterol is a building block for testosterone, so it is not surprising that cholesterol-lowering drugs might have an impact on this hormone. Results from French research suggest that such drugs may trigger or worsen erectile dysfunction (Drug Safety, July 2009). Ask your doctor if there's another way to control cholesterol. If not, a test for testosterone or an ED drug might be helpful. Q: To prevent foot … Continue reading →