Pace Pharmacy: Accused of compounding a pill mill

Pace Pharmacy is the target of a multi-agency bust that accuses the pharmacist-in-charge of running his business like a traveling medicine show in the Wild West: Step right up and order your own customized version of a bottle of Dr. Feelgood from the head man in charge!

Pharmacist Stephen Burklow’s arrest report paints a picture of a man accused of slinging drugs just for the buck and not for your health. 

People were traveling from thirty and forty miles away to buy drugs from Burklow, and he was making cash as fast as his business was making and selling pills, according to police and interviews with past employees and confidential informants. 

Detectives say he took cash any way he could, at the pharmacy drive-thru, at the back door, hidden in the office generator, from special delivery drivers who passed cash from customers who paid from the comfort of their own home, as well as a good-old fashioned, slipping-you-the-cash handshake. 

Most people trust their local pharmacist to do the right thing and put a patient’s health first. 

In this case, investigators say he ran a highly organized pill-making and distribution operation that operated more like an auto assembly line instead of a pharmacy.

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential Podcast, “Pace Pharmacy: Accused of compounding a pill mill.”