>Drugs of choice? Whitney probe, lesser known NJ case raise questions about personal responsibility
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published February 17, 2012
FoxNews.com
As authorities eye the potential role of a Beverly Hills pharmacy in Whitney Houston’s death, owners of a mom-and-pop drugstore on the other side of the country have learned the hard way how filling prescriptions can bring legal liability.
Months before Houston died after ingesting pills reportedly filled at the Mickey Fine Pharmacy, the far lesser-known Harding Pharmacy & Liquors in Ridgewood, N.J., reached a $1.9 million settlement in December with a man who suffered permanent nerve damage after overdosing on stolen Xanax in 2007. The drugs were given to Scott Simon, now 21, by a former Harding employee at a party, and Simon’s lawyers successfully argued the drugstore should have better safeguarded them.
