Steller: Diabetes epidemic drives test-strip thefts, gray market

They could have stolen liquor.

They could have demanded opiates like Vicodin or Percocet.

Instead, two young men in hats, with bandannas over their faces, entered the CVS at Ina and Thornydale roads in Marana at 3:45 a.m. Aug. 8, jumped the pharmacy counter and grabbed ... boxes of diabetic test strips.

Yes, diabetic test strips — the type some people with diabetes use to measure their blood sugar.

To many of you who’ve driven around town, the phrase “diabetic test strips” may sound familiar even if you aren’t close to anyone who has diabetes. You’ve probably seen signs posted on utility poles or street lights saying something along the lines of:

“We buy diabetic test strips (sealed and unexpired). Call or text for quote,” with a phone number.

It’s not just on signs. Most of the trade in diabetes test strips takes place online, on sites like Craigslist and Ebay, where many people advertise that they’ll buy unused test strips.

It’s all part of a gray market created by a couple of factors: Some of the strips are extremely expensive over the counter — say, up to $150 for 100 strips — and some people with diabetes can get more strips than they need for free or a low cost through their insurance.

In other words, those who can’t get the strips they need because they don’t have adequate insurance can buy them on the resale market from people who got them free or cheap through their insurance, all via an online middleman.

But a burglary in which only test strips are stolen? That’s a new one around Tucson. Officials at the Tucson Police Department and Pima County Sheriff’s Department told me they hadn’t heard of such a thing. So did the manager of the Marana CVS store where the strips were stolen.

It has happened in a few places around the country, though. In October, a man fell through the roof of a Fry’s supermarket in Glendale. A bolt-cutter, a backpack and $6,000 worth of boxed test strips fell near him. He had apparently sneaked into the pharmacy, taken the test strips and was fleeing when he fell.

The resale of test strips has been going on for many years, Dr. Merri Pendergrass, director of the Adult Diabetes Program at Banner-University Medical Center, told me. But as the number of people with diabetes has exploded over the last decade or so, the market for test strips has also grown.

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“The epidemic is continuing unabated. The increases are as high as they’ve ever been,” she said.

That means more opportunities for shenanigans, which aren’t limited to reselling test strips.

“I spent most of my life in public medicine,” she said. “We used to have patients come in, and you could tell they were lying about how much insulin they were taking, so they could get more and go sell it.”

The use of the strips is extremely varied from patient to patient, she said.

“All patients with Type 1 ought to be testing multiple times a day,” she said. “With Type 2 patients, it really depends on their treatment whether they should be testing or not.”

Pendergrass stressed that testing blood sugar is a diagnostic tool, not a treatment. It can help people who inject insulin decide how much to use, and it can help doctors decide how to treat the patient. But testing alone doesn’t help, of course.

In fact, she has been campaigning for years against the routine demand from some doctors that patients test themselves four times per day. It can depress patients and isn’t necessarily useful, she said.

That common recommendation may be at the root of some of the resale market, however. People are told to test four times a day and receive enough strips to do so but then don’t test that much and end up with lots of leftover strips.

Nowadays, it’s easy to go online and find a place to dump them.

That could be what motivated the trio of burglars at the Marana CVS. Or it might not have been.

Sgt. Chris Warren of the Marana police said detectives aren’t sure if the burglars planned to grab the strips or simply filled their bag with the first thing available behind the counter.

There may have a chance to find out. Officers have arrested Damien Sheets, 31; Melissa Byard, 34; and Levi Russell, 20, and accused them of the burglary.