An illicit open-air prescription drug market in Washington Heights sprang back to life this weekend — days after the NYPD shut it down following a Post expose.
About 10 vendors were spotted Friday setting up tables along St. Nicholas Avenue, near West 180th Street and West 181st Street, brazenly selling prescription painkillers, erectile dysfunction pills, antibiotics and other meds, along with vitamins and over-the-counter products.
The sellers returned three days after at least six police cars swarmed the sprawling street pharmacy, sending pill peddlers running with their stashes.
Six of the sellers were back again Saturday trying to make some fast bucks — and many residents and neighborhood businesses weren’t happy.
“I don’t think it’s right, but what can we do?” said a local pharmacist legitimately operating on the same strip. “Everything is not right in this country in the first place.”
The pharmacist also ripped City Hall for not enforcing the laws, adding that Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the NYPD are “not doing anything” about the illegal peddling.
One woman, who only spoke Spanish, on Saturday was hawking popular prescription medications like Amoxicillin and Viagra, as well as rat poison that local residents claim is from the Dominican Republic and not FDA-approved because it’s too strong.
Juan Castillo, who accompanied his wife to buy an antibiotic from the peddler, conceded he doesn’t feel it’s safe to buy products on the street.
Juan Castillo, who accompanied his wife to buy antibiotics from one peddler, acknowledged the risks but said the high cost of seeing a doctor and filling a prescription without insurance leaves many people with few alternatives.
“She used it before,” he said. “But we don’t feel safe, because we don’t know what’s in the medicine, if it’s past the date. But we don’t have many choices.”
The pill market was featured in a Post exposé last week detailing how nearly two dozen vendors sold an assortment of medications — from painkillers to erectile dysfunction drugs to antibiotics — across 10 square blocks between West 179th to West 183rd streets and St. Nicholas Avenue.
The NYPD did not immediately return a request for comment Saturday.
Read the full article here
