Stealing it from pharmacies, buying it on the street, wrongly prescribed. Does that help?

Artie, I guess it means it's one of the most in-demand to be stolen or obtained by other illegal means (like forged prescriptions). This drug mixed with heroin killed a few people in the county last fall--I guess it gives an extra zing, as it were.

Wasn't he a rad tech at the hospital?? It wasn't like he was just some random person that was walking into the OR. At least thats how the article read.

To show how really desperate this guy was, the article means he got the partially-used vials from SHARPS containers. This means he had to pick through and past hundreds of dirty needles to get his vials. Ugggh. Well, I was glad to hear it wasn't an anesthesiologist or nurse-anesthetist - because that could have resulted in real public danger.

I got that he didn't even belong at that hospital anymore:

"He also allegedly talked his way back into the operating area of LGH more than a year after he was fired — for performance reasons — to continue to steal the vials."

And it continues:

"After being fired from LGH, Gilbert returned to the hospital, dressed in scrubs, in the evening hours. He would enter the secured operating room area by telling employees there that he forgot his ID card, saying, "It was easy to enter."

He then would follow his usual routine, collecting the fentanyl vials and syringes from the medical waste containers, going into the restroom and injecting himself.

Gilbert told investigators he most recently obtained access to LGH in March 2007."