A lengthy story in the Washington Post (2/8, Kindy, Sun, Crites, 489K) reports that records and interviews indicate that sloppy practices and unsanitary conditions “at three large-scale specialty pharmacies have been tied to deaths and illnesses over the past decade, revealing that the serious safety lapses at a Massachusetts pharmacy linked to last fall's deadly meningitis outbreak were not an isolated occurrence.” According to an analysis by the Post, “state and federal authorities did little to systematically inspect and correct hazards posed by specialty pharmacies, which custom-mix medications for individual patients, hospitals and clinics. In the lightly regulated industry, pharmacies were rarely punished even when their mistakes had lethal consequences