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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Armed robberies and burglaries at pharmacies are on the rise, but a new bill is aiming to put the lid on the problem.

The bill would help local businesses like Ivywild Pharmacy. They've been burglarized three times in the past year.

Criminals broke through their glass door and got away with $5,000 worth of medications in October of 2010.

"Being a pharmacist, it's part of your profession," Rodney Diffendaffer, Ivywild Pharmacy Manager, said. "We deal with it all the time unfortunately."

The pharmacy has been hit two times since last October with crooks going through the roof and back door, but their crimes haven't been successful.

Diffendaffer changed the pharmacy procedure and installed a safe that now holds control substance drugs like Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin.

"Step up your security with police force and make them do their job, that's what we can do," Stanley Taylor, a Colorado Springs resident, said.

Part of the problem with pharmaceutical thefts is the penalties are limited.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet is hoping to change that by co-sponsoring the SAFE DOSES Act ( Strengthening and Focusing Enforcement to Deter Organized Stealing and Enhanced Safety Act) which would expand penalties and create a new section of the code called 'Medical Product Theft.'

The new penalties are the following:

1. If the value of the medical product does not exceed $5,000, the defendant shall be fined and/or imprisoned for not more than three years.

2. If the value of the medical product does exceed $5,000, the defendant shall be fined and/or imprisoned for not more than 20 years.

There's a big demand for prescription drugs on the black market, and pharmacies are a good way to make a quick buck.

"I heard it was like $20 a pill. So if you get a pill of Oxycontin 80, it's going to be $2,000, street value," Diffendaffer said.

But Diffendaffer thinks the new bill would make criminals think twice.

The bill was introduced by Bennet on May 16 along with  U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. It is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee.