In a few hours, I will begin a two-hour (one-way) drive to the pharmacy to pick up a 30-day supply of generic Adderall.
It’s not for a lack of any closer pharmacies, and it’s not because of the stimulant shortage. I have to drive this far because of new DEA rules.
I used to get Adderall from my local Buy n Large pharmacy without a problem, until a few weeks ago. I asked the head pharmacist what had changed, and he explained everything to me while expressing extreme sympathy for my situation. Apparently, the DEA recently sued Buy n Large for $3 billion for “not doing enough to keep drugs from flowing into communities”, and part of the settlement agreement included a new restriction: that controlled substances can only be dispensed if the prescribing physician is local (defined as within 50 miles). He recommended I try other pharmacies in town, but all others I called had taken up a similar policy.
I live in a rural area which, like most rural areas in America, is underserved by healthcare specialists including psychiatrists. When I moved here, I had to drive two and a half hours to the nearest megacity in order to be seen by a psychiatrist in a timely manner (<90 days). I do most follow-up appointments by webcam so it wasn’t too much of a problem… until now.
I like to create original media. Nearly every piece of worthwhile art I’ve ever created was made possible by my medication. The periods I go without it are the dark ages of my life. That’s why I’m willing to make the drive today.
It pisses me off that I have to waste so much time, energy, and gasoline because a cop in a boardroom somewhere decided that too many people were getting Adderall and the best way to combat this “problem” would be to make it more of a pain in the ass for people to get.
I’m not usually one to defend large corporations but I don’t see how the opioid epidemic was the fault of the pharmacies (unless they were filling prescriptions for “Mickey Mouse”). Is it their job to invalidate diagnoses? The pharmacist I talked to was mad that doctors haven’t been scrutinized to the same degree. It’s probably a healthcare sector power hierarchy thing. We should take Buy n Large’s money but for different reasons.
Nope. It’s their job to verify medications match the diagnoses given and don’t conflict with other medications or diagnoses of the patient. But if the doctor says a patient has ADHD, the pharmacist is expected to believe them.
Right now many pharmacies are hopelessly understaffed with bad pay and working conditions. Even if most pharmacists wanted to live up to their responsibilities as a doctor responsible for their patients health and wellbeing they’re being worked to the bone and treated horribly by the corporations.
Saw a help wanted part at the grocery pharmacy with pay range of 19-21/hr. Who the fuck would go to school to be a pharmacist only to come get that pay?
It’s disgusting. They’re draining the blood from all these vital social institutions, cannibalizing society until it collapses.
former corporate retail pharmacist here. that posting was likely for a technician role. at least I hope so. corporate retail pharmacy is a fucking dumpster fire right now but I don’t think it’s reached quite that level yet.
replied to the wrong comment! this was meant for the one above.
corporate retail pharmacy workers have been treated like dog shit the past decade plus. race to the bottom among the big players, chronic intentional understaffing and impossible metrics cooked up by MBAs who have absolutely no concept of caring for patients beyond seeing that as something which must be discouraged at every turn so more money can be extracted from the system.
fortunately the tides may be turning, see recent CVS walkouts and Kaiser strike as an example of corporate pharmacy workers tired and ready to fuck shit up. I got out of that game a long time ago but I hope they utterly wreck shop.
That’s what I thought!
If you have chronic pain due to some kind of internal injury are they supposed to require you to submit xrays and other scans to them to verify? How the fuck does that even work?
I got prescribed Testosterone because my genetics are fucked. I’m cisgendered. I’m just a low T male because my dad was exposed to chemicals from the US government that gave me defects. But some transphobe fuckwad pharmacist wanted to be petty and refuse to sell me syringes because they are taking a stand. YOU JUST SOLD ME A GODDAMN INTRAMUSCULAR MEDICATION HOW THE FUCK DO IT GET IT IN THERE OSMOSIS? I had to drive to another pharmacy to get my meds.
My read is that the opioid crisis was a large scale money-making conspiracy between pharma, the FDA, and many doctors. “We believed the magic heroin wasn’t addictive!” is such bullshit. Apparently there was a lot of arm-twisting of doctors by pharma funded lobbying and propaganda groups working in league with elements of the FDA and some doctor professional organizations. Like they pushed the idea that any pain was too much pain and the doctor was doing crimes if they didn’t give you enough oxy to anesthetize a horse.
Oh yes, the “Pain is the Fifth Vital Sign” campaign.
Yeah. Just messed up. I’ve apparently got a fairly high pain tolerance by some metrics so I’ve never taken a lot of pain meds, so when I heard about that, that no pain at all was the goal, I was taken aback.
America delenda est.