Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Dear Addicts, This Is Why You Think I'm Such A Prick.

From The Miami Herald:

After three years of pretrial wrangling, the Florida Supreme Court has given the green light to a lawsuit against two Broward pharmacies that filled legal prescriptions as written by a doctor.

The lawsuit focuses on whether Your Druggist and The Medicine Shoppe should have stopped filling scripts for addictive pain medication for Gail Powers, a waitress who died of a drug overdose at 46 on Oct. 21, 2002.


So addict, do you see the part where it says the prescriptions were legal? Didn't stop the pharmacy from getting sued. There goes your "how dare you come between me and my doctor" argument. Sign a waiver releasing me from liability and I won't give a shit if you take handfuls of Oxycontin until you drown in your own vomit.

In one instance, Herman alleges, a pharmacist gave Powers a 30-day refill on an addictive pain medication only four days after she received another 30-day supply.


And now he has lawyers shining a flashlight up his ass. That's why you can't have an early refill addict.

If you're looking for an alternative, might I suggest alcohol. As long as you don't drive and don't consume in public, it's perfectly legal. The cardboard box you live in by the dumpster in the park will do just fine to keep you on the right side of the law. Legal means no need to embarrass yourself by trying to start a screaming match when you realize you're not going to get your next fix. Certain formulations are very affordable, and while the hold it puts on you pales in comparison to narcotic withdrawal, rest assured you can both become physically addicted to it and use it to commit that slow suicide your subconscious seems to so desire.

Booze. It's a win-win, and it's in aisle three next to the freezers.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hooray for you for talking about this...as a pharmacist myself, I'm sickened by the complacentcy other RPhs display when filling narcotics. Grow some balls and tell a person "No". I do relief work, so I know its easier when you don't have to see these people day after day, but aren't they shocked when the normal pharmacist isn't around and they're told NO by a young woman who they think is the tech. They try, "oh, don't run it through on insurance" trick and I tell them, "it isn't your insurance denying it, it's ME!"

Anonymous said...

This is the exact reason that I don't fill narcs early. I tell the patient that I have to call the doctor to get an ok to fill the RX early. Then I document everywhere who I talked to and what they said. Customers hate it and I hate that I have to be the gatekeeper but I went to school way too long to lose my license so some addict can get a fix. I've heard every excuse in the book. One guy who was taking diazepam for night grinding told me they were stolen out of his car. They were for NIGHT GRINDING....what is he doing....sleeping in his car???

Anonymous said...

I can do better: A young woman who had adderall, zoloft, xanax, and AMBIEN stolen out of her bookbag at school. WHY IS YOUR AMBIEN AT SCHOOL? Are you having a hard time falling asleep in class?

JESUS!

Anonymous said...

OMG! My first Walgreens was right down the road from "Your Druggist"!!

Gatorgal R.Rh.

Anonymous said...

Yes, this after Jeb came to town to turn my state from blue to red!

He also jacked up my license fee a good $100 and decided that as a part of continuing education the state should slap pharmacist's on the hand and require C.E. that focused on law and error containment; how about a higher tech/pharmacist ratio? Oh, I forget, that would cost Big Corpo pharmacies more money!

Gatorgal R.Ph.

TheBenzoNazi said...

4 of the 5 top prescribers of Oxycontin are in Fl. They, and the company that makes it, are making a fortune. Is the pharmacist in the Medicine Shoppe? No effin way. A reasonable study would be to look at whether the prescriptions for the (unfortunately) deceased waitress were significantly different from others the pharmacy had filled. I'm guessing not.
Having lived in Miami for 16 years, and trained at that mecca of medical knowledge (Suntan U), I'm aware of the culture of drug and alcohol abuse that pervades most of the state. I doubt that suing pharmacists will alter that much (but, they are easy, slow-moving targets)

Unknown said...

As a recovering Heroin addict (1 year clean) who started with legitimate Oxycodone prescriptions following a motorcycle accident, I wish someone would have said NO at some point. When you are physically addicted to substances as strong as Heroin and Oxycodone and Dilaudid, seeing clearly sort of goes out the window. I wish someone had saw fit to see clearly for me before things progressed so far.

Unknown said...

You are hilarious! Reading your blog is going to be my new favorite past time.