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Thread: Why is it so hard to get some prescription drugs in the needed quantities?

  1. #1
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Why is it so hard to get some prescription drugs in the needed quantities?

    This is disguting.... Pass it on :


    Why is it so hard to get some prescription drugs in the needed quantities?

    The main reason is that prescription drugs are being abused and diverted for recreational use. Law enforcement and regulators have a very good and valid reason for trying to control prescription drugs but their efforts are hurting patients and doctors.

    The following articles will give you a good idea as to why it is so hard for legitimate patient to get the medication they need

    The Village Voice Article: The DEA's War on Pain Doctors
    http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0345/owen.php

    Quote:

    The DEA's War on Pain Doctors
    by Frank Owen
    November 5 - 11, 2003

    Twenty-four years after Darlene broke her back in a swimming pool accident, crippling pain still rules every aspect of her life, from getting up in the morning (which she describes as akin to "climbing the highest mountain") to falling into a fitful sleep at night. After years of botched surgery that left her in even more agony, she knows there is no real cure for what ails her, but thanks to synthetic opioids (which include such regulated substances as Vicodin, Dilaudid, and the devil drug of the moment, OxyContin), she says that she can now lead a halfway normal life.

    Just folding sheets or washing dishes or sitting at the computer are daily miracles for Darlene, who claims she would otherwise be bedridden and suicidal without the chemical crutches that high doses of these powerful opium-like painkillers provide.
    But in some ways worse than the pain, says Darlene (who doesn't want her last name revealed), are the shame and fear that come with it.

    Shame when she goes to have her special triplicate prescription—required for all scheduled drugs—filled at the drugstore and the pharmacist looks at her as if she were some addict abusing the drug to get high.

    Fear that her medications will soon be taken away by the Drug Enforcement Administration's ongoing crackdown on pain doctors.

    "You worry every day that the medicine won't be available for much longer, or your doctor won't be there tomorrow because he's been arrested by the DEA," she claims. All the bad publicity in the press about the abuse of OxyContin by celebrities such as Rush Limbaugh and Courtney Love doesn't help matters.

    But, says Darlene, the media scare stories shouldn't blind people to the fact that these drugs—when taken under medical supervision—have made life livable for hundreds of thousands of chronic pain patients, herself included.

    Some in the medical community call it "a war on pain doctors," others "a government jihad" or "state-sponsored terrorism." However you describe the current campaign, which according to pain-patient advocates began under Janet Reno, but which they say has increased in intensity under John Ashcroft, the DEA's hardball tactics—storming clinics in SWAT-style gear, ransacking offices, and hauling off doctors in handcuffs—have scared physicians nationwide to the extent that legitimate pain sufferers now find it increasingly difficult to get the medicine they need. Doctors' offices today display signs that say "Don't ask for OxyContin" or "No OxyContin prescribed here." And medical schools advise students not to choose pain management as a career because the field is too fraught with potential legal dangers.

    "The war on drugs has turned into a war on doctors and pain patients," says Dr. Ronald Myers, president of the American Pain Institute and a Baptist minister who operates a string of clinics for poor people in the Mississippi Delta. "Such is the climate of fear across the medical community that for every doctor who has his license yanked by the DEA, there are a hundred doctors scared to prescribe proper pain medication for fear of going to prison.

    The DEA is creating a situation where legitimate pain patients now have to go to the streets to get their medication. It's a health care catastrophe in the making." (Myers theorizes that Rush Limbaugh is probably "a neglected pain patient" and another victim of the crackdown: "Why else would someone with all his money have to go to the street to get enough medication, other than if he couldn't find a doctor to give him an adequate supply?")

    Advocates for pain doctors and their patients have had enough. Limbaugh's recent admission that he's addicted to OxyContin and other painkillers has brought the issue of pain management and the law to the fore in the media. But the September arrest of northern Virginia's Dr. William Hurwitz—a respected if controversial pioneer in high-dosage pain treatment—galvanized opposition among physicians and patients to the DEA's harsh approach.

    Hurwitz, a leading specialist in his field, was arrested on federal drug-trafficking charges, accused of prescribing excessive quantities of OxyContin to addicts who he knew were selling the drugs on the street. The 49-count indictment alleges that his prescribing practices led to the death of three patients and bodily harm to two others. Federal prosecutors have depicted Hurwitz, a contentious figure who has had his license suspended three times by medical boards, as no better than "a street-corner crack dealer . . . who dispensed misery and death." After initially being threatened with the death penalty, Hurwitz now faces life in prison.

    But others defend the doctor. "Dr. Hurwitz saved my husband's life," says Siobhan Reynolds, founder of the Pain Relief Network, a New York City-based grassroots organization defending pain doctors and their patients. For over a decade, Reynolds's husband has suffered terrible head pain caused by a connective-tissue disorder. "Other doctors treated my husband like a leper. If it weren't for Dr. Hurwitz, he would have killed himself. Dr. Hurwitz is responsible for every day that my son has a father."

    After the arrest, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons condemned the prosecution at a news conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., saying that doctors who treat pain patients are heroes, not felons. A major protest on the National Mall is being organized by the National Pain Patients Coalition for next April to bring attention to what some experts regard as the No. 1 health issue in America: the under-treatment of chronic pain. And a push is on in various states to get politicians to pass bills guaranteeing patients' right to opioids to alleviate their suffering, if a doctor deems it necessary.

    Many doctors used to think that extreme pain was something that their patients just had to live with. The pain-management movement that has sprung up over the past few years takes a radically different tack, believing that long-term chronic pain can be managed with large amounts of synthetic opium, a treatment that remains controversial both within and outside the medical community.

    The extremely high doses often prescribed—sometimes dozens of pills a day—can seem dangerous and excessive to both laymen and other physicians. A number of doctors insist that these drugs are so powerful that no one should be prescribed them except end-stage cancer patients.

    But pain-management advocates argue that despite the scare stories, drugs such as OxyContin are actually safer than the alternatives and are much more effective.

    The DEA denies there's been an increase in investigations and prosecutions of physicians and refutes the notion that it's engaged in a crackdown on pain doctors in general. The agency insists that it's after only rogue practitioners who overprescribe the medicines and who know—or should know—that their patients are selling the drugs on the black market.

    So far this year, says the DEA, the agency has launched 557 investigations, pursued actions against 441 doctors, and arrested 34, a small fraction of the nearly 1 million physicians licensed to dispense controlled drugs. "DEA statistics," the agency proclaimed on October 30, "show that the vast majority of practitioners registered with the DEA comply with the requirements of the Controlled Substances Act and prescribe controlled substances in a responsible manner." The agency added, "Doctors operating within the bounds of accepted medical practice have nothing to fear from the DEA."

    But some doctors believe that the DEA, having conspicuously failed to stem the tide of illegal drug use in this country, is coming after physicians to ratchet up the agency's prosecution count. (This year alone, two federal reviews lambasted the DEA for its poor performance in fighting illegal drug use, one report giving the agency a zero on a scale of one to 100.)

    "They're unable to take down the real drug lords, so they're coming after doctors using the same tactics," one pain physician tells the Voice. For an agency keen to justify its massive budget, doctors provide an easy target.

    Consider some other recent cases:

    In Roanoke, Virginia, pain specialist Dr. Cecil Knox and two of his associates were accused of operating what federal prosecutors call "a pill mill." Prosecutors alleged that Knox overprescribed OxyContin and methadone to increase the profits of his financially struggling operation and that this contributed to the deaths of eight patients.

    Armed agents in flak jackets raided Knox's office. "They all came in with guns drawn," a clinic employee who was present during the raid reported to the Pain Relief Network. "I thought I was going to die. My husband was helping out that day, and a DEA agent came in and pointed a gun at his head and said, 'Get off the phone now.' " (As this story went to press, news came that the feds failed to win a single conviction in the case; the jury cleared Knox of 30 of the 69 charges, deadlocking on the remaining counts.)

    In another case of DEA strong-arm tactics, more than 20 agents burst into a Dallas pain clinic in June. The agents kicked down doors, ransacked the office of Dr. Daniel Maynard, and handcuffed patients, including an elderly woman with a stroller and an oxygen tank.

    In South Carolina, physician Deborah Bordeaux was convicted earlier this year under a federal drug-kingpin statute and is currently awaiting sentencing. She faces up to 100 years in prison as a major drug dealer for dispensing opiates to patients suffering from chronic pain at a Myrtle Beach clinic, where she had worked for only two months. Dr. Benjamin Moore, who worked at the same clinic, committed suicide in July 2002 rather than testify against his co-workers.

    In Arkansas, Dr. Randeep Mann claims that a patient approached him in 2002 and told him that a federal agent had offered her $250 to say that Mann had prescribed her painkillers in exchange for sex. Mann also charges that another female patient told him that local authorities had offered to forgive her cocaine arrest if she told the same lie in court. "They destroyed my practice and they've managed to run away a lot of my patients, and I can no longer prescribe opioids, but I still have my license," Mann tells the Voice.

    In New Orleans, Dr. David Jarrott, who specializes in pain management, claims that an undercover DEA agent posing as a truck driver tried to entrap him by giving him fake X-rays to secure a supply of Vicodin for a supposed bad back. Jarrott also says the same agent tried to bribe him for amphetamine-based diet pills claiming he needed to stay awake while driving his truck. In early October, the doctor had his license suspended for three years after two of his patients died, one of whom, unbeknownst to Jarrott, was mixing street drugs with his legitimate medication.

    In Arizona, Dr. Jeri Hassman, who runs Tucson's biggest pain practice, was indicted in March after a sting involving two undercover agents and a three-time-convicted felon. She is being threatened with a 28-year prison term because some of her patients abused prescriptions she wrote.



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    It's not just on the federal level that harsh punishment is being meted out. Dr. Robert Weitzel from Utah was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He gave morphine to a 91-year-old patient, who soon after died of heart disease. Weitzel won a retrial (and acquittal) in November 2002 after it was learned that a local prosecutor had concealed exculpatory evidence.

    In Florida in the same year, Dr. James Graves was not so lucky, becoming the first U.S. physician to be convicted of manslaughter related to an OxyContin prescription, after local authorities charged that four of his patients fatally overdosed on OxyContin, some of them after combining it with illegal street drugs. Graves contended that his patients would not have died if they had taken the drugs as directed. He is currently serving 63 years.



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Federal officials claim that nearly 500 people died from overdosing on OxyContin in 2002, but a recent article in The Journal of Analytical Toxicology could find only 12 cases in which OxyContin was the sole cause of death; all the others fell victim to poly-drug abuse—mixing OxyContin with cocaine, alcohol, Valium, or various other substances.

    "Opioids when taken under clinical supervision are not that dangerous," says the American Pain Institute's Myers. "The data tells us that only 3 percent of people who take opioids become addicts. The latest research conclusively shows that the best medicines for the treatment of chronic pain are narcotics. They have less side effects and more benefits than any other type of drug."

    More dangerous, contends Myers, are the everyday drugs that pain sufferers turn to when they can't get narcotics. He talks about something called "suicide by Tylenol": "When chronic pain patients can't get opioids, they go out and use tremendous amounts of drugs like Tylenol and Motrin, which can cause serious liver and kidney damage. Pain patients are dying from kidney and liver disease because of this."

    Many pain patients are also dying by their own hand, according to the Pain Relief Network's Reynolds. "All over America, pain patients are committing suicide because of the DEA's campaign," she claims. "I know of at least 17 recent cases in Arkansas alone. It's really astonishing the amount of human carnage that this campaign has already caused."

    Fumes Myers: "What's going on here is morally reprehensible and medically incomprehensible and it has to stop. Doctors who treat pain patients are not criminals."






    A not so satirical piece of advice to doctors by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc

    Quote:
    Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc

    Quote:
    ADVICE TO DOCTORS RE: PAIN MANAGEMENT

    (or "What the government has taught doctors.")
    Until wrongs are righted and procedural changes are made, physicians have little choice other than to be unusually suspicious of new patients, to require unnecessary and expensive tests, to waste time on excessive documentation, or to turn away suffering patients, even if they think the patients may not find anyone else to treat them.

    If you're thinking about getting into pain management using opioids as appropriate:


    DON'T. Forget what you learned in medical school -- drug agents now set medical standards.
    If you do, first discuss the risks with your family.
    They could lose a mother or father or breadwinner, their home, their car, their college fund;
    There could be years of harassment and legal fees;
    Your colleagues will probably ostracize you and family members at the first sign of trouble.
    If you are already prescribing opioids:


    Beware of new patients. If you accept a new patient, do background checks, demand old records before writing the first Rx, obtain urine screens and get them to sign opioid contracts. It is safer to turn them down, explain why, and give them an action item (call their congressman, for example).

    Do thorough physicals, even if unnecessary and not helpful.

    Make voluminous notes.

    Exercise zero tolerance for patient slip-ups (such as losing a prescription).

    Beware of any patients with a history of drug abuse. Even if now clean and in genuine pain, they might be induced by government zealots to testify against you to save themselves from imprisonment on drug charges.

    Refer patients early and often to addictionologists, orthopedists, pain specialists, psychologists, regardless of expense or your opinion of helpfulness.

    Keep a low profile and beware of saying anything that might offend an official of law enforcement, the licensure board, or the state medical society.

    Never forget that you could be held to a standard of strict liability for any patient misbehavior or for any bad outcomes such as death, no matter the cause and without regard to the culpability of the patient or his associates. Remember, your medical decisions will be reviewed by drug agents who will decide if your actions were medically reasonable.

    Consider phasing out this part of your practice, giving patients plenty of time to find another doctor.

  2. #2
    Disgruntled Postal Worker fourdc's Avatar
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    We ran into this with Ritalin.

    Unfortunately when one of my children was in 2nd grade, she couldn't manage her attention and the grades/learning plummetted. Classic ADHD was the diagnosis after an exhaustive 8hr NeuroPsych eval. We fought the use of chemicals, in the end her pediatrician said "if she were diabetic, you wouldn't refuse her insulin."

    Thank god by 8th grade she developed the self management skills and weaned herself off of the stuff.

    It used to be a royal PITA getting the prescription filled. You could only ever get a 30 day issue, couldn't be refilled but 5 days early. Couldn't use my employers much cheaper mail order pharmacy had to do the local pharmacy counter. All because of DEA rules.

    Hey, but Rush Limbaugh his getting charged for his non prescription Viagra, with all of the Pain med doctors he had on a string, you'd think getting Viagra prescribed wouldn't be a problem.
    ddddc

    "Somehow saying I told you so just doesn't cover it" Will Smith in I, Robot

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    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Well, I used to be on Ritalin when I was younger so I don't remember exactly how it all worked. I do remember when I got older watching people at work sell their Ritalin in the drive through window at Mcdonalds.

    As for Viagra, well, that one is "hard" to *** by The pain Drs probabl wouldn't give it to him because of the 4 hr "painful erection" some people have had.

    I've seen first hand though, what a Dr will tell you, and how they will treat you if you are allergic to AntiInflammitory drugs like Aspirin, Motrin, and Celebrex and you're in pain. They treat you like an addict. I've been called the same thing here because everyone assumes I'm using these recreationally.

    I don't think I've ever even said "I pop them because they feel good" though I have pointed out my messed up back, ankle, knee, shoulder, and neck from time to time. But that usually doesn' get brought up.

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    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
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    They figured out people are junkies and they doctor shop.
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    In the ER where I work at, we usually have about 2 people a day come in and try to get perscriptions filled that they don't need and shouldn't have. It's a good thing ERs can't fill perscriptions without a patient being triaged and then treated by a physician--people are very clever when trying to get what they want.

    Mind you, those 2 daily people are the ones whom register to actually be treated in the ER. Many simply use our free phones and outdated perscription bottles/orders to try and fool WalGreens pharmacists over the phone into writting another order even though they haven't collected on their current (so they have 2 orders == 2x supply).

    Personally, I'm an advocate of keeping meds difficult to access. In uncommon and isolated cases, it can be difficult to get a perscription fill. However, if you are taking your meds as directed (most don't and assume they can diagnos & treat themselves), there arn't any problems. Alot of people think they're pharmysuitcal experts because they have been medicaided for x amount of time. Just because you can pronounce your pain-killer or blood-thinner, does not a doctor make.
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    AO's Resident Redneck The Texan's Avatar
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    I got Vicodin from the oral surgeon when I had my wisdom teeth taken out. he gave me 1 bottle something like 28 pills. Well I figured I wouldnt need them that was until my gum got infected by his crappy surgery! I tried to get more pills for the pain and they refused me flat out because they thought I was addicted to it well I had to go back to this Quack for a 2nd post-operation he finally fixed me. We only had to go to this guy cuz im still on my parents insurance and the company is very selective in saying who we could go too
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  7. #7
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    Originally posted here by Evil Moo
    In the ER where I work at, we usually have about 2 people a day come in and try to get perscriptions filled that they don't need and shouldn't have. It's a good thing ERs can't fill perscriptions without a patient being triaged and then treated by a physician--people are very clever when trying to get what they want.

    Mind you, those 2 daily people are the ones whom register to actually be treated in the ER. Many simply use our free phones and outdated perscription bottles/orders to try and fool WalGreens pharmacists over the phone into writting another order even though they haven't collected on their current (so they have 2 orders == 2x supply).

    Personally, I'm an advocate of keeping meds difficult to access. In uncommon and isolated cases, it can be difficult to get a perscription fill. However, if you are taking your meds as directed (most don't and assume they can diagnos & treat themselves), there arn't any problems. Alot of people think they're pharmysuitcal experts because they have been medicaided for x amount of time. Just because you can pronounce your pain-killer or blood-thinner, does not a doctor make.
    OK, so you work in an ER, and out of everyone, you can only ponit out TWO people who "want to get high".... What about the rest who are suffering because of those *******s?

    I'm Allergic to Aspirin, Motrin, Celebrex, and every other Anti Inflammitory, including the Cortizone shot which I was told "Is local so I shouldn't react to it".... The next day I was in the ER with bright red skin that was hot to touch, and my breathing was off.

    I personally could have died because of your little way fo thinking in that "If it works make it hard as hell to get".

    I'm not a Dr, but I've yet to see one prove a thing to me. I welcome you to point out a better medication than Morphine for someone who's allergic to everything else and can't walk.

    About two years ago I fell on some ice and almost broke my knee after I'd already injured it a few months earlier and I couldn't even walk, I had to have a Wheel chair to get into the ER and after X-Rays and MRIs they found that not only was my knee badly bruised up, I had "water on the knee", and my knee cap had actually moved out of place from the impact.

    Go to Orthopedic, get ANOTHER MRI and one of my ankle and:

    Knee is jacked and needs physical therapy, both Ankles have shattered bone on them from other injuries back in my bike riding days and need surgery to fix them.

    I took 6 Vicodin ES every 8 hours and had my Liver checked to make sure it wasn't affecting me. When it got to be to much for the Vicodin, I had to go back to the ER for a shot of Dilauded (HydroMorphone) and then the ER Dr would give me a 10 tablet bottle of Vicodin ES to take home.

    I got cut off of all of it two months ago. I can barely drive, I can't walk or stand up for mre than 20 minutes, and basically I have to sit in my chair or lay in bed because I can barely move.

    To top that off I asked personally for another X-Ray because I couldn't sleep at night when I rolled over on my stomache, as it would wake me up from excrutiating pain.

    I had the X-ray done and it said not only are my knee and Ankles bad, but apparently in between my rib bones I've pulled a muscle.

    You can clearly see where, it's swelled up right now and it hurts to sit or stand or do much of anything.

    The new meds they said I could use are called Ultracet. The ingrediant is Tramadol, it doesn't work for ****. I haven't even tried refillign it yet, I quit taking everything for like a week or so. It gives ne head aches which appear to be common from everyone I've talked to.

    Again, people like you are the reason I can't even go back to school yet. You saying these things should be locked up like fort knox because TWO people abuse the system.... That's stupid and I hope you lose your lisence for torture or abuse.

    The bastard DEA have been arresting Drs left and right. Drs here UNDER Medicate and allow people to suffer because if they actuially give you enough the DEA comes in guns drawn and arrests the staff. That's bullshit.

    This is America, we are supposed to be the land of the free. Yet Peru has Morphine over the counter.... We used to as well. Before 1906 there were no drug laws.

    Every drug law in America, was formed from Racism. A guy who hated the Chinese said they were using Opium to rape white woman. It wasn't true but he said they were. So a law was made to tax Opium.

    That wasn't enough though, he wasn't happy, they shut him up by outlawing Opium.

    The same guy was also nt a friend to African Americans. He said "Coked up Niggers were attacking white familys"..... They weren't but you know how the South is, so they outlawed Cocaine.

    By the way, I said the N word not because I am a racist, but because I was pointing out what that ******* put on the front page of the paper.

    On one end, I can see drug addiction as a problem. On the other end, I know the ONLY reason it's a problem is because the drugs are usually illegal.

    Want proof? Wake up tommorrow and don't smoke or have ANYCaffeine.

    For the smokers and Coffee lovers here, have a good one, you'll have a head ache and be puking within about 6 hours. Why? Because you're addicted to Caffeine. Which I might point out was under the same scrutiny as Heroin was in the Early 1900s and was almost outlawed.

    Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known to man. Withdrawel starts after just 20 minutes. Yet who here has ever seen someone rob a liquor store just for money to buy smokes? None? Yea, that's because they are legal and therefore cheaper than they would be on the black market.

    I've seen people steal smokes before but I've never seen them out on the streets trying to get a fix after losing their jobs because of a drug test. If I was wrong, Heroin Addicts would be laying out in the street right next to smokers.

    Alcohol is addictive. And in fact, alcohol is said to be just as addictive as Opiates. And we ALLLLLL know what happens when you make alcohol illegal don't we? How many people did Al Capone kill? How much was beer after prohiobition started?

    Alcohol withdrawel symptoms can kill you. And while you're going through them, make sure to watch the Pink Elephants.

    Seems to me the only drug problems are the laws themselves. I waste my tax dollars paying to lock up non violent people because they aren't drunks? And then people with REAL needs suffer because some ******* told them they can't have medication because "They are probably just trying to get high"....

    *Sigh* I wonder when the next pharmacy will be robbed at gun point over Oxy Contin. Here in the states when a pharmacy is robbed they rarely take the money. They take the Opiates. Put it over the counter and that won't be a problem.

    Then again, NO ONE wants to keep drugs illegal like the drug dealers BUYING off our politicians. So for now we suffer until someone has the balls to get up and stand up for our rights.

    I just hope you said most of that as a discussion starer and not because you actually believe they are "bad".

    ---------------------------------



    Texan, welcome to my World Thought I've never heard of a Dr thinking Vicodin was addictive at 28 tabs lol.

  8. #8
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    I'm only an EMT, so my classroom knowledge of internal medicine is minimal by medical standards. Ask me in a few months when I start my indepth pharmysutical courses for nursing, then I'll have more specific answers.

    I have no access to your medical information, but from the sounds of your post, you've been a wreck in several ways for quite some time. Everyone on this site also knows that you've been a long time and vocal proponent of any sort of drug(for the most part).

    So, you have been a wreck for years, or you advocated ultra-liberal drug access before you needed them. In either case, making drug access easily accessible to suit your very small and unusual circumstance would prove unwise and detrimental to society as a whole.

    If you've been a wreck for years, I recommend changing your primary care physician--or getting one if you don't. I notice that mostly the only people whom have chronic illness and/or problematic access to their medications are people without one. If you have a regular doctor and he/she determines you need x-y-z, you'll definately get them for as long as required. If you don't, it's probably because you either don't need them, or don't have a primary care physician.
    \"Greatness only comes at great risk.\" ~ Personal/Generic

  9. #9
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    gore I will post this as it might interest you being from a UK viewpoint.

    Firstly, please consider these two points:

    1. We have a State provided healthcare system funded out of taxation (National Insurance contributions)
    2. The abuse of prescription pharaceuticals is not perceived to be commonplace over here.

    Our problem is MONEY ! There have been several court cases over this as a result. Our doctors, clinics, hospitals and local health authorities all have budgets. That includes the prescription of drugs...........as they cost.

    So, it is possible to be prescribed a certain course of treatment under one health authority who can afford it, and be refused that treatment by another that has budgetary problems

    If you are receiving private medical treatment then this is not a problem.

    Here I am talking about the whole concept of treating the sick, not just giving drugs to people in pain We have too many fat cat administrators busy filing "school reports" for our pathetic excuse for a government.

    That is the problem with "spin doctors"..........................when you start believing them yourself?

    Tex~ I didn't get pain killers..........just a course of broad spectrum antibiotics.......but I did not get an infection

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    the only reason most of those prescription drugs are monitored, contained, and limited is the same reason pots illegal: gov'ts and private distributors can't make NEAR as much money. Not even close. If the regulators of drugs, etc. gave a **** about abuse and people getting addicted, etc. we wouldn't have beer, cigarettes, liquor, whatev.. simply because its socially acceptable in this day and age to blast ad's about booze during football games.

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