[Slings and Arrows]

Thank you very much! Your stories are always great, but as a brand-new pharmacy school student I’m taking copious notes on this one.

[cpdiii]

I just retired after 25 years as a hospital pharmacist. I have been envolved with more than one investigation into drug diversion out on the wards, we call it the floor.

I have found some common threads amongst the nurses and doctors that divert.

1. At first they are over achievers and work like hell. Everyone likes them because of the tremendous job they do. When the suspicion of drug diversion first occurs no one believes it because they are such hard workers and seemingly totally devoted to their work.

2. As the addiction process accelerates the diversions increase and the quality of the work of the individual begins to go down.

3. Toward the end they start calling in sick.

4. The nurses and doctors that are abusers normally have severe psychological trauma in their youth.

5. None, not even one, will recover until after they have hit rock bottom. Some do recover after this, but most do not. It is sad.