Posted on 11/25/2021 8:16:36 AM PST by Lowell1775
Three retail pharmacy chains recklessly distributed vast amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said on Tuesday, in a verdict that could set the tone for US city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis.
Lake and Trumbull counties blamed pharmacies operated by CVS, Walgreens and Walmart for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1bn, their attorney said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Funny how the doctors and hospitals who PRESCRIBED them are being left out of responsibility.
I was prescribed opioids for pain after surgery but after taking just a couple of the pills I discovered that I was rapidly falling in love with their effects and knew I’d have a tough time when my scrip was done. I stopped immediately and took Advil instead and I got along just fine. Addiction is real, and it takes will power and in many cases a willingness to be uncomfortable for a while to weather the effects of some pain.
no one forced those folks to take Oxxy.
Sorry for the folks who were in pain- but the druggies on a new high? NOPE.
Pharmacists are basically highly educated clerks who fill what the doctor orders. It’s not their job to override the physician.
For the same reason if I get a c=doctor to prescribe Ivermectin for COVID, my expectation is that the only response from the pharmacist is “yes sir.”
Do doctors bear some responsibility for the opioid crisis? I believe they do.
I’ve taken prescription opioids. They work wonderfully at controlling pain and I can easily imagine how some people can get hooked on them. Like everything, they have their purpose and can certainly be improperly used. Go after the doctors who prescribe them too easily.
But the pharmacy? C’mon man
I thought the same initially, but the side effects of the meds quickly changed my mind. Now I hardly take any, except for the first few days post surgical procedures unless I am in agony. I usually ask for the least amount I can get because I have less meds to get rid of (invariably there will be left over pills because they kill my gut).
Too many pharmacies are just telling patients NO. Like NO, I will not fill that legal prescription for Ivermectin.
Lake County is the county to the northeast of Cleveland.
Trumbull County is the county to the north of Youngstown.
For personal safety reasons, customers may not have wished to pick up their opioid prescriptions in Youngstown or Cleveland.
The pain doctors may have wished to avoid having their offices in Youngstown or Cleveland for the same reason.
Could we also conclude big pharma has "tricked" docs into prescribing only the stabs for the wuhan flu????
Now further imagine they called when certain ethnicities showed up with repeat scripts.....
A little math here and we get approx. 1 pill every 3.65 days for every resident.
But if a patient is prescribed 2 per day we are talking approx. 15% of the population is using opioids every day.
That seems like a lot to me, considering most usage would be short term.
But the pharmacy has records of whatever other prescriptions you fill there. So they have the ability of spotting doctor shopping. Also the ability to do simple math and realize they’re handing out a LOT of pain pills and alert the authorities there might be funny business going on.
That does not make sense.
Pharmacies may be telling doctors “no”, but there should be no discussion with patients.
If they tell the doctor “no”, then the doctor needs to find another pharmacy for that patient.
Actually pharmacies are supposed to be paying attention to the scripts you’re filling and alert you doctor if there’s a potential problem. Like if the script he wrote has a history of reacting with something else you’re on. Or that this is your 5th active script for oxy and maybe that’s a problem.
Agreed—but the key communication is between the pharmacy and the doctor.
If they have concerns of any kind they should be raised with the doctor and the conversation with the patient should just be “we will talk to your doctor and get back to you”.
Yeah, but it is something they do. My wife’s dealt with that plenty (she had a really annoying pharmacy for a while, that wanted to discuss everything). And they do have the authority to say no we’re not filling that.
Imho that is very unprofessional behavior for a pharmacy.
Issues should be settled up front between the pharmacy and the doctor.
If the pharmacy does not want to fill a prescription they should just refuse to do so—with the doctor.
The patient/customer experience should be a positive one.
From what I'm hearing a lot of pharmacies are refusing to honor prescriptions for Ivermectin and HCQ for covid patients...
—”Are pharmacies supposed to call doctors and tell them they refuse to honor prescriptions?”
And of course, they can refuse to issue morning-after abortion pills. Or maybe not.
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