I just need to vent a bit...lol..all those RX sub abuse ads

[InsaneCdn]

Janet... that's one of the reasons our family uses ONE pharmacy only. They know us. We have a LONG history of needing controlled substances - rx or otc. And a LONG history of no issues. Stable medical team. Yada yada yada. And... we have no issues getting stuff. But even here - where the "system" isn't as tight as where you are - they are closing down "easy" access. If you are known and have a good history, they don't give you hassle... and otherwise, they have to get picky.

And no, they don't need gallons of the stuff to make meth.

[susiestar]

I don't object to the sudafed being behind the counter to be signed for b/c it has made a HUGE difference in the meth problem in my state. Here it is all controlled by a database controlled by the state and you have a quota per month and after that it tells the pharmacist that you cannot buy it.

Sadly, being able to only get smaller amts of sudafed means that the meth labs are smaller. They don't make as much, but they can be ANYWHERE. I posted a few months ago about the trunk labs - people are making meth in soda bottles - 20 oz to 2 liter size - and driving around with them in their trunk as it processes, I guess to mix it up? Then they take what they can use and leave the rest out in the street or a parking lot for the rest of us to be poisoned by. They are finding people who are burned or made very sick by this residue, which looks like dirty or muddy water in the bottle.

People are making these small batches of meth pretty much everywhere, including in Walmart bathrooms.

BTW, do people use the walmart fitting rooms to sell drugs in your towns? Apparently it is a problem here - they do the deals in the fitting rooms. I found out when I found several pills on the floor of the fitting room awhile back. I had a manager come and get them b/c you just cannot have pills lying around for kids to get into, and the manager said it is becoming quite a problem!

[Dammit Janet]

Well it ticked me off because I was getting the sudafed for me and the allergy meds for Tony.

[witzend]

Can you explain what you mean?

Nancy

They keep cold medicine - particularly Sudafed and it's generics - behind the counter because they are a primary ingredient in Meth making. In Oregon they were stolen off the shelf as quickly as they could put them out.

[Nancy]

I guess I disagree with your comment that people don't get high or addicted because they do, I think it's a combination of that and the meth situation.

Nancy

[Dammit Janet]

Nancy,, i suppose you are directing that comment at me. I have not looked back to see what I said. It may have been susie though but also Marg could weigh in here. The research clearly shows that chronic pain patients do not any sort of high or addiction to long term use of pain medication. There is a major difference between addiction and dependence on something. We would not be having this conversation about thyroid meds, insulin, O2, blood pressure meds or any other medications that doctors have to adjust from time to time as a patients body changes its need for those certain medications. The most obvious is thyroid and insulin. Most people dont take the same dose of insulin every day. It depends on what their readings are. That is much the same thing for pain patients.

I dont think I have ever gotten a high from my pain meds. I have felt bad from one or two and immediately reported back that I thought it was the wrong medication for me and asked for something lower for me. I refuse to take anything that will make me feel not myself. I am much more at risk of that from my psych meds though. The combo I took for the H Pylori was absolutely horrible and made me feel like I was in some sort of a fog and they were antibiotics.

[InsaneCdn]

Like most things, how OTC drugs like allergy stuff affects one person is very different from how it affects another. Those who really need it and for whom it actually works as intended, probably don't get the "buzz" effect. On the other hand, those who abuse these meds aren't exactly taking "according to directions" either, which is part of what produces the "buzz". Pain meds are the same way.

[Mattsmom277]

This topic in general is such a relevant one in this age of prescription drug abuse. We just didn't have this level of med abuse back in the day. My town has a crisis going on. Crime has skyrocketed. As have overdoses that more frequently have led to death. It's frightening in our community here. And it's getting worse. Not better. It is a major discussion topic among those living here since it has gotten so out of hand.

Having said that, I'm sick to death of having to suffer day in and day out simply because even intelligent and well educated people here often hear "prescription pain relief" and they jump to "addiction" theory and/or assumptions. Also far too few people here (doctors included!), are failing to differentiate between addiction in drug seekers vs dependent for pain relief and quality of life. So much research shows the importance of pain control on quality of life and disability levels. However more and more barriers are put into place, leading to destruction of lives of chronic sufferers, due to lack of education on the subject. And biased thinking. And unfounded fears.

I get entirely why regulations have tightened. Saving lives of addicts is something we need more access to support with. However!!!!!! Just try having chronic and debilitating pain that destroys your day to day living, functionality, ability to hold a job and be self supporting, ability to parent with the energy and physicality that requires, even marriages where a partner cannot actively participate in normal functions of living and relationships. The current trend in prescribing, here anyhow, assumes everyone drug seeks for getting high purposes. Heck just try to attend an ER when you are in such pain you contemplate ending your own life. Is it med seeking? Darn tooting is! But not med seeking for high. Med seeking for need and for sanity is a different kettle of fish. Yet here, the addiction issues are outweighing common sense and leaving thousands of lives in ruins.

I no longer have remissions and flares of MS. I hurt every single day. In so many areas of the body that it's pointless to explain "where it hurts". Suffice to say my eyeballs tend to go pain free. Beyond that? Name the location and I can describe how pain in that region affects me.

It is impossible to obtain a long term strategy for medical relief on a day to say basis in order that I can lead a normal life. Heck just a improved life is something i would settle for. Although I shouldn't have to settle. I deserve functionality and relief. Yet I haven't bothered with doctors for several years. It seems perfectly logical to docs these days to take chronic illness patients and happily prescribe symptom based meds. At one point in had nine different meds for individual symptoms. They totaled over forty pills per day. Every day. And made me so ill. While being completely ineffective. Thereby, completely useless. Yet the same doctors putting me on strong meds in awful combinations for symptom management, get all sketched out about addressing properly the desperate need for pain control in order to function at life. I eventually tossed the med cocktails and actually am improved in that I don't have the many many many side effects any longer. Meanwhile, I miss normal living. I miss pain at a 7 or 8 on a pain of 1-10 scale. Sad right? I'm off the chart. Every single minute of every singe day.

Doctors should darn well know as DO better than lumping patients together. One persons med seeking can be a tragic addiction. Another persons med seeking can be life preserving and life altering.

Far too many people such as myself are living a non life because of inability for others to see both sides of this serious issue. I want to see proper handling of addicts because I'm tired of the sad news headlines. I also want to see medical minds stop cow towing to public misunderstanding for the millions of chronic pain suffers.

A bit of irony: I get scolded for daily use of acetaminophen (by oharmacist) because even using at doses not exceeding recommendations, it isn't good for a body daily for years. So I'm scolded, embarassed and lectured for daily use of stupid Tylenol. Yet desperately need narcotic type pain relief and cannot access it. I get treated just as much like a problem with getting OTC Tylenol as addicts scoring heavy narcotics prescriptions. If I had proper pain relief, I'd just shrug off those too ignorant to know the science behind good pain control. That would be a luxury to me believe it or not.

I guess I'm just saying drug addicts latched on to these meds as drugs of choice. It had nothing to do however with properly prescribed pain control for those who require it. But we have stopped using common sense and ability to discern between two completely separate distinct issues. Funny the addicts and doc shop and get scripts. But be a patient with a pain inducing disease who sees their own doctor only and doesn't doctor shop? One ends up having to suffer. And better suffer silently. Because to express this upset at neglect of a serious medical need? Automatic flagging on files that you "drug seek". So get Ina. Car wreck? No meds for that patient. Because they are treated like seeking addicts.

Off my soap box. This one hits too close to home.

[Nancy]

And the only reason that some of our cold medicines are like that is because they are a common ingredient in Meth. It's not because they're some great high on their own and people get addicted to them.

Janet I was not directing my comments to you. I was directing them at this quote.

Mattsmom I agree with you 100%.

Nancy

[InsaneCdn]

Rx drug abuse is just one more way for addicts to rob us ordinary people, I guess. They steal our money and our stuff to buy drugs, and then mess up the system so badly trying to prevent them from having access that the rest of us can't get what we actually need.

Not sure though how much is the addict-effect and how much is a messed-up medical system... probably both.