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Cracky McCrackhead Addict

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A pharmacy without crackheads would be like a Big-Mac without the secret sauce.  The two go hand-in-hand like fat-chicks and spandex.

Have you ever sit to think about the hard work and dedication to be a tried and true crackhead?  The kind of crackhead that makes pharmacists everywhere sigh and cringe as they hear their name on the phone, or see them walk into the front door?

I believe its time for another patient handout!

Tips and tricks on becoming a successful “crackhead”

By: The Angry Pharmacist, RPh

https://theangrypharmacist.com

Becoming a successful “crackhead” and inflicting sadist pain upon your pharmacist is not an easy task.  However with these short yet useful tips you shall have your pharmacist begging you to never return.

  1. To be a successful crackhead, you must reduce your brain-cell count to above invalid, but way less than average.  Blunt instruments, large amounts of alcohol, illegal drugs, huffing paint, drowning, and other similar brain-reducing acts will aid you in your journey.  The goal of this exercise is to develop the skill (either learned or by trauma) of not grasping simple concepts like numbers.  This important skill will aid you in later tips.
  2. Think of a month as not 30 days, but a random number of days between 10 and 25.  Most medications will have warnings that say that it must last one month.  However if YOUR month is only 13 days, it means that obviously you can take more than what is prescribed on the bottle.  This is YOUR medication after all, so it gets to play by YOUR rules and thereby YOUR month.
  3. Reading directions is for chumps and nerds.  You take your medication the way that YOUR body tells you.  YOUR body makes the rules that YOUR drugs have to follow.  If your body needs 10 Soma a day, than so be it!
  4. Who’s in the boss? Not Tony Danza, YOU are the boss!  Who’s in charge? Charles is NOT in charge, YOU are in charge!
  5. Don’t use proper terminology or pronunciation when referring to your drugs.  Everyone says “Soma” or “Vicodin”, but having you refer to your medication as “SOMAS”, “VICO-DANS”, “DAN SOMAS”, or “WATSONS 389” makes you really stand out in the pharmacists eyes.  Nothing says “I know my pain pills” than reciting the NDC number on that bottle of Watson vicodin.
  6. Develop some good stories.  “My medication was lost or stolen” is so 1990’s.  You need to think of some good stories to feed to your doctor and pharmacist so they will feel sad for you.  It helps if you learn to sob on command, or come into the pharmacy loaded so they can really see how much pain you are truly in.
  7. Have a black cloud of bad luck encompass you always.  Be the unluckiest person on the planet.  Have anything and everything happen to your pain-pills (but not your high blood pressure pills!).  Martians came and a meteor hit your vicodin bottle!  Go for the gusto!  If you’re loaded while you mumble this story it makes it more realistic (at least to you) thereby making you tell it better!  Remember, YOUR story plays by YOUR rules, and YOUR pain-pills make YOUR rules!
  8. Only chumps get all 90 Soma at one time.  Split that Rx up!  Even though you have $5 in your pocket, it should get you at least 3 of the 90 soma you are allowed every month.  Dont worry about such trivial things such as money management, saving for the whole 90, or the added work your pharmacist goes through.  Remember, YOUR money plays by YOUR rules and YOUR shitty 4 tablet partial fills make YOUR rules!
  9. Transfer early, transfer often!  Nothing says confusion than getting a partial fill on your pain pills and having 5 fills of 10 tablets splattered across 7 independants and 3 chains!
  10. PAY CASH!  Only chumps use insurance for their pain-pills!
  11. Money management? Throw all that shit out the window.  You need to piss away your welfare check like its burning a hole in your pocket.  In fact, you have to be so bad that you have to prepay for your soma that’s due TOMORROW or you’ll spend that $30 on something else.
  12. Avoid chains!  Their computers are all linked up via magic so they know how much other stores have given you!  Go for the mom-and-pop shops!
  13. Become an active part in your treatment, call the pharmacy every 10 mins to see if the doctor OK’d the early refills.  Nothing says “I take my life seriously” than being on top of your medication refill requests.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember calling 10 mins ago because you were loaded, YOU ARE TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR TREAT-.. what was I saying again? Oh, TREATMENT!
  14. Fax machines can break, make sure you call the doctors every 10 mins to see if they received your early fill request from the pharmacy.  Doctors LOVE patients who are active in their treatment.  Remember, YOUR name is on your early-refill call-tag so it plays by YOUR rules!
  15. Catch fibromyalgia!  That shit is the golden ticket to Watson-Wonka’s Narcotic Factory!  If you catch fibromyalgia you can get ANYTHING!  Plus pharmacists and other health care people LOVE IT when you talk about how bad your fibromyalgia is.
  16. Take up acting!  Don’t limit yourself to the “OH JESUS IM IN SO MUCH PAIN” once you hit the pharmacy doors, but also practice it as you walk through the parking lot.  Nothing says that you’re in “OH SWEET JESUS” pain like stumbling and shuffling about in the parking lot AND in the pharmacy.  If you cannot sustain the act for long enough, make sure the sneaky pharmacy doesn’t have cameras outside to record you acting normal only to be hit by the “OH JESUS PAIN” stick once you cross into the store.
  17. Wait until the very last second before bringing in your prescription to your pharmacy.  If the pharmacy closes in less than 2 min, you obviously didn’t wait long enough.  Everyone knows that at the end of the day, when doctors and staff have left, pharmacists cant check on those 5 refills that you circled on that Rx from the ER!  Have a DATE to be LATE!
  18. Invest in a good variety of pens, or look to see what kind your doctor uses.  You can never be too careful when forging that “ES” after the vicodin or the extra “0” after the quanity of “10”.
  19. Be vocal!  The pharmacists obviously have to do what YOU want them to do, and like cheap labor the louder you yell the faster they work!

Following these simple guidelines will secure your spot in the drugbuyers.community!

Comments #

Comment by Favorite excuse on 2009-06-07 14:59:01 -0700 #

Been there daily TAP.

One of my all time favorite excuses was “I’m an over the road truck driver, and my Vikes were in my truck and I was on the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. The problem being, of course, is that it was filled 2 days after the collapse.

Comment by Steve on 2009-06-07 17:40:25 -0700 #

Boy…..you hit that right smack on the nose!!!

Comment by UrbanRxTech on 2009-06-07 18:58:57 -0700 #

Angry Pharmacist, you’re my hero!

Comment by Dana on 2009-06-07 23:06:14 -0700 #

I have always wanted to be a crackhead. Now that I am a grown-up, I can use your rules to make sure that my pharmacist loves me as much as you love your crackheads! Thanks!

Comment by Gary on 2009-06-08 03:04:08 -0700 #

Don’t forget the new crackheads in town. Sometimes they drop by asking about “compassionate” doctors in the area. Translation = “Are there pill factories in town that will give me what I want?” Also the so called Chronic Pain crowd. They wear the tag with pride and get pissed when tech’s won’t document every single surgery and ……”Oh by the way, I can’t take generic Lortab I need the name brand.”

Comment by Dr. Grumpy on 2009-06-08 05:19:28 -0700 #

Awesome post, TAP. All of us get these gems, regardless of what side of the trench we’re on.

Comment by Jessica on 2009-06-08 11:26:57 -0700 #

My favorite phone call of all time was a guy who called and needed a pill identified. He said that his dog swallowed it and he needed to make sure it wasn’t his “lur-sets” because if it were he was going to need to have “them-suckers” filled early. I refused to identify it and told him that he would need to call poison control. Upon telling him this I heard his idiot friend say in the background “Don’t call poison control, those motherfuckers catch you every time!”. I still have yet to figure out what the hell that meant. Keep in mind that I never asked how he retrieved this tablet or called him out on the fact that the dog only swallowed one of 120 tablets.

Comment by RXJOE on 2009-06-08 11:41:06 -0700 #

Dude everyone knows that Big Macs come with SPECIAL SAUCE, not SECRET SAUCE!!! Check your sources!! Nice instruction sheet, BTW

Comment by pharmd student on 2009-06-08 12:10:23 -0700 #

My friend worked at a pharmacy that was held up 4 times last year. I believe two of the times they were demanding some meds…

Comment by Casual observer on 2009-06-08 15:41:56 -0700 #

I found this article while browising around today. You see, I came across your site, read some of your posts, and wondered to myself, “Does my Pharmacist really feel this way about everyone?”, which then made me question, “Are Pharmacists and the like actually human and become addicted, or dependent on the goodies they keep so preciously tucked away behind their big tall counter that they look down on us mere mortals from”? I wondered if they can or will grab that bottle of Dilaudid or Roxycodone, maybe a Xanax or the precious Vicodin and Soma combo they so often refer to, and not be able to put the damn thing down. Well, they do. And, not just this guys, folks. Lots of our ‘Most Trusted’ professionals have or will. Might that be the reason they look on at the customer who comes in just a little too early with contempt, because they see theirselves shining back in regular Joe’s eyes? Maybe, maybe not. They could just be bogarting the goods…

Jared Combs, PharmD

I was too smart to be a drug addict. I had, after all, graduated from the nation’s third-ranked pharmacy school with a degree that enabled me to practice in a highly trusted profession. I knew what receptors the drugs worked on and what responses they would elicit. I even knew the major side effects of each class of my favorite drugs. Me, a drug addict? No way. I was just taking part in a fringe benefit that all pharmacists enjoy: the benefit of self-medicating. It’s a stressful job. Is that so wrong? We all do that, right?

According to statistics, many of us do take part in self-medicating. A study by McAuliffe et al reported that 46 percent of pharmacists use prescription drugs without a prescription. Sixty-two percent of pharmacy students surveyed had used a prescription drug with no prescription. Also, 20 percent of pharmacists reported they had used a prescription drug without a prescription at least five times or more in their lives. Perhaps I had a point there.

Almost immediately after receiving my license to practice pharmacy in 1996, I began using controlled substances to enhance my mood. Within a very short time, I was their slave. After a tumultuous battle with drugs and alcohol, two arrests, and losing four precious years of my life, I got clean and sober in October of 2000. Once I had been clean and sober for awhile, my mother admitted, “I just never understood how somebody so smart could do something so … well … not smart. Didn’t you know that those things could get you addicted? Why would you take that chance?” Well, Mom, it just ain’t that simple.

I wish I could explain to her and to everyone else how this came to happen to me. I would love to be able to come up with a mathematical formula that could warn aspiring pharmacists who may be at risk. Then I could suggest they study computers, engineering, or law instead of pharmacy, which offers addicts a bit too much access to the substances they crave.

Perhaps I had a genetic predisposition. Otherwise, predicting my fate would have been a crapshoot. I made good grades in school. I had many friends and was popular. I had wonderful parents who neither drank nor drugged. So somebody tell my mother why she had to watch me circle the drain of addiction for several years.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 11 percent to 15 percent of pharmacists are confronted with alcohol/dependency problems at some time in their careers. Judging by the numbers of pharmacists I know in recovery, I’d say that number is a bit low. Perhaps the stressful work environment, coupled with the access to anxiolytics and other euphoria-producing substances, makes up for that small percentage of difference between us pharmacists and regular old Earth people.

Whatever the reasons and/or contributing factors, pharmacists are not immune to the disease of addiction, no matter how educated we are. I am thankful the governing bodies of our profession, such as the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy, have embraced the idea of rehabilitation of pharmacists who have fallen prey to this chronic and potentially fatal disease. I applaud those, like Brian Fingerson of the Kentucky Pharmacists Recovery Network (PRN), who took part in pioneering the way to this new mindset. For 14 years he volunteered (that’s right, serving for zero pay) as chairman of what was then called the Impaired Pharmacists Committee.

I am thankful to be able to practice my profession today. Although I still can’t explain to my mother why or how my addiction happened, I am thankful to be a part of the solution today for those pharmacists who find themselves up against this cunning and baffling disease.

JARED COMBS, PharmD, practices pharmacy at University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington. Last year, he published a memoir, Incomprehensible Demoralization: An Addict Pharmacist’s Journey to Recovery.

Comment by working at a mom and pop store on 2009-06-08 16:42:53 -0700 #

“Go for the mom-and-pop shops!”

Don’t give them ideas!

Hey, crackheads, you know where the really lenient store to get vico-dans is located? It’s on an island in the middle of that lake near where you live, but the only way to get there is to swim. Go, crackhead, swim to paradise! Flap your jittery arms to free xanax island.

Comment by Pharmintern2010 on 2009-06-08 20:44:30 -0700 #

I’d almost be in favor of giving the crackheads all the vicodin they want, let them get liver failure from popping a whole bottle’s worth. But then they would be calling the ambulance to go to the ED and get treated for the APAP toxicity. Too bad we can just let natural selection take care of them.

I have to say in NYS I never have to deal with transfers of controls, it pisses the crackheads new to the state because we can’t keep transfering between all these different pharmacies.

You also need to add under #18 “Don’t use crayon either when altering the prescription or writing your own, the pharmacist will know!” I had someone try and pass that off before closing a couple of months ago, of course she was really spaced out at the time so I don’t think she knew what planet or time period she was in.

Comment by Dr John on 2009-06-09 05:10:11 -0700 #

Absoluteley fucking awesome, TAP!

Comment by Gary on 2009-06-09 14:40:25 -0700 #

Post over at Drugbuyers.com from Mr. Cracky:

Pain Meds in Milwaukee
jdru123
Stranger

Registered: 06/08/09
Posts: 1 Hello, I am new to the site and need to find a way to get vicodin, and as quickly as possible, can anyone help me?

Laughed my ass off when I saw that post.

Comment by Flora on 2009-06-09 18:41:07 -0700 #

This website is therapy for me….this is how I get through one stressful day to another…..

Comment by FillMaster-5000 on 2009-06-10 02:01:27 -0700 #

Oh, cash customers are so Shady!
Why is it that no 80 year old women with lung cancer, and SO many 20-something year old men with absolutely nothing wrong with them NEED 120 tabs of Oxycontin 80mg a month to manage their “pain.”
The prescription is clearly a fake, but I can’t prove it. When I call the doctor’s office, the girl on the “inside” happily verifies it. I tell the patient it will cost about 1500 dollars and he gladly whips out a wad of $100 bills.
RED FLAG WARNING
NO one, almost no one, would be willing to pay 1500 bucks a month for personal pain management. You’d go with something cheaper like generic Percocet, methadone or MS-Contin (if Vikes and Norco can’t cut it).
The only reason I can think of that anyone would pay that much for Oxycontin is if they could sell it to High School kids for about 20-50 dollars a pop (boy, that sure takes the edge off finals week). That way you stand to make around a thousand dollars profit.
Hey, beats working for a living!

Comment by FillMaster-5000 on 2009-06-10 02:16:40 -0700 #

Of course… 1500 dollars is $200-300 more than what it actually costs the pharmacist.
Hey, beats working for a living! 😉

Comment by chris on 2009-06-10 05:56:35 -0700 #

It is sad when you here about pharmacists getting addicted. I’d like to see a breakdown of the pharmacists using prescription only meds as to the sort of thing they use. I am willing to bet most of that is not addiction related, silly (although still illegal) things like taking a stronger antihistamine that day because the OTC isnt quite cutting it for your hayfever, or stuff that is prescription only only because of licensing rules rather than the drug. Like simvastatin 10mg is available OTC but very expensive as there is only one brand, but generic POM simvastatin 10mg is dirt cheap.

The point is made well though that no-one is immune to addiciton, I have heard of doctors, pharmacists and plenty of other repected, trusted individuals getting addicted, in the same way any person can be a serial killer, Thinking Dr. Harold Shipman. We poke fun, not at their addiction, which in many cases is tragic and has ruined theirs and their loved ones lives. We laugh at the ones that know what they’re doing, but yet still use the same generic “i lost my medication on the bus/train/boat/space shuttle” sort of lines, thinking we havent heard it all before.

Comment by Bizzarefall on 2009-06-10 13:43:23 -0700 #

This is hilarious, I have to say that reading this stuff has prompted me to ask my doc for non-narcotic pain relief – just the thought of being like this is enough to go through the inevitable withdrawal and definite pain that will follow.
I always wondered why the Pharm’s were such dicks, now I know – just like IT – you deal with idiots all day! I get the same, lame ass excuses when someone turns in the mangled laptop but have no idea why it wont start up..

Comment by Pharmer on 2009-06-10 14:19:25 -0700 #

You forgot some key points:
1-No Genetics (you’re allergic to these). No Negerics (you’re allergic to these too) Only get the “real ones” (the other ones don’t work for you, you’re bodies different).
2-Make sure you’re always clear that you don’t have insurance. Say it a minimum of three times. The more you say it, the less likely the pharmacist is to accidently run it through the State plan you used last month at the pharmacy on the other side of town.
3-When entering a CVS, always talk about how Walgreens sucks. When enetering Walgreens, always talk about how CVS sucks. Anywhere else, just say CVS and Walgreens suck. This always gets you on the good side of the pharmacist (they are impervious to seeing through this).
Also, call them “Doc.” Even if they’re a Pharm D and have earned that title, they will still be so glorified by this that they will do whatever you want.
3-Never get the antibiotic, you just need the pain pill filled!!!! This goes with antiinflamatories too!! You don’t need them, your stomach can’t handle them. And your back pain only responds to methadone!
4-If you’re ever in Wisconsin, just tell the pharmacist you’re going “up north.” There are NO pharmacies “up north”, so the pharmacist will be forced to give you whatever you want no matter how early. If they ask you to show you’re bottle of hydrocodone so that they can verify you haven’t taken it all, this is the only time you will need to have some penicillin. Put these in the hydrocodone bottle and the pharmacist will never figure out the difference.
5-Tussionex….all the time…..

Comment by TeknoTX on 2009-06-10 15:05:50 -0700 #

We nearly fall out when someone comes in from the dentist and says “I don’t really need those Vicodin, just fill the antibiotic.” It’s such an odd occurrence, I usually feel led to let our pharmacists know.

My personal “favorite” is John Dope (name changed to protect my job) who gets refills every ten days. On day eight he starts calling and calls every four hours for two solid days until his “somers” and “hydercodones” are ready.

Comment by ame i. on 2009-06-10 19:35:48 -0700 #

I scratched my eye removing a contact lens that I stupidly wore for a week. Even the light coming from the t.v. hurt. I was out of town and visited a walk-in clinic. The very nice, very ancient doc gave me eyedrops and an rx for super-powered Lortab. The drops didn’t really help. The Super Lortabs improved my mood (heh) & made me say/do things that made my husband laugh like a loon but my eye still hurt.
I’ve had the ole eye scratches before & remembered the name of the drops my doc had prescribed. The walk-in clinic doc would not prescribe them, but suggested that I double up on the Lortabs. To make a long story longer, I did the double-dose thing once. My eye still hurt like hell but I was so fucking fucked up that I wasn’t able to speak clearly enough to say “Damn my eye still hurts!”. It’s kinda funny now.

Comment by Gurn on 2009-06-11 11:53:58 -0700 #

Having two pharmacists in my family,(Mom and Dad),and having worked in a pharmacy growing up, I have come to several theories about the profession.

I. I have never heard of a pharmacist losing a license because they were duped by a customer. In each instance the pharmacist was guilty of diversion.

II.In the deep south, a lot of the stress pharmacists incur is self inflicted, mainly because they bring their religious beliefs to work with them. Example: I wont fill Keith Richards script for Ambien but take Mr. Limbaugh a Snapple on the house, his Oxycontins will be ready shortly.

III.Mexican pharmacies have lower rates of burglary and forgery for some reason.

IV. If you feel uncomfortable about filling a script, just tell the customer that you do not have the meds in stock. Non confrontational.

V. Anna Nichole Smith had no trouble getting her meds. She and She Alone is responsible for her death, NOT THE MD OR THE RPH.

Comment by Pierre Lourens on 2009-06-11 18:14:16 -0700 #

On a slightly related note, we had a drive-thru customer ask today, “Do you have short-tipped insulin syringes, 100CC?”

…I wanted to go grab a turkey baster. They proceeded to pay for it (all $3.96) in quarters and nickels. Gah!

Comment by pharmlane on 2009-06-11 21:25:25 -0700 #

I am beginning to use your blogs as therapy at work. I narrate to my fellow co-workers when I feel something fits the situation at hand. Like today, as I was reading the Watson 389 bit, we got a phone call about it at the same time. Hilarious! If you have a meth problem in your area like we do, us being rural & a prime habitat for methheads and mobile methlabs (i.e. their double wide…), we would love to hear any crackhead stories you might have. We used to have some great ones. I myself am on someone’s “hit list” & am just waiting for my tires to get slashed for not selling pseudoephedrine to them…

Comment by Gregthepharmer on 2009-06-12 04:49:12 -0700 #

I am sure that many pharmacists know a fellow pharmacist or two that has had an issue such as you describe (my preceptor included). I do salute your kicking the addiction and trying to help others.
However I believe this is not the norm. I could be way off base here, but I do not think that TAP’s latest post is some kind of a confession or anything like you would want to believe.
I also want to stress that at least in my practice I do not feel this way about every one of my patients and I don’t think that all the other pharmacists out there do either. But there are a lot of patients out there that do make us cringe when they call.
I know that I could go and take a couple of Xanaxes or Vico-Dans if I wanted to and could easily cover my tracks, but I choose not to and I think most pharmacists out there feel the same way.

Comment by drh on 2009-06-12 10:13:14 -0700 #

I start to get suspicious whenever someone tells me I look too young to be a doctor or tells me how much they like my shirt. The nicer they are if they’re coming in with a toothache or back pain, the more suspicious I am. It’s making me very jaded. I need to get my student loans paid off and start working in a coffee shop. At least caffeine is a legal drug to push!

Comment by 2BAPharmD on 2009-06-12 16:02:03 -0700 #

I am still trying to figure out how someone paid $3.96 in nickels and quarters. Can anyone help me out here?

Seriously though, I think I have a Free Pass on a lot of this fun stuff because I work in a clinical pharmacy in a huge hospital where the general public is usually far too tired, wasted, dying or otherwise indisposed to call every 15 minutes for 3 days until his or her DIE-UH-BEE-TUS STUFF will be ready.

I should work in a WAGS for a few months some day…

Comment by Grumpy RPh on 2009-06-12 20:17:23 -0700 #

The sad thing is, that some form of Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen is the fastest moving medicine in every retail pharmacy in the USA. If you add up all those combinations in any one store it will be more tablets sold than the next 10 fastest sellers put together. I have seen patient given vicodin for canker sores in the mouth. Today I was asked why their daughter was given vicodin for MONONUCLEOSIS. I couldn’t think of a good answer. Yes, she felt a little achy, but what the fuck “VICODIN”.

Comment by Pierre Lourens on 2009-06-12 21:14:16 -0700 #

@ 2BAPharmD: He was a penny short. I reached the point where I was sick of him and waved the junkie away.

Comment by melissa on 2009-06-13 08:59:05 -0700 #

i just want to say that i think im in love with you, haha. You make my day every time I read your posts. And this one has hit the spot and you’ve made my day yet again. Thank you TAP for your continuing laughter that you give me stating the truth in a hilarious way.

Btw.. did you hear of Viagra Soft & Cialis Soft? WTH is that isn’t the point to be .. you know… 😉 haha

Melissa,CPhT

Comment by rph3664 on 2009-06-13 17:38:26 -0700 #

Several years ago, an independent pharmacy in my region had a high school student there as part of an honors/cooperative education program.

The next day, Xanax, Vicodin, and Oxycontin were raining down on the school, and it didn’t take long to figure where he had gotten them, or why he chose to do an internship there – an internship that lasted for only one day.

Since he was 18, this will go on his permanent record.

Comment by Ed on 2009-06-13 21:23:57 -0700 #

When I’m addressed as Dr. I’m either filling narcotics or being asked for a donation from the school.

I’ve denied syringes to 1 person. She was with another patient that was filling an ER script for Percocet. Just the Percocet, and she was paying for it, not the patient. Every time this happens I feel dirty. She also needed syringes for a diabetic friend whom we didn’t have in our system and couldn’t produce a vial of insulin. It was also 11:30 at night. She was understandably upset because she gets them here all the time. None of this was reason I didn’t sell them to her.

I didn’t sell them to her because I noticed a bag of oregano in her purse while she was rooting around for the script.

As far as a pharmacist never getting in trouble for diversion. I know of at least one case. The pharmacist called the Dr and got an OK. They filled the script patient overdosed and died. The DR. was found to be 1% at fault, patient 1% at fault, and pharmacist 98% at fault.

Comment by anonymous on 2009-06-15 15:28:47 -0700 #

Just so you know they go for like 80 to 100 dollars a pop, and they could be sold to 30 yr. olds just as easily.

Comment by Farmassist on 2009-06-18 05:36:59 -0700 #

I have read the book mentioned above in the article Casual Observer posted- Incomprehensible Demoralization- An Addict Pharmacist’s Journey to Recovery. It’s an incredible read- well-written, funny, and inspiring.
I was married to a drug addicted pharmacist for 9 years, so I could relate to what Jared Combs communicated in his memoir. His wife must be a super woman- apparently she stuck with him through their hell.
The book really surprised me though. It’s one of those that you won’t want to put down once you start it. I read it in two nights and I had to make myself put it down the first night because I needed to get some sleep. Combs was arrested at some point and could have gone to prison for I think like 10 or 20 years! Then after coming through that with just some probation, he almost immediately started getting high again. That just goes to show you how powerful addiction is. There’s some really funny stuff in there too. Similar to what TAP has written about the practice of pharmacy. Anyway…I highly recommend this book. It’s the best I’ve read in a long time (books don’t keep my attention very well usually).
As for my ex…he’s still doing the same old crap from what I hear. Perhaps I’ll send him the book…maybe not.

Comment by PharmStudent on 2009-06-21 11:22:17 -0700 #

I was a big fan of the lady that came in with a script with a BIG RED ‘X’ across it (if I’m not mistaken, it also said “Do Not Fill”). She stated that her daughter must have scribbled on it when she was at the grocers. Why the **** even give back an Rx like that????

Comment by PharmStudent on 2009-06-21 11:36:23 -0700 #

I don’t think I have ever filled an Rx for a person of Mexican decent. I could be wrong, but I really think that (prescription) drug abuse is not common in their community/life style. I’m not surprised there is less forgery in Mexico.

Religious beliefs don’t come from the deep south. They also fly over from the middle east and southern Asia.

Comment by john on 2009-06-25 09:50:44 -0700 #

I feel like a moron asking this, but what does oregano have to do with narcotics?

Comment by PSDispatcher on 2009-06-28 16:37:31 -0700 #

Hi John,

You are not a moron at all. I believe Ed used the phrase “bag of oregano” as a substitute for another green leafy substance often packaged in baggies…Marijuana.

Lisa

ps Great blog. What a hoot! Eye opening 🙂

Comment by Dee on 2009-06-30 10:34:24 -0700 #

Catch Fibromyalgia? Yeah – cause it’s downright awesome – I HAVE IT. It’s the fucking DOCTORS faults for trying to give FM patients all the pain meds. I don’t take any. I hope you “catch” cancer.

Comment by Andrea on 2009-06-30 18:47:38 -0700 #

The worst part, is being an intern at a pharmacy where your pharmacist is slack – I try and say no, and he over-rides me and does what I would call “everything not to do to a CII” … at least i told my old pharmacy i was learning how not to do my job… some great experience i’m getting. If your going to take in an Intern – at least try to behave for the 3 months we are there rather than stick us w/ a floater w/ the CII you partialed w/o a hardcopy they were fed-exing you the next day…

Comment by BookwormTech on 2009-07-04 09:43:52 -0700 #

Yes! #1 is my personal favorite here, Pharmer. But what might be worse are the ones who are “experts” in their “genetics.”

There’s always some jittery twenty something who happens to know the color and size of all the generic pain meds they take and swears that the “orange ones” don’t work as well as the “white ones” (because obviously the white ones have some super secret chemical composition that makes them stronger than another brand of the same EXACT medication). They then proceed to ask me about the manufacturers of all of the various generics we have in stock and demand I allow them to inspect them all. Fat chance, loser! The pharmacy is not a freaking candy shop! If you think I’m going to help you find a pill that is easier for you to crush into meth (or who knows what else crackheads make these days) you must be crazy high! /rant

Comment by BookwormTech on 2009-07-04 10:06:05 -0700 #

I don’t get sick very often, but I had mono as a teenager and my lymph nodes were very swollen (couldn’t move my neck) and I had an excruciating migraine that lasted for three days (the kind where you simply cannot move). Now, my doc didn’t prescribe Vicodin, just plenty of rest and suggested over the counter medication for the pain, swelling and the fever. Not saying that girl had it that bad because from what it sounds like, she probably didn’t, but if someone were that bad off, I could see the prescription possibly being justified. Though it does sound like that doctor was a bit pill happy. I mean, canker sores? You pick up some Kanka in the dental aisle and deal with it like everyone else!

Comment by Gurn on 2009-07-05 07:21:32 -0700 #

I believe Ryan Haight, who was a straight A student was responsible for his own death even though his meds were obtained illegally. When a teen or Sorority girl OD’s why is it always some one elses fault? Then here comes a new crusade with a house bill with the kids name on it!!!

Comment by pain pundit on 2009-07-08 17:54:40 -0700 #

Yes, it was a droll rant.

How about the pharmacists who treat legitimate pain patients badly?
Not every pain patient is a McCrackhead or a winer.

You try living 20 years with pain in every part of your body cuz some jerk was coked out and drunk and hit your eaxicab.

You ever go back to work after 3 bags of IV saline because your stellate gallion block caused you to pass out? Sign a informed consent form where one of the AEs is life in an iron lung?

Even murdrers can get parole. Chronic pain is a life sentence and it ain’t no picnic. I’m tired of everybody being my judge and jury because CIIs are my insulin. You don’t torture fat diabetics or clinically obese hypertension patients, do you?

I’d like for you to walk a mile in my shoes…

Comment by Sarah-Bear on 2009-07-11 11:55:50 -0700 #

I feel for you. I know some pharmacists that are like that, but most of the ones I know can actually tell when someone is suffering from actual pain rather than, you know, need for pain pills.

Do you use the same pharmacy all the time or go to different ones? I would think becoming a regular at one might help ward off some of the harassment from cynical pharmacists.

Just remember not to take it personally. Most pharmacists like that are only that way from working too long in the profession. It does make you very cynical that way. Also try to remember that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Comment by Mystery on 2009-07-18 18:47:16 -0700 #

OMg!!!! If I could I would so post this at my job! Walgreens! I’m so tired of this type Of person! I hate my job!

Comment by deb on 2009-07-24 17:27:33 -0700 #

I think I want to marry you. THIS WAS GREAT. Should be printed and posted in every pharmacy, hospital and doctor’s office in the country! Hell, have the insurance companies and Welfar—, er I mean—- DSHS offices, re-print and distribute this with the conditions/contract of their plans. That way every Cracky McCrackhead will know well how to work the system and not waste pharmacists’ time trying tactics to get their fixes that do not work or are already all worn out!

PS: I am not a pharmacist, and don’t even play one on TV. Just a tired RN. And I know this entry was not meant for legit pain patients, for Heaven’s sake. Why don’t others get that?

YOU RULE.

Comment by John Mc on 2009-07-30 08:10:53 -0700 #

Wow.. I have a high stress job and I might complain a bit about it to my friends and family.. But the utter arrogance and glee that you people get from abusing these addicts.. Is this fun for you? Do you get a little “rise” when you abuse an abuser.. I can see how it would be not much of a challenge with your education and all to abuse thses people.. And since in your words all these addicts are not edumicated and who should care anyway . You guys are pricks and as one of the complainers say , you should watch out for Karma as she is a bitch.. You guys are not Gods and you should not act like one ..Oh and tired RN .. This attitude from the pharmacists is for ALL people that get controlled substances, not just an assumed addict .. For \Heavan’s Sake\ why don’t you get THAT …

YOU DONT RULE

Comment by StaffWriter on 2009-07-30 13:15:11 -0700 #

I think you can take all these complaints from TAP and apply them to any retail position you could think of. Working with the public is just a pain in the a**. What makes a pharmacist more bitter is that they spent 6 or so years of college and having to take extremely difficult classes in chemistry (most of them they will never need in real life practice) and such and expect to come out of school and become respected much like a doctor. They don’t tell you in pharmacy school about the addicts that are 70 lbs overweight wearing a tube top and spandex shorts, smelling of a mixture of BO and a brand of cheap cigarettes demanding their Adipexes, Somers and Lor-uh-tabs asap. Hell, at least you make $50 an hour or more and get to wear that cool white coat!

Comment by Max on 2009-07-31 09:14:15 -0700 #

Well…Thank you. Now I understand. I will spare you the stories about my chemo induced neuropathy. No…I am not a crackhead – however… It took me good and long to find a pharmacist who does not treat me like one. These idiots (crackheads if you will) make it more difficult for those who have a legit meed ( and who count pretty close to 30 days per month). My hat is off to all of those in the pharma dispensary business. I feel YOUR pain. Keep up the good work. AND – Thank you!
Max

Comment by Matt on 2009-08-03 21:13:38 -0700 #

Haha…so true. We had a customer who’s doctor wrote for 210 Norco (which is already over the max dose), and of course hes on public aid, so they only cover 180 at a time, max. So he could just easily come in every 23 days and get 180 tablets for free. But no. He wants to pay the extra money for the last 30 pills. But wait, hes on public aid. Where does he have the money to pay for something he will get for free in 23 days? Thankfully, theres an investigation going on for the doctor and we no longer fill for this patient.

Comment by Muse on 2009-08-04 19:37:03 -0700 #

You may be witty and fun to read but to those of us who deal with pharmacists like you, you are just an ass hole. I really hope you are just venting on here and this is not the way you practice your profession.

Comment by Anonymous Coward on 2009-08-09 07:10:57 -0700 #

\Watson-Wonka’s Narcotic Factory\

I love it!

Comment by Nurse G on 2009-08-18 09:36:57 -0700 #

I am also a ‘tired RN’, 25 years of concrete floors, physically lifting patients from bed to chair, back again until someone sprung for a mechanical lift 10 years back or so. Anyhow, I have taken pain medicine for years…by prescription, and I mean years, prob in my early 20’s. Started with motrin, then had stomach ulcers, then dcn, then vicodin, now oxy ir w/vicodin for break thru pain. I have legit pain with MRI’s to back up the moderate to severe stenosis, bulging discs and yes, I have tender areas all over, can’t hardly stand to have someone pat my back for a job well done from…gasp..fibromyalgia! I hate and I really mean Hate, smartass pharmacists & their wanna be tech/pharmacists. I do not ask for my prescriptions early, I pay with my insurance co-pay but the walgreens I go to seems the need to discuss my medical needs in front of customers at the counter. “Do you realize you are getting two very powerful narcotic pain relievers?” Duh…umm, yea…whats it to you? Oh, btw…I have a 2002 mini van, not exactly showing any bling to make you think I am selling them. My nares are not full of sores and I am not sniffling from snorting…since I dont do that either. WTF does a person have to do to qualify to take a pain reliever if the smug ass pharmasicist seems to think he knows more than the customer and the doctor? Sorry, I dont get how this group can throw everyone who has a need for pain medication in a column labeled “drug addict” and make the assumption we are all ‘crackheads”. Am I addicted…yes, I suppose so. Am I competent, functional and able to actually have some quality to my life now that I have a physician who understands that my needs have changed after passing years from the tolerance I have built..yes, I believe so. Am I judged everytime I get my prescription filled..no doubt. I know one thing..I never judge my patients like many of my co-workers do. When someone tells me they are in pain, I believe them unless they demonstrate they are misusing them. I agree with the comment above…I hope that the folks that are doing the judging “catch” their fair share of something and find out exactly how miserable life is with chronic pain. You will change your tune.

Comment by Anonymouse on 2009-08-28 03:25:28 -0700 #

You are a horrible person for playing the fibro card. I am 27, was diagnosed with fibro at 22 (after 3 years of fighting it because fucking hell, I didn’t want to be treated badly by people like you) and I do the best I can. Because of you, and the drugseekers, when I am truly in pain I am denied a week’s worth of pain pills so I can make it through the week without crying because I still -exist- that day. Why? Because clearly if I want a week’s worth of Vicodin (it doesn’t help the actual pain, but it helps me stop caring quite so much) I will want more and more because I CAUGHT FIBROMYALGIA AND THEREFORE I WILL BE A DRUG ADDICT.

I hope you catch fibromyalgia someday so that your arrogant tune changes. You’ll never know til you live it…I wish I could MAKE you live it.

Comment by Hell Bell on 2009-08-30 11:47:51 -0700 #

“I knocked mine in the sink when I was washing dishes” is my all time favorite…and you must, like our gabapentin snorting gang, learn to act as please as though you’ve won the lottery and fall all over yourselves thanking the pharmacy employees.

Comment by anon in ca on 2009-09-04 15:56:47 -0700 #

i live in california, and i refuse to deal with pharmacists for any pain medication unless its post surgery or root canal or something like that. For my severe and chronic pain, i have a ca state card for medical marijuana. 🙂 Fuck you chemical dope pushers. Pawns of the pharm companies. Most of the time unless it’s a severe illness, you dispense a lot of shit people don’t need, including the SOMAS and VICO-DANS. I don’t see you bitching about dispensing cholesterol and sleeping medication, both of which can be solved with the proper diet and or a natural remedy of your choice, (not smoked however, oral or vapor only for medical :-)) Let’s see.. what other stupid, needless drugs do you dispense each day? What makes you any different from a crack dealer? “Government Approval?” Well, check this out: the welfare whores you are always bitching about, they too have government approval and sanctioning. Put that in your vape, inhale and think about that one. lol.

Comment by Allie on 2009-09-05 22:59:17 -0700 #

Ahhh my dear AP….you need to get laid. Fast.

Comment by Be Kind on 2009-09-06 12:19:28 -0700 #

You guys really are pricks. While you hold the power of saying no…You also have issues. If people are addicts then thats their own personal hell they live in. I know. my mom is an addict. Vicodin, Soma, Xanax…And yes, its fucked up, but its her misery she lives in. While most people are not trying to scam you guys, sure some are. And that must be frustrating.

But most just want their meds and want to get the hell out your store. Do you think they like you pharmacists? These people are ADDICTS they HAVE to do what they do in order to not GET SICK.

It is bad, it sucks, their doctors KNOW their addicts. But, WTF, what are you going to do. Their jus t trying to survive in this world. But just put yourself in someone else’s shoes for a minute. And imagine if your good friend of family member was an oppiate addict. How would you treat them?

I bet with a little more compassion. I bet you would try to talk with them. That being said I know some people in general (that includes addicts) are COMPLETE ASSHOLES, imagine adding that they need their fix on top of that just increases their assholl-ness.

Were all people living on this big blue ball, and some live happy lives some need meds to deal with this shit and some are smarter.

Just be nice to people. Try and show concern and not make the people who are less fortunate than you feel like 2nd class citizens because they got hooked on pills…it’s not a fun life at all….its bullshit. Be glad your not one of them. But they are people.

Peace.

Comment by RPhKate on 2009-09-10 06:03:20 -0700 #

The fact is that this is a blog and it’s making light of what happens to pharmacists on a constant basis. When these patients come into my store I am as nice as I can possibly be to them. However, just because they are addicted does not mean they should get what they want. True, it’s a sad sight to see, but I have a duty as a professional to use my judgement when dealing with them. If I think they are lying or narcotics shopping, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be able to help them. I went to school for too long to compromise my pharmacist license and career.

Comment by justa-anotha-junkie on 2009-10-03 12:26:06 -0700 #

wow, thanks tap i was thinking abouts getting my viks filled but i not no how to go bout it but your patient handout really help me fool hospital er
i wish more farmasist were as karing and kind as u.

Comment by techsheila on 2009-11-03 20:53:36 -0800 #

my favorite excuse for xanax early refill? lady told me one day that they fell into the campfire. what was she doing with her xanax around a campfire???!!!??? i love your blog!!

Comment by LD50placebo_effect on 2009-11-04 15:17:24 -0800 #

Addiction is as addiction does. It’s sad to see people addicted. Often the problem is that repeated usage results in tolerance. If the drug is used to get ‘high’ and not fot ethical therapeutic pharmacologic effects, there’s no limit to the amount of drug in reaching the height of ‘highness’ except a dose that kills, i.e. stops the heart, or the brain respiration center, etc. This is predictable!

Pharmacists study general chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry, inorganic, organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacology (sometimes in different mammals), sciences like physics, biology, psychology, psychopharmacology, sociology, etc. We study calculus, trigonometry, pharmaceutical calculations, statistics, pharmaceutics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacokinetics. By the time we finish the didactic (intense book-learning and lectures), we are ready to observe and study therapeutics in humans for a couple years. Pretty much by the time we’re done, we’re experts on drugs.

With a few more pharmacy school classes such as natural products, law, and running a shop, society awards us pharmacist the mantle of ‘keeper of the drugs’. Plain and simple. We’ve studied the effects of drugs on humans and society, and we see and understand addiction. It’s sad.

The effects of addiction are predictable in a way, too. Genetics, upbringing, and underlying ‘imbalances’ set off the repetitive pattern of self-seeking pleasure from chemicals.

Pharmacists are not in the business to maintain and string out addiction and experiment for height of highness without killing a patient. You only hear about or imagine this scenario in horror movies, Jeffry Dahmler or Dr Mengele torturing and mind-control. Pharmacists that promote abuse, or do nothing to get help for an addicted individual fail in the ethical role in our society, and eventually we lose our licenses.

One might say that in the extreme that it could seem we don’t give a dingdong diddleysquat about the ‘pain’ a person seems to be feeling, but the interest of the pharmacist is to work with the patient and physician to not lose a patient’s self-identity as a human being in pain, but work through solving the issue so that pain doesn’t control a patient.

A major part of true pain is fear and anxiety. Say, a person is involved in an accident and experiences the worst pain they ever felt in their life, and also is afraid that there will be permanent damage, but doesn’t initially know the extent until stabilized. Once the damage is assessed and the patient is on the mend, sometimes there’s fear of set-back or worsened symptoms while asleep or other times like when just reaching down to pick up a kid.

Sometimes, the patient attributes the body’s natural reaction as ‘pain that WILL worsen without end’, so the patient overdoes the pain medication. Or, sometimes, the patient cannot discriminate the mental effects of mental anguish and anxiety from pain symptoms, before they begin to see effects of too much medication. By the time the person realizes there’s something other than ‘pain’ going on, they’re hooked.

I hear alot about the fear of ‘withdrawals’. Withdrawals are just anxiety symptoms. Just because a patient focuses on their own body reactions to making a decision to do with less pain medication they might experience increased heart rate, increased breathing rate, sweating, etc. from getting off the drug too quick. It’s a very well known phenomenon about hearing one’s own heart beat. Running in a marathon without adequate conditioning can do it, but a person is less likely to be afraid of increased heart rate if they’re in a race, than if they experience an adrenaline ‘rush’ in a panic, attributing the unpleasant heart thumping to something they should be afraid of. By all means, get tachycardias checked out with the PCP or cardiologist, but if it’s not cardiac in origin, then practice some self-relaxing exercises, or better yet, get out and run (if able) to tone the muscles and deal positively with effects of anxiety.

Pharmacists that step in and say, ‘enough’s enough, and it’s illegal to tontinue addictions indefinitely are looking out for the best interest of society, as well as an individual in the long run. But, of course, the patient that’s anxious about it will put up a clamor because they think it’s the pharmacist or the doctor that’s giving them the anxiety.

There are oodles of other non-drug ways to reduce anxiety. Cognitive-behavioral ‘talking through’ issues leans on patients to learn about themselves and make their own decisions, with healthcare personnel for support. When a patient is addicted for addiction’s sake, they’re not doing anything useful to get themselves back on the path of taking care of their own mind and body, they’re dumping all the reliance on the provider of the pills.

I don’t think it’s very easy for a person to show concern for someone else if that someone doesn’t show concern for themselves, when the answer is ‘get off the f**king drugs’, and do it while there’s someone around to help you, because many sure as he** don’t know how to do it themselves. Anyone, ANYONE, in pharmacy will be more comfortable with a person that admits they have an addiction problem and wants to solve it than the jerk that thinks they’re being ‘oh so smart’ and demanding the Mallinkrodt brand, or early refill on Xanax. All pharmacists know this. We see this as students. We study it in class. We see it in our work. Some of us just don’t believe it at first. And, finally, YES, I do know that an addicted person undergoes something traumatic, but they have to get beyond their navel exploration to find answers outside of their own little addicted world.

Comment by LD50placebo_effect on 2009-11-04 15:30:43 -0800 #

By the way, this response refers to addiction, for getting ‘high’ and wailing or whaling on the best interests of society to curtail addiction, and this does not refer to use of drugs for legitimate pain CONTROL, nor even legitimate and responsible anxiety CONTROL. Pain is pain, and of course we all know that it’s the patient with the pain that knows what, how, when, about their pain, etc. Pharmacists usually want to step in where it seems there’s a question about furthering an addiction.

Comment by BNUTZB on 2010-01-26 00:51:12 -0800 #

I HAD A L-5 S-1 LAMENECTOMY IN 04, HAVE BEEN TOLD BY MULTIPLE DOCS ILL BE ON PAIN MEDS, “HYDROCODONE 10/660 CLONAZEPAM 1MG AND IBU 800 FROM HERE ON OUT. WHY IN THE FUCK DO MOST PHARM TECHS ACT LIKE THEY CANNOT COUNT? IVE BEEN SHORTED ON IBU 800’S AND CLONAZEPAM OVER 10 TIMES, NEVER THE HYDROCODONE THOUGH. AND I DONT KNOW HOW MANY TIMES IVE GOT COURTESEY CALL SAYING MY SCRIPTS ARE READY WHEN THEY ARE NO WHERE NEAR DUE. IVE HAD DIFFERENT PHARMACIES OVER THE YEARS, AND WALGREENS HAS BEEN THE WORST FOR FILLING MY SCRIPTS TOO FUCKING EARLY. YEA I REALLY LIKE THE FACT MY MEDS ARE JUST SITTING AROUND AND HAVE ALREADY BEEN BILLED THROUGH MY INSURANCE, WITHOUT ME ASKING THEM TO REFILL THEM. RITE AID CAN NOT COUNT FUCKING PILLS, IVE CAME UP OVER AND SHORT THERE. AND NEITHER OF THOSE TWO HAVE THE SAME PEOPLE THERE LONGER THAN A MONTH. IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS SITE SHOULD BE CALLED THE OVERPAID, BITCHING AND MOANING PHARMACIST. INSTEAD OF BITCHING ABOUT THE FEW PILLHEADS AND CRACKHEADS YOU GET, WHY DONT YOU FUCKS LEARN NOT TO HAND OUT “EXTRA” POTENTIALLY ADDICTIVE MEDS. OR SHORT PEOPLE ON THEIR SEIZURE MEDS OR DIABETIC SUPPLYS IE HUMALOG, TEST STRIPS, ETC IVE SEEN YOU WHINY FUCKS DO IT ALL. NOW IF I WAS ADDICTED TO PAIN MEDS WHY THE FUCK WOULD I BE ANGRY THAT YOU HAVE GAVE “EXTRA LOVIN” IN THE FORM OF PILLS??

Comment by denelian on 2010-03-12 01:17:51 -0800 #

we don’t “get that” because it doesn’t matter how “legit” or REAL our pain is – SOMEONE in the med industry is going to treat us as if we’re something criminal.

let me give you an example. i have very bad displaysia of the hip. june 08 i had a massive surgery – they cut my hip off, rotated it, and screwed it back on.
the next morning at 9 am [less the 24 hours after the surgery was done] i called and asked for pain meds.
called again at 10.
around 11:30 the nurse came in to give me the shot in the stomach of Heparin. i asked him *again* for my pains meds THAT HAD BEEN DUE AT 8am. he said “yes, yes, getting them.”
i was supposed to get them EVERY 4 HOURS.
at noon, i called *again* for my meds.
my dad came to visit me at 2pm.
i STILL had not gotten my 8am meds.
because the nurse “didn’t want me to get addicted.” because “i was so young (31) and so smart, too smart to need painkillers less than 24 hours after my hip was cut off and re-attached.” because “he hates drug addicts, and didn’t want to think I was one”.

(this *is* the same nurse who refused to believe that i had an infection in the incision, refused to record that my temp was 100.9, and when i was re-admitted because it turns out i had MRSA, tried to convince all the doctors that i was *FAKING* having MRSA. i had to have TWO MORE BLOODY SURGERIES to get rid of the MRSA – but iwas “faking”. my EMGs show that my nerves are freaking *dying* and that i have over 30% nerve damage in my right leg, mostly in the sciatic nerve at the point where it crosses the joint – but this nurse told every doctor on the floor that i “faked” THOSE tests, too. how do you FAKE MRSA? how do you FAKE an EMG? how do you FAKE a fever with a nurse who stares at you the whole time and takes your temp THREE TIMES? how do you FAKE huge swelling and MRSA bacteria in the incision site? you don’t.]

i was born with a disease that leaves me in constant chronic pain. i’ve been on vicodin since i was 10. but until the hip surgery, i RARELY took pain meds – generally, i’d be given 30 vicodin and end up throwing away 20 a year later. my doctors hated me, because i wouldn’t take the pain meds, unless the pain was over a 9 and was making me ill.
i’ve been in a wheelchair for over a year. my pain level is almost always over an 8. i never, ever, ever get a pain level lower than a 7. my nerves mis-fire often, and even non-medically-trained people can SEE the muscle spasms.

and then i go to the pharmacy to drop off my Rx, tell the pharmasist “this cannot be filled for 2 days” because of the 30-day rule – and am accused, often, of being a “crack-head-drug-addict”. i’m sitting there in my wheelchair with my leg screaming and i’m polite and nice [without fawning] and i tell the pharmasist that i know it can’t be filled, i’m dropping it off on my way home…

but A) i’m not an “old person” [people won’t believe that i’m over 25, let alone that i am now 33] and B) i don’t have a “broken bone” – so OBVIOUSLY, in the opinion of most medical people who don’t know me, don’t know my med history, and don’t bother to ask, I’m “just an addict” and i don’t deserve to not hurt. or rather, they think i deserve *to* hurt, because according to *them*, i DON’T. dear gods, how i wish they were right! i would gladly never ever take even asprin if only this pain would go away…

most people with chronic pain are treated poorly by most medical people. or, at least, every person i have ever communicated with who has chronic pain are treated poorly by most of the medical people they have contact with. my friends nephew with MS, my mother [a nurse practicioner] who’s had 7 surgeries on her back, about to have the 8th, my friend who lost a foot and has terrible neurathopy, the people i know with fibromalgia, the people i know with Lupus, the people i know with nerve damage, bone spurs, herniated discs – all of them have to fight all the time, because everyone just ASSUMES that they’re “faking”.

*THAT’S* why your “of course this doesn’t apply to “legit” pain patients” isn’t useful. it isn’t true.

Comment by Insane Crazy on 2010-03-27 06:00:04 -0700 #

I personally don’t give a shit. I’m tired of our nanny state and rules of who can have what med and how much and when. Opiates *do* help certain people with certain forms of chemical inbalance/depression. Some of these people make way more money than a *pharmacist*, hold a few degrees, never been in trouble with the law, have a good job, nice house, not irresponsible…you get the point. Most of these kind of people won’t try to shit you, but they won’t admit their use either, as it has so much social stigma attached to it, and to me that’s a shame. What’s the difference between someone taking 5-6 10/325 hydrocodone a day (not all at once mind you, but in one to two pill increments every 4 hours or so, you know, like a doctor prescribes for the on-label use for physical \pain)and someone on paxil, celexa, prozac or zoloft? In my opinion they are still \addicts\ using a crutch to stabilize their mood by use of a pill.

Why is it so bad when something else works for others that is taboo? Why is it taboo in the first place? I’m a fan of natural selection too. I say, all this shit should be OTC (except the really heavy shit like oxycontin, fentanyl, dilaudid, etc), but in limited quantities per purchase, so all the dumbfucks can OD and be weeded out, or hit rock bottom and either quit, cut back or have an epiphany or some shit. Don’t be as arrogant as to assume there are no responsible self-medicators out there. Also, just because an evil narcotic drug (oh noes!) works to curb some people’s depression, it doesn’t make them a \crackhead\ trying to get high, it just makes them feel \normal. They usually don’t up the dosage that works for them any more than a genuine physical pain patient would. They don’t hop to stronger shit. If hydro is doing the trick, why the hell would someone want to mess around with some shit that can knock down a horse, like methadone or oxycontin? Most don’t even want to dabble with that and dance with the devil.

By the same logic, why would a patient treated with a conventionally accepatble depression med like your precious celexa and zoloft (all loaded with fun side effects that can exacerbate the condition it is intended to treat) want to upgrade to an insanely high dose of haldol or seroquel XR if the 2mg of celexa or 50mg of zoloft is doing the job for them? I think our society is in dire need of an overhaul as far as medical \thinking\ and theory is concerned. People aren’t crackheads or criminals for wanting relief from very real mental pain, and opiates do indeed deliver that to some people.

Not all people disrepect the medicine and get \high\ off of it. Hell, I know highly medicated US soldiers on retarded doses of seroquel and valium that go to the range with me, and that scares the living bejeezus out of me, I know some who abuse their meds. I also know some folks who live respectable lives, are productive and reponsible, but self-medicated. So what? Doctors and designer drugs kill more people than guns and traffic accidents combined. Extracts from the humble papaver somniferum compounded into pill forms kill a fraction of that. In any case, viva la nanny state. Viva la drug wars. Viva la taxpayer money paying the stupid DEA and other alphabet agencies to give a fuck what law abiding citizens are doing. Won’t be too long before that jackboot is on all of our necks, for one thing or the other. To quote that theme song on cops, \whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

Comment by Ree on 2010-05-11 23:18:16 -0700 #

I worked in pharmacies as a CPhT for 5 years, 4 years in one wal, 1 in another. And my absolute favorite crackhead story is…..

We had a middle aged woman come in early (as usual) and ask for a early fill on her generic vicodin. She had filled the RX for #180 of them just 9 days earlier so we questioned her as to why she needed us to call her doctor for an early fill (again). She then proceeded to come up with a story about how she had a medium sized cat, maybe about 11 pounds, and how he liked to knock over her pill bottles in the bathroom. Well when he knocked over her hydrocodone the cap magically came off and they spilled on the floor and a few in the sink. Her 11 pound cat then proceeded to eat almost 140 tablets leaving her with nothing. So I of course asked her about the cat and she responded with “oh, he’s fine. He slept about an hour and was back to normal” uhhhh yeah, your 11 pound cat ate 140 hydrocodone/apap 5/500’s and nothing happened? Nice try crackhead

Comment by Space.beagle on 2010-05-20 13:18:58 -0700 #

…GO NURSE G. You and John Mc. said it, and I thank and love and want to marry you guys, not the bitter TAP, who thinks he expressing hatred of others, but rather wallows in self-loathing.

Comment by Peter Hoang on 2010-07-27 02:34:26 -0700 #

This post was utter genius. I’m a fan for life. I was laughing so hard at the VICO-DANS comment.

I read most of the comments, but some were just too ridiculous, so I’ll address some of them.

This post was obviously geared toward “crack-heads”. I’m pretty sure no real crack head would go on this website and waste their time defending themselves.

For those people with real pain trying to argue why they have to have their pain meds, most techs or pharmacists will understand that and proceed to process your prescriptions with no questions asked, assuming that there are no interactions. But if you’re doing any of the things mentioned above, like constantly trying to refill your controls early or using more than one pharmacy for the same med, keep it real, you’re probably a closet crack head.

For those that are just too sensitive, the blog went completely over your head. He is not bashing on people that have fibromyalgia (or AIDs or cancer for that matter), instead he is bashing on very apparent “crack addicts” that harass pharmacists for their controls.

and lastly, to BNUTZB: you’re one of those idiot customers that not only do pharmacies deal with, but doctors offices, mcdonalds, target, movie theaters, etc deal with too. please stop being terrible.

Comment by Ms. C.R. on 2010-09-22 23:44:02 -0700 #

WHAT??????????????? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ONLY GETTING ANTI-BIOTIC’s FILLED? NOW, you are just finding reasons to complain.
I think i have done that a time or two (only have the antibiotic filled). Not everyone needs pain med’s after a dentist visit. i had two molar extractions and a RC….I only got anti-bio filled. I don’t see a problem.
Anyone, can you see the problem? Your job is made easier, right?

Comment by Ms. C.R. on 2010-09-23 00:00:20 -0700 #

What constitutes “drug addict”. Take each customer with different attitude, It’s not all the time I get a rude pharmacist,but sometimes i do. I will say that WAL-MART HAS SOME OF THE BEST PHARMS’T. i DON’T EVEN like shopping in WM , but they have pleasant pharmacy tech’s

Comment by Ray on 2010-09-28 15:52:28 -0700 #

YOU GUYS ARE THE REAL DRUG DEALERS
The true “PUSHERS”
you should be held accountable for your dealings!
shame on you

Comment by E.R.HOPPER on 2010-11-02 00:27:51 -0700 #

ALL OF YOU FUCKING PHARMACIES/PHARMACISTS ARE FULL OF SHIT! IF I COME IN TO YOUR PHARMACY WITH A SCRIPT FOR THE PAIN MEDS (THAT I SO RIGHTLY ABTAINED FROM SOME IDIOT UNSUSPECTING DOCTOR) THERE ISNT SHIT YOU CAN DO OR SAY TO DENY OR DETOUR ME FROM FILLING IT! YOU ‘HAVE’ TO FILL MY SCRIPT. I HAVE NEVER HAD ANY ONE OF YOU FUCKING HIPOCRATES TELL ME THAT I COULDN’T FILL MY SCRIPT OR EVEN SAY THE SLEIGHTEST FUCKING THING TO ME ABOUT BEING AN ADDICT OR AN ABUSER. ALL OF YOU PHARMACISTS AND ‘CASHIERS’ STANDING IN YOUR WELFARE AND GOODWILL CLOTHING AT THE COUNTER ARENT ALOUD TO SAY A FUCKING THING TO ME EXCEPT…”HELLO SIR, HOW MAY I HELP YOU TODAY?” I GIVE YOU MY SCRIPT AND TELL YOU THAT ITS GOING TO BE PAID WITH CASH AND YOU ALL JUST TAKE IT AND TELL ME THAT IT WILL BE “ABOUT 20 MINUTES” SO YOU HIPOCRATE MORONS AT THE REGISTERS ALL ACCROSS AMERICA IN YOUR LITTLE PHARMACIES CAN KISS MY ASS BECAUSE YOU ARE LYING…THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT YOU CAN TELL SOMEONE WHOM YOU SUSPECT OF ‘ABUSING’ PAIN MEDS THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FILL THEIR SCRIPT. YOU ARE ALL LIARS AND YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE EYING THAT BOTTLE OF OXYCONTIN EVERY FUCKING CHANCE YOU GET, JUST DREAMING OF THE DAY THAT YOUR BOSS ‘THE PHARMACIST’ LEAVES IT UNATTENDED ON THE COUNTER FOR A SPLIT SECOND SO YOU CAN STEAL JUST A FEW OF THEM FOR YOURSELVES!!! YOU KNOW ITS TRUE AND HAVE PROBABLY EVEN DONE IT A FEW TIMES ALREADY! SO WHAT IF THERE ARE PEOPLE LIKE ME (AND YOU) THAT NEED SOME SORT OF EUPHORIC MOOD ENHANCERS TO COPE WITH OUR FUCKING LIVES! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO JUDGE ANYONE? DID ANYONE JUDGE YOU WHEN YOU RAN THAT DOG OVER LAST NIGHT OR CHEATED ON YOUR WIFE LAST YEAR OR DINK TOO MUCH AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY LAST WEEK OR SMOKE TOO MUCH WEED IN COLLAGE??? NO I DONT THINK SO! YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF FUCKING HIPOCRATES WHO ARE PROBABLY KILLING YOURSELVES EVERYDAY WITH LIQUER OR CIGARETTES OR EVIL DOINGS (YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT-YA YOU) ON A DAILY BASIS CAN GO GET FUCKED YOU GOD DAMNED LOSERS. YOU ARE JUST SO PATHETIC IN YOUR OWN TIRED, POOR, UNSATISTFIED, OVERWORKED BOORING LIVES TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT BUT RIP ON OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO LIVE EACH DAY AS HAPPY AS THEY CAN- AND IF THAT MEANS E.R. HOPPING ALL ACCROSS THE FUCKING WORLD TO DO IT THEN SO BE IT. YOU ARE JUST JEALOUS THAT WE ARE GOING OUT HAPPY AND EUPHORIC WITH THE SHIT WE CHOOSE TO TAKE TO GET THAT ‘LARGER THAN LIFE’ GLOW AND FEELING. AND IF YOU WERE ANY KIND OF A STAND UP INDIVIDULE, YOU WOULD TAKE OPIOIDS AND OTHER NARCOTICS TO, TO MAKE YOURSELVES FEEL BETTER, NO, TO FEEL FUCKING EXCELLENT, WHY YOU GO THROUGH THE ENDLESS FUCKING MOTIONS OF YOUR LITTLE PATHETIC LIVES ON YOUR SAD PATHS TO THE GRAVE. .. YOU FUCKING HIPOCRATES MAKE ME SICK!

Comment by ex-pain pill addict on 2010-11-04 10:37:33 -0700 #

to the er hopper: I understand both sides of the spectrum. In 2007 I was diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis. It is a very painful condition in my lower back. And shortly thereafter I became very, very addicted to pain pills. I was hospital hopping going to different pharmacies I was buying them from people it was a mad cycle. Who in their right mind would sit in the er for 4 to 6 hours and for what 20-30 pills? Yet I did and I had lost myself in this insane cycle. I neglected my family, I neglected my housework, I neglected everything that was once of value to me. On April 26th of 2009 my husband said enough its either your pills or your family. And somewhere deep inside myself I had to find the strength and courage to face life without pain pills. We moved out of state I went to an outpatient treatment center for 8 months and I also found a wonderful therapist to help me cope with life. I no longer go to the treatment center but I continue to see my therapist that I’ve had for the past year and a half. I deeply regret giving away all my strength and efforts to these pain pills. How do I deal with my back pain? I exercise my back and I also take aleve. Once I realized that my pain was really only in my head and not allow my pain to define who I was the pain doesn’t seem so intense or worse than it really was. Life is so much better now it took me awhile to see and live on life’s terms. We don’t always get what we want. Life is unfair and deal with it. Also the best part of my life is knowing my children and they are wonderful little human beings who does need their mother. My children are my world now not the hospitals not the pharmacy, and not the pain pills. My home is now very sanitized I love cleaning it and seeing the end result of a very, very clean home. My husband and I are working on a stronger marriage. Is life always rosy? No but that is life its not always sunshine and blissfulness. I also forgot my personal gifts I have a long memory whatever someone tells me I remember it. I forgot how intelligent I truly am I am looking into continuing my education as a lawyer, which by the way I excel in and I love it. There is so much more that life gives a person than drowning it with any type of drugs or alcohol. I have been sober for a year and 6 and a half months. Yes the first 8 months I had put in a lot of pain and tears into my sobriety with the help of my therapist. But after that life got easier and better. And my head is no longer in a cloud. And time goes by so much faster now because I am not looking at the clock and seeing if I can take my next dose of pills. I also feel so much stronger, I am no longer weak or imprisoned to the pills.

The pharmacist rightfully so probably feels that when an addict comes in and just had a script filled 2 or 3 days ago feels like a legal drug dealer. And these addicts are taking advantage of the system just to satisfy their addictions. I to was in your shoes at one time. I would get angry at the doctor for not giving me what I wanted or being angry at the pharmacist for not filling the script. But see now I can now understand why they get tired of addicts coming in trying to fill their 10th script of the week. They didn’t go into this business to help drug addicts they went into this business to help people with real health problems and knowing they are improving the quality of the patients life excluding the addict.

I would like to encourage all addicts and “chronic” pain patients to give life a chance. It’s really not so bad if you give it a fair shake. Remember pain only only hurts as much as you allow it to hurt don’t let the pain define who you are. You are a person not a slave to pain and the insanity of getting pain pills. You have a choice every day to either say I am no longer going to allow the pills and the pain to define me or I am going to allow my addiction to control me. Your life is more important than that and I would hope you can rise above it.

Trust me when I say that i always thought my life was always going to be this empty person of a shell with nothing to offer in life. I was always going to be this addict chasing my pills, ignoring my family and my house would be filthy. Sounds really wonderful doesn’t it? (That was a rhetorical question.) When I think about how the pills made me feel an euphoria that I’ve never felt I also have to look at the negative impact that it to had on my life. I can’t look at the “good” without looking at the bad and that keeps me going and not relapsing into a dark hell hole. I never thought in a million years I would say that either. There is so much enjoyment in life besides getting high and or getting drunk. Life can be good to you its how you make it out to be in the good, the bad and the ugly.

You know its also nice not to have to sit in the ER and come up with some kind of pain or use my back as an excuse anymore. I no longer waste any time or money getting pills. My time and money go into a more effective way. I no longer wait impatiently for the pharmacist to fill my prescription. It no longer drives me to a insane cycle. And I can now have a meaningful relationship with friends and family you can’t have that when your head is in a constant cloud. Again give sobriety a chance and give life a chance. Find a good out patient treatment center and a good therapist be honest at all times with the therapist and start building your life again its never ever to late. Because one day and it may not be today or next week or even a year from now but one day you will regret all the time and energy you spent getting high. And that regret will eat you alive faster than your addiction.

Comment by True A-hole on 2010-11-05 13:35:10 -0700 #

This reeks of bitter sarcasm-probably from an RPh- God bless us everyone, but just in case, I have been known to rip a prescription to shreds while the doper stood there and drooled, not believing what his brain cell deprived little mind was telling him. Once you give that Rx to me, it’s mine peckerhead.

Comment by Audramills ~Frustrated Tech~ on 2010-11-06 22:01:02 -0700 #

Dear ER Hopper,
Collage: A mosaic you make out of little pictures.
Hipocrates (Hippocrates): Ancient Greek physician cerca 460 BC.
It’s not liquer, it’s liquor.
Individual not individule.
Obtained not abtained.
Slightest not sleightest.
Allowed not aloud.
Across not Accross.
Who not whom.
Drink not dink.
Too not to.
Maybe you should go back to “collage” before you waste any more of our “boring pathetic” lives with your ignorant drivel. LOL

Comment by Jim on 2010-11-07 13:49:53 -0800 #

Hey Mr. E.R. Hopper. Guess what? In Kentucky, where I live, a pharmacist can refuse to fill a script FOR ANY REASON! Guess what? I may fill it because I want your dumb ass to OD so that there is a lower probability that your damaged genes will fuck up the gene pool. So take your smug ass attitude elsewhere.

Plus, many states (all of the ones I am licensed in, for example) have electronic controlled monitoring. So, guess what? ESPECIALLY if you pay cash, I am typing your name into the database to see if you got your shit on your insurance elsewhere! Then, if you have, I am calling five-oh.

Thanks for playing, dickhead!

Comment by ex-pain pill addict on 2010-11-10 06:49:37 -0800 #

to the er hopper: I reread what you wrote. You accuse the pharmacists of being a hypocrite. You misjudge them for something they may have done a few times while in college, or at a company party. The difference between you and the pharmacist is that they didn’t continue to drink every day. Who cares if they have a social drink once every six months or so. They are not your problem so pointing out their imaginary faults that you have no idea what they are is not helping you any. Stop denying, deflecting, and passing the buck onto someone else.

Their lives are not “pathetic” as you claim it is. In fact when they are on their death bed they are not going to lay their wishing that they had taken the pills when they had a chance. In their heart of hearts they will know that their life had meaning. They probably have a lot of friends and family that they have enjoyed life with. Can you say the same about yourself? Could you lay in your own death bed without regret? Rhetorical question but if you want an answer no you could not lay in your death bed without regret. And you’ll be alone without anyone by your side, because nobody wanted to be around a pill addict.

On a side note if a pharmacist filled your scripts without checking your history their consequence would be that when not if they got audited and saw that the pharmacy filled your narcotic pain pills for the 50th time in 2 months, do you know what would happen to the pharmacist? He would be fired and probably serve jail time. Their life would be ruined. The only place they would find employment would be at best mcdonald’s. They are not about to ruin their lives and career for a drug addict. And anybody is able to practice what they want this is still a free country last I checked. And when you call doctors idiots you better pray that when you are in a life and death situation that the “idiot” doctor doesn’t look at your history and say well here is smith again I bet he did this to himself just to get pain pills. Let’s put him in the back of the list because he’s probably faking his injuries anyways. When you cry wolf to many times people
tend to ignore you.

Stop deflecting on your addiction by pointing your finger at the pharmacist by writing in essence that they’re the evil ones. Because right now whether you see it or not you are in a life and death situation. Every time you pop a pill that may be your last time you pop a pill. Does your life have any other meaning to it besides popping pills? Don’t you have any other enjoyments in life instead of getting high? Can’t you stop in a lucid moment and put your shoes in a pharmacist shoe? Don’t think for one moment that your addiction doesn’t have any impact on anybody else because you would be wrong dead wrong. Again I have been down that destructive path it may have only been for a couple of years but make no mistake about this my addiction to pills has caused a lot of damage. But I am happy to report that I no longer am going down that path. There was nothing there for me but added pain and destruction. My sobriety date was April 26th 2009 without relapsing. I don’t miss it one bit and I certainly don’t miss the baggage that goes along with it. This will be the best advice that you’ll get: Go get help, go to a treatment center, start rebuilding your life because its to short to waste on addiction.

I am going to end this with something that happened to me about a week ago. I was going down to the basement and I lost my footing and I slipped down the stairs. I was pretty bruised up and I probably bruised my tail bone. I tolerated the pain and I never went in to get pain pills or x rays. Instead I didn’t focused on the pain and ironically the pain after about an hour subsided. Was I sore? Of course but not to the point where I thought gee I need to go get pain pills. In fact my tail bone is still sore but I don’t allow it to bother me. Your body was made to take a banging without pain pills. Right now your pain tolerance is low but in time your pain tolerance will build itself up. Before every time I had a flare up in my back due to lumbar spinal stenosis I would have to run to the ER. Now I tolerate my flare ups and because I am not dependent on the pain pills anymore I am able to deal with my physical pain in a more constructive way and I am still a true believer when I say physical pain is psycho semantic anyways.

Comment by Mis on 2010-11-11 22:50:38 -0800 #

It cracks me up how stupid some of you are. Getting all pissy like u are or feel guilty about something you did. God dam I was NOT referring to ANY of u, unless your that one pharmacist at Wal-mart in a Chicago suburb. I think either most of you need glasses or need to relearn how to read. WTF is so offensive about the truth? Lets see, I come in to the same pharmacy, the same pharmacist is there almost every time I come in. I come in 3 or so times per week with various scripts for Vicodin, Norco, Dilaudid (I actually scored some dilaudid once) percs and percodans, I have insurance but pay cash, because if I use my ins for one script of 30 pills the 180 norco I get in a couple days wont go thru. Pharm fills it EVERY TIME. ENABLER!!! HELLO PEOPLE!!… I am the ex-addict and damn proud of it!!! and some of the pharms I dealt with were enablers. The wally world one was an example of my many MANY times I did this. This did happen with more then just 1 pharm…. enabler again!!! WTF should I think? This is MY experience, my addiction, nothing for the blogger to make fun of and nothing you “adults” or so I ASSume to give your very much UNwanted opinion on. Until this was written, as a post I had respect for TAP. While I still enjoy his blogs, I find him as an immature piece of human shit!!! AND the reason I feel that way is that he takes things and blows them up and adds in his own bullshit that was never even said. In other words TAP is a freaken liar! and claimed my letter was unchanged and original. I understand he has to keep his place of residence and his patients secret due to the law, but “fan mail” making someone who respected the hell out of him look like a piece of shit? come on TAP grow up… UNLIKE most of his readers (I do assume that some are probably addicts) most are “professionals if thats what you think you are. You have never been an addict. You don’t know jack shit. I never once in the real letter I wrote said it was not my fault, it was. It was my decision to pop that first pill. So all of you dont give that holier then thou attitude. Don’t pretend to know what your talking about when you don’t know jack shit, and don’t put a HUMAN BEING down cause their telling the TRUTH and you don’t like it. Tough shit if I offended any of you. I don’t care you all blank faces to me, I dont take no stock in what you say. I don’t know you and I don’t give a rats ass about you. This blog is just more fun when supposed professionals bring down an addict. I am probably the only one who will say I don’t believe addiction is a disease. In some cases its just fun to get high, others it WAS fun now they want off only to find they can’t. Others are using to hide pain or trauma, (me) and some had a need for them and have been on them for so long they cant imagine getting off. My addiction BEGAN shortly after my son and dad died. rather be high then feel that grief… Oh and by the way that admission of why I started drugs I really hope you don’t make fun of my dead son and dad, I know you get off on making fun of things. TAP your my FB friend go and look at my son who died sometime.
I have been off drugs for 2 years now, well really 2.5 years. Your lies hurt me at first, but now I lol at them all, so do my friends. Especially at those who get pissed off… especially the last person who commented… I am still giggling, as are my sister, BIL and a couple others. Thanks for the laugh lol

hmmmm i wonder if TAP will even have the balls to allow this comment on nhis site…… My bet is no, he knows he is a liar, or maybe he will, and change this huge comment around to suit his needs and have something else to blog and make fun of…

Comment by Mis on 2010-11-11 23:16:45 -0800 #

I am not quite done yet, TAP I know you know that the addicts who read this blog all think your a total dick. Me included. I do, however have a certain, but small, amount of respect, for what you do. My own pharmacist, well he is a wonderful and caring person, most other pharms I have a lot of respect for. Always having to deal with the screaming tantrum throwing old ladies and addicts. I have seen addicts in action. Pharms take, no get the blame for idiot MD’s forgetting to fax/call in scripts. ( DO NOT THINK i AM TRYING TO “make up with u by being nice for the above comment)(I am not, your still a dick and your pharm followers, well some of them, are asses too) As I SAID IN MY ORIGINAL LETTER THE DOCTORS ARE MOST TO BLAME, AND THE PHARMACIST CAN BE THE ENABLER TOO) THE THE did I say PHARMACISTS????? I was speaking from my experiences. Thats all I need to say now, I am sure there will be more, if u have the balls to publish, God forbid I hurt the other pharms feelings boo-hoo…. I really hope tho, that the letters from your “fans” you publish again aren’t all lies like mine was!!! Jerk-ass

Comment by Monsieur on 2010-11-20 19:00:48 -0800 #

Wait, you mean retail pharmacies actually sell their product at a PROFIT?! HOLY CRAP YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND. Are you frigging kidding me?

Comment by Monsieur on 2010-11-20 19:06:43 -0800 #

You’re misunderstanding. It’s not unpleasant, it’s just unexpected. It’s something a normal, well-adjusted human being would do. Which, considering the customer base at pharmacies, is certainly surprising.

Comment by Lewis Powell on 2010-11-23 21:56:03 -0800 #

Well Mr/Mrs smarty pants it could TRULY be possible to lose or have stolden a bottle of Vicodin and need that replaced as if u are on these medicines you cant just carry 1 or 2 with u and not have your bottle or if pulled over and searched u can wait u will be arrested. And being that u may take every 4 hrs as oppossed to blood pressure meds that u only take once a day and wouldn’t need to have with you that would explain why that doesnt need to be replaced. I know theres the liars but dont group everyone together and ASSUME their junkies because that is beyond wrong. You obviously drink so should I call u a drunk and a murderer because others who drink go overboard and have killed people? No that would be wrong but with your logic thats how it should be!!

Comment by Betsy R on 2010-11-30 16:35:36 -0800 #

I am a very, very light user of hydrocodone, thanx to Morgellons Disease. Obviously, dope affects me different than addicts. Last time I had two teeth pulled, I just took a couple of tylenol and a doxepin and went to sleep. No dope needed!

I have no sympathy for drug addicts.

But what’s wrong with a doctor prescribing medicine to make someone feel good, even if it’s dope? That’s what a doc is supposed to do.

But the current holy grail for the medical professsion is blood pressure medicine! Blood pressure meds have side effects just like any other drug and are Xpected to be taken ever day throughout life. Then throw in cholesterol and other stuff for symptomless diseases! Noncompliance is a biggie for BP and cholesterol drugs.

I went through hell on arthritis that was really related to overwork on computers, while docs wanted to diddle around with the BP cuff and do cancer and cholesterol screening. My neck pain was “stress” and unimportant! I didn’t even need narcs for it. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory meds worked, and it took a few tries. Also, yoga helped! If I had caring doctors who dx’d my pain soon enuf, I could have filed worker’s comp.

Also, opiates lower BP. Why not just prescribe them to people who want them?

Comment by Prehistoric Apothecary on 2010-12-01 08:09:47 -0800 #

‘stolden’….great start there Oxford…..After more than a quarter century dealing with all the various sorts of ‘problem children’ who amble to the counter with a ‘here’s the deal’ ramble about missing meds…..if even a minor FRACTION of the number who have a ‘lost it, ate it, stolen from glove box of car’ tale were looking to replace their…..atenolol, penicillin, HCTZ….you MIGHT have a counterpoint there…..but that’s very nearly NEVER the case….odd that only controlled substances disappear in interesting ways…and equally curious that the same people have such problems so many times………

Comment by PharmD Student on 2011-10-25 23:39:35 -0700 #

Legally, you can partial fill a CII witout a hardcopy (in most states) in an emergency. Definition of emergency is up to the pharmacist’s discretion. You must get the hardcopy within 72hrs(also variable by state), but you CAN do that.

I was suprised when I learned it, doubt I’ll ever ok that but that is the law.

Comment by Wtf on 2012-02-06 08:50:27 -0800 #

What the hell is wrong with you people! I’m 28 with cancer in my back, the pain is unbearable. Guess I’m just a “crack head” you should be ashamed!

Comment by Labrat on 2012-04-27 10:56:35 -0700 #

That’s just scary-hilarious! Only true scumbag could come up this this gem!

Comment by InPain on 2012-05-06 09:32:58 -0700 #

Whoever said withdrawal is just anxiety has obviously never been through withdrawal! Withdrawal from nicotine is anxiety… Nothing more than a hunger pang. I herniated a few disks, have scoliosis, spondy, arthritis… And after all this happened I suddenly understood the need for pain meds. I took my lil ol norcos just like I was told. I was afraid taking one an hour early would kill me. Then I hurt my back again and the 7.5’s weren’t cutting it. So the doctor gave me 10’s and told me to take 2 at a time. After two months of this I stopped and the withdrawal was terrible. Felt like the worst flu on the planet. So here I sit 5 years later having to take meds just to get through my day. I hate it hate it hate it. But when I try to stop I’d rather be dead. Do the doctors understand? No they just want to give you more useless injections or muscle relaxers that don’t do diddly. I’ve never done an illegal thing in my life. I was in the military for 14 years. Yet here I sit, having just dr shopped to try and not go into withdrawal. If I had known I would never have taken that first pill. Tomorrow I’m gonna detox at home. I think I finally have the willpower. Come tomorrow though I might just be one of those crackheads you’re referring too. Your generalizations that we are all chasing a high and that we all asked for this are disgusting. I wish upon you just one day of withdrawal symptoms… Then you might be a touch more compassionate. Maybe not though because it just sounds like you all hate your job and the public in general. My non-using sister in law shattered her arm in nine places and tried to fill a script for norco and flexeril only to be told the pharmacy was out of stock. And then every other pharmacy she called was magically out of stock as well. Shame on you people for playing god and deciding who is or is not in true pain!

Comment by KBWHITE on 2012-05-27 23:43:45 -0700 #

Reading what the angry pharmacist wrote actually makes me sad. It sounds like this person really hates their job and has no compassion for people. Really, it sounds like you need to quit. Your not helping anyone by being self righteous, and you seem like you are miserable. :-/ I feel bad for both the addicts and the medical professionals.

However, why are you making fun of people that have addictions when most of them are suffering already? It’s just wrong on so many levels. Your name is fitting. You are an angry, miserable, and judgmental person. Why are you people doing this job if you hate it and don’t see how rewarding it can be to help people? When did our society become so incompassionate for other human beings to make fun of those who are struggling?

There are many that are truly in pain and really need their meds. Yes, many people become addicted while trying to treat their pain. That is no laughing matter.

Even if the person that you deemed as a junkie, is an addict, how can you not realize, that the addict or person is someone’s mother or father, that is someone’s brother or sister, that is someone’s child. Do you have the right not to fill their scripts? Absolutely, I don’t blame you. Do you have the right to pass judgement and make fun of them? No, someday someone you love or yourself may have a problem. Then you will get it. Until then, you will just be ignorant.

Comment by KBWHITE on 2012-05-28 00:34:12 -0700 #

Nooooo the spelling Nazi. It’s fun to correct people’s grammar isn’t it? You must be a pharmacist since your so good at judging and making fun of people. Bravo spelling Nazi!

Comment by Delia on 2012-06-04 20:28:56 -0700 #

LMAO… this article describes the dentist I work for.

Comment by Sarah S. on 2012-09-03 16:21:54 -0700 #

Totally agree with you. As someone with Crohn’s disease and secondary joint pain from the Remicade I take to treat it and the arthritis the disease itself causes, I am super offended by the majority of these posts by these so called professionals with so much education. (I went to college too assholes)

I am in fact a chronic pain patient. I’ve had to deal with shit head pharmacists who copped an attitude because I went through my Tramadol 3 days too soon. OMG sound the fucking alarms! I just had a severe reaction to my Remicade which caused me to take more than 2 pills per day…OMG 37.5 mg per pill. My doctor approved the dose increase. I didn’t realize that my bottle was already getting close to empty when I increased the dose. (end of the month)

You are not God’s. You are people who lack any empathy. So much so that it is really scary. You should consider another profession for the sake of the human race. Generalizing is dangerous. Just because you are in a low end part of town and have seen a lot of scumbags try to dupe you and their doctor does not mean you should drop every “chronic pain” patient in the same box.

Comment by Sarah S. on 2012-09-03 16:25:56 -0700 #

Thank you for you post Nurse G.

Clean cut youth here in terrible pain and have to deal with smart ass pharmacists also. I frankly hope they all come up with a nice dose of an autoimmune disease in their 20’s or 30’s and have to fill pain meds for YEARS. KARMA!

Comment by Sarah S. on 2012-09-03 16:29:35 -0700 #

Ever consider that the man is just in excruciating pain? Or is it just that he is a Medicaid patient? Or is it because he is black?

I know first hand of a mother who paid out of pocket for the maximum amount of pills for her DYING SON. Medicaid would not pay for the full amount. Her son was in terrible pain. She had to come up with something like two thousand dollars out of pocket. Trust me, if it were your loved one, you would get a loan or start selling stuff!

KARMA!

Comment by none of your business on 2012-11-26 20:12:27 -0800 #

it is none of your business how much or how often my doctor prescribes pain medication or any medication that I am on that is between me and my doctor! for example last night I went to my pharmacy to pick up my suboxone I am perscribe 90 of them and it was just time for my refill. I got 14 one day and the next day I asked for 14 more. I went to the pharmacy to pick it up in the lady tells me that the pharmacist said it’s too soon. understand that I am no longer on insurance and I’m now a CashPay patience. so therefore I pick them up as I can afford them. my regular pharmacist told me I can pick them up but no more than 6 * in 1 month. so I proceeded to ask him why I cannot have them and not the rule is that I’m allowed to pick them up up to 6 * in 1 month and he told me know you should have enough. this is the same pharmacy that I have been going to for the last 5 years in the only pharmacy that I have ever filled my medication at. he basically told me tough shit I’m not giving it to you. so I said okay I will have it transferred to another pharmacy. when you other pharmacy called him for the transfer he told them a bunch of lies about me. I get have a vacation override and that is why I had a lot of them in 1 month. so they would not feel it because of what he did. so this morning I called my regular pharmacist at the same parmacy on the phone and he said okay how many do you want I told him and said okay come get them right now no problem. and I didn’t only get14 I I got the rest of the prescription which Was 76 total. so that pharmacist is gonna feel real stupid whenever I call him on the phone and be like haha I got my medicine what are you gonna do about it. I love my regular pharmacist he is so cool and the other 1 was just trying to play doctor and tell me no. I hope he went to work today looked at the computer and saw that I picked up all of my medication I bet he felt so stupid. that’s what you get when you try to give a trusted patient problems . now who looks stupid not me

Comment by Katy on 2013-07-28 12:31:19 -0700 #

Well, I was just diagnosed with lumbar stenosis. The pain isn’t in my head; it’s in my BACK.

I’m doing everything, and I mean everything, to alleviate the pain, including exercise, physical therapy, and even surgery.

Meanwhile, I’m taking Percoset to manage the pain. I only take it when I have to do something physical that is going to make it unbearable for me to stand or walk.

I got a prescription of 30 five days ago. I took one – yes, one! – and for the first time in three years, my back didn’t hurt. The first time! I almost cried with joy. I had forgotten what it was like to not have my back hurt.

So did I take more? Nope. I haven’t taken another one in days (I think there’s a carryover effect. My back didn’t hurt nearly as bad in the days after taking that one pill.)

People with lumbar stenosis are in pain. I don’t know about others, but I’m not going to turn into a junkie because I take a pill for pain management. I’m aware of the side effects and risks, and I’m also not an idiot.

So Ex-junkie, we’re not all you. Not all of us with chronic pain are looking to become addicts and then spent our lives trying to hoodwink drs. and pharmacies into filling drug prescriptions.

I’m happy you got over your addiction, but frankly, you sound like an imbecile for turning into one. You’re certainly a moron for your “happy talk” about how “pain is all in your head.”

Just because you’re stupid doesn’t mean that everyone who uses medication for legitimate pain IS.

Comment by Katy on 2013-07-28 12:39:40 -0700 #

Frankly, I understand why they make fun of them. It’s because the lies are so obvious, and after the amusement fades, they probably get tired of being lied to.

Comment by Donna on 2017-03-06 23:08:08 -0800 #

That’s how I feel. Like I was given a life sentence. Pain meds take the edge off. Without them I wouldn’t be able to work. They don’t make me high or make me feel great. Just slightly less pain and slightly more forgetful. I wonder if my pharmacist thinks I’m a “crackhead”. I’m 29 and look fine on the outside. Inside you will find a mess of metal in my spine. I walk into the pharmacy not looking like I’m in pain… I have learned to manage it and cover it up. No one likes people that are complaining all day about how they feel.

Comment by Lazarus on 2019-10-07 15:17:30 -0700 #

Its always the same with these posts. Call out the addicts for what they are and you get hundreds of long winded stories from them defending thier nonsense diagnosis, and explaining just how NOTHING else works for them but morphine.

They are always HUGE walls of text explaining how they NEED pain meds to survive. They all sound exactly the same. Because they are all exactly they same, deluding themselves that they need morphine just to function.

Strange how the rest of the world functions without it.