I'm on bupe again and I'm starting to get worried about supply because of the coronavirus. Supply chains everywhere will soon slow down or stop and bupe is made overseas from my knowledge.
Im thinking of going to methadone for a while because at least we make our own in Aus but even that could dry up if this goes on long enough. The pharmacies we get this shit from don't really care or can't really do anything to prepare anyway.
Any thoughts on this?
I won't lie, I've had this worry too. I think it's pretty natural to worry about it if you're opioid dependant and on a substitution therapy.
However, rationally, I don't think it's worth worrying about. First off... Far as I know methadone syrup is used exclusively for opioid substitution therapy, so it doesn't seem particularly likely that there would be problems due to high demand. Bupe might be a little more likely, but even then, I don't think these are the kinds drugs most at risk. I'd expect antibiotics, antivirals, and antipyetics to be most at risk since they will be used more if a lot more people are sick.
So that's the drug itself, then you have the other 3 risks, precursors becoming harder to get, transportation problems, and individual pharmacies having their staff get sick.
In my experience there are usually a few different pharmacists who work at different times at most pharmacies, so there's some redundancy there. Drug transport it a high priority so it's probably less likely to be left undone compared to other goods. And I don't think it's too likely that precursors which are used for so many things will be allowed to become unavailable during an epidemic. Not unless things got way worse than anyone's expecting.
All that said, yeah, there are risks, things can go wrong. Which sucks, but I don't think it's especially likely.
I brought this up with my pharmacist and she a had a similar view.
But that said, none of us can forecast the future. Ultimately this is one of those decisions you gotta work out in spite of knowing you don't have nearly as much information as you'd like. And difficult though it may be, it's best to try not to worry about anything you can't control.
So yea. I get your concerns. I doubt we're alone in them. But I think our nightmare is still far from certain to come true.