Oh really well after 3 years of frequently obtaining of benzos, dexies, codiene and dxm, occasionally while already high on the drug im purchasing, when exactly are these all seeing all knowing all recording pharmacists going to tighten the noose?
When you become the worst of a bad bunch. I know of one lady that made a great living doctor shopping and diverting drugs to the black market (all at tax payer's expense, healthcare cards are a scam). She got away with it for at least 3 years that I know of and now she is banned from all the pharmacies in our Area. We knew what was going on a long time before she was banned. Infact, the first time she walked through the door 3 years ago I knew what was going on. It was written all over her face. She had a story for everything and had a wad of only drugs of dependence scripts in her hand. She had the whole range of benzos; temazepam, serepax, nitrazepam you name it, the weight loss stimulants, panadeine forte's galore and even oxycodone and MS-contin.
and no one is going to report you for codeine or DXM, the staff will start taking note of your presence though and they will know you are an "addict". I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just telling you my experience. From what you described, once you leave they will all talk about that "john smith junkie" and the latest excuse you've used to get a repeat early. At the end of the day it's your life not theirs.
But at the moment exchange of such details between pharmacies is (probably) not happening. However, police might still be nosing around.
Yes it periodically gets collected by police's intel department from all the pharmacies in the area. Here the data is analysed and if your name comes up the most it will be red flagged. Inter-pharmacy co-operation only happens with extreme cases of doctor shoppers (another pharmacy down the road was warned of a doctor shopper probably heading their way with an early repeat and they did show up 5 minnutes later).
If you do not wish to attract bad attention, don't return to the same pharmacy to buy another pseudoephedrine product (especially the one they recorded your details for) for a while (i.e. over a month).
They won't have forgotten in a month, computer's don't forget things. They know what you are doing the first time you walk in. If you really have to do it, don't go back to the same place within 6 months I'd say, that way the cops will always have runners that are more active than you. This is no guarantee though.
Oceanboy: To clarify it is illegal for pharmacies to share patient data with each other. This is what I meant by "big Brother. Abuse of the PBS will get reported to the HIC.
I am a pro-health, harm reduction and minimisation health professional.
Then don't clog up the health system with doctor shopping and waste tax payer's money.
Sure, people may not be allergic to paracetamol, but what about people who simply don't want to take an analgesic with their decongestant?
Genuine customers are easy to pick and when we get a genuine request we still had a few boxes out the back that we could sell to them. Everyone else is given the standard "we don't stock it". Now that we don't even bother stocking those few boxes anymore we have to sell the combination tablets.
That's the problem, the speed manufacturing industry has wrecked it for genuine customers. Panadol is hardly an analgesic though and is pretty much harmless. If your nose is that bad you will have to deal with taking panadol.
If there wasn't a legitimate use for Sudafed 6 Hour, then it would no longer be on the shelf, or it would become S4. If it really is such a significant problem, then the police and government would overcome the protests of Pfizer and they would shift it to S4. Since this has not happened, I presume that it has reasonable therapeutic uses, and I wouldn't be so quick to assume that everyone wanting to buy Sudafed 6 Hour is a meth cook
It is borderline S3 already, and there are pushes to make it S4. My pharmacy just flat out doesn't bother to stock it anymore (as a lot of pharmacies do). Not one box of single ingredient pseudo. You are right, not everyone coming into a pharmacy asking for sudafed is a meth cook, we know that and don't assume that everyone is dodgey. The ones that walk in with a $50 note in their hand ready to go, that look like junkies, nervously walk straight up to the counter scouting your shelves for the right one and have a lame excuse ready to go aren't fooling anyone. Some of them are even dumb enough to stand there and then proceed to ask for, usually in this order, "telfast decongestant, demazin 6 hour or actifed", they can rattle off the whole range of tablets that can be used for extraction. All of which we don't stock because of this. This has led me to say straight away after they ask for sudafed "we don't stock anything that can be used for the manufacture of amphetamines". Then they get the idea, word gets around all the running circles and we now don't get asked nearly as often as we used to.
What is always funny is when you talk a newbie runner into buying a paracetamol or ibuprofen mixed tablet, they come back 15 minutes later with a nervous look and some lame ass excuse to try to get their money back.
Sometimes a car load of runners will pull up and one after the other they come in asking for sudafed (all 5 of them). If you reject the first one they all go away. Picking them out isn't rocket science.
I think the strategy of reducing access to pseudoephedrine preparations is flawed. Demand for speed will not dwindle.
It's not about dwindling demand, it's about dwindling supply. It is much more difficult to collect the stuff when pharmacies simply don't have it. I'm assuming the price of speed has risen since the new measures are in place because the price methcooks pay for the sudafed boxes the runners collect has gone up. These latest measures will make life harder for the "mom and pop" backyard operations that are typically more of a danger. This will have some effect on the market.
What measures do you think should be put in place to deal with the problems associated with speed addiction that I see every shift? I've even had one junkie open up and say"I'm sick of having no money and chasing all the time" she was off her face at the time (hence the frankness), I gave her the drug clinic's number and told her to call ASAP.
Do you write "senile moron" on the files of patients with dementia, or "limp dick" on patients who suffer from erectile dysfunction?
No, we don't write it (but we could think it), these people have genuine complaints. Customers that become aggressive, threaten your person or are obviously abusing the system get no love and others working in the pharmacy need to be made aware of this. The examples I gave were accurate descriptions of the patient's behaviour, if you find the idea of being labelled a "codeine addict" or "doctor shopper" offensive maybe it's time you changed your drug use habits. Everyone's human and you start to become a little jaded after even a few years. I only know of one customer that was labelled a "fuck wit", he really was though. After showing him his patient record we'd proven to him that he was wrong in telling us what he was and he still yelled and tried to lay blame with us. You'll excuse the french.
Most pharmacies aren't remote police stations either.
Pharmacies in our area were provided with sudafed runner forms, that they collected (this is the extreme end of the spectrum). The form asked for (amongst other things) their driver's licence number and the licence plate of the car they got into. Having said that, every pharmacy has its own unique relationship with the police according to its and the police's needs (sometimes the police initiate information sharing). No one is claiming that they are remote police stations, just be aware that they can and do pass on information to the police (I myself have refused this too our management, claiming that I don't want to make myself a target). It is up to you to take your chances. In areas where drug problems are particularly bad (read: the CBD of all capital cities) be extra cautious. Avoid the "community" pharmacies that stay open after hours and on weekends as they will have particularly jaded staff working in them. The larger shopping centre pharmacies (more committed to profits) could be the go. It all depends on the person in the dispensary.
A pharmacist that I worked with was deregistered for 1 year because he sold 5 or 6 boxes of sudafed to D's. It was a small struggling pharmacy and he thought it would be a good sale (I believe this as he was pretty straight and wasn't the type at all).
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
that they are prescribing an expensive drug for an appropriate purpose. Occasionally they will have to provide other proof that the prescription is appropriate (but this doesn't apply here). This is a checking procedure that tries to limit Dr's prescribing the most expensive drugs for a condition that may not be appropriate. If a Dr tries to write another authority script while another script is valid, or the date is too close the to date of the last authority script, the person at PBS will point this out. Approval may not be given in this case. As Hamedo pointed out, you can pay private cost for a drug that is on authority, but you would need to ask the Dr NOT to seek an authority approval (which would look sus IMHO).
