The Evil DEA
A Rant by: Joel, Director of PR at grey.fox.productions
A Rant by: Joel, Director of PR at grey.fox.productions
Okay, so update on the DEA… Since Rx drug abuse has started to effect rich, white kids, it’s a problem. To “stop” this problem, the Drug Enforcement Administration (a bureaucratic organization that employs mostly ex-military or ex-law enforcement personnel… not doctors) has set production limits on the manufacturers of Controlled Substances.
Let’s take Oxymorphone Hydrochloride (what i take... 15mg of the instant-release formulation a day) made by Roxanne Pharma as an example (besides my dose, these numbers are invented for the sake of the example). The DEA tells Roxanne that they can only make 500 kilograms of Oxymorphone HCl a year, which is 500,000,000 milligrams. i take 15 milligrams a day. So, that comes out to 5,475 mg a year. This means that nation-wide, only 91,324.20 people can take Oxymorphone HCl at the dose I take. The thing is, i was about to get my dose bumped another 5mg a day… So, i would need 7,300mg a year. 68,493.15 people could take that dose every day. Currently, ONLY Roxanne Pharma makes Oxymorphone HCl IR; despite it being a generic drug that any company could make. Endo Pharma, who held the patent on the drug originally (its brand name is Opana), has had the IR formulation on back-order for a year now. With the limits imposed on manufacturers, the wholesale companies are only releasing so much of the drug to pharmacies. Yesterday, when I got my prescription for 45 10mg Oxymorphone pills, the pharmacy only had 15 (and this is a mom&pop pharmacy i use due to their low prices and the fact they stock hard to find pills). i was told i could turn my script in and get the 15, but i would lose the other 30. luckily, the pharmacy and my pain clinic are in the same building… i raced downstairs and had the prescription split into two scripts, one for 15 pills and one for 30 pills. the other problem caused by the DEA’s actions is this… we live in a capitalist nation. supply&demand dictate prices. the artificial shortage created by the DEA means my prescription has gone from costing $210 to $270 a month. and the DEA wonders why diversion (the selling of Rx medication on the black-market) is such a problem? ONE of my 10mg pills could be sold for $40. if it weren’t for the fact i need them, it would be a temptation.
This action by the DEA does NOTHING to stop the diversion of Rx drugs. Drug manufacturers, drug wholesale companies, and pharmacies have no control over who gets Rx medication and what they do with it. A pharmacist just does what a doctor has told him/her to do; dispense X amount of drug Y to patient Z. Doctors are the ones that have the most control over stopping “Doctor Shoppers” or people who are “Scripting” out of anyone… and even they don’t have much of an ability to stop diversion. They are having to under-medicate a countless number of people with chronic pain issues as they live in constant fear of a visit from the DEA. I joked with my nurse practitioner yesterday that when my mom had to bring me her credit card (my insurance got declined), she looked/acted like she was bringing me cash at a crack house. The NP laughed, and said that when she tells people what she does for a living, some look at her like she has said she’s a prostitute or some other line of illegitimate, dirty work.
The pharmacy would not let me drop off the prescription for the other 30 pills… I had to bring it home. Now, I’ll have to call every morning at 9AM and hope the pharmacy has gotten some pills in. Then, my mother will have to take off work to go fill the prescription.
You know what happened when Purdue Pharma made the new, abuse-proof Oxycontin (which were still completely abusable)? The United States saw a drastic spike in Heroin use. This Heroin came, for the most part, from Mexican Cartels. You cannot STOP people from using drugs… and as long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. The War on Drugs is an extremely messy civil and international war. How many more lives will be lost and/or ruined by it before our country remembers Alcohol Prohibition and how repealing it did not cause the country to implode… it actually took money from violent gangsters and put it into the hands of tax-paying businessmen (who are now responsible for a majority of the lobbyists who oppose the decriminalization of drugs. if you’re doing drugs, you can’t buy as much booze. <eye-roll>).
We don’t live in a nation of liberty and justice… You’re higher than me if you think we do.
What do you think the solution to America’s “Rx Drug Problem” is? Is it even a problem? If you could walk into a store and buy drugs like you buy cigarettes, beer, wine, and/or liquor… Would you? Do you believe that harm-prevention (educating people so that they know the REAL risks of drug use and if they use drugs, they use them as safely as possible) or complete abstinence should be taught in school (the drugs caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol being included)?
