Opioids I’ve been put on the Prescription Shopping Programme

[Keif' Richards]

Regardless of the law, which I really don't think any of us are in a good place to comment on, you have already really screwed yourself by even hinting at the lost Medicare card. If I were you, I would immediately develop a plan of deflecting this comment as something you didn't truly think through when asked about and be ready to be fully and completely honest. I'm not trying to scare you, but I also don't want to misguide you. If what you are describing to us is the true story, you have lowered your chances of being treated well from 50/50 to about 10% by being dishonest about this. Pretty much every pharmacy is going to have a camera set up at their window/in their store. It's not something you can very easily conceal man, especially if the cops get involved.

Honesty really is the best policy. Even if not for the moral/ethical reasons. It could be simply because you are likely to get caught eventually. As an addict you're likely to keep letting yourself slip, one more early pick up, one more questionable appointment and if you think you're going to snap back into good form before making a fatal mistake you are not approaching this with a good sense of how these things work.

I really only want to help you and I really feel like any naivete is only going to fuck you over more at his point.

 

[anonymouse77]

Poster hasn't returned since around the time this thread started. So they probably won't return any time soon.

I seem to have missed this thread the first time.

There's no chance they'll have gone to jail though. You don't go to jail in Australia even with much more serious drug offenses if it's your first time. You'll just get put on whatever your states drug diversion program is. MERIT in nsw is one they tried to put me on. Annnd I didn't go and I still wound up pretty much completely unpunished other than having my drivers license suspended for a year (some of the charges for drug driving).

The OP didn't say where they live in Australia, but in my experience it was always crazy easy getting into an opioid substitution program provided you live in a major city.

As someone else mentioned though I'm surprised this is even still possible. I mean I guess it's not seeing as they got caught. But it sounds like they got away with it for a while.

Where are all these doctors willing to just hand over controlled drugs? I've always had to beg mine for so much as a small Valium script and I just wanted them occasionally for anxiety. I can't imagine any doctor I've seen having any interest in writing an ongoing endone script. Not that I've exactly ever tried to get one. I've always just gone to my friendly neighborhood street pharmacist :D.

Thank you for your reply. Yes I am from NSW also and was shocked at the story. I do hope they are okay and believe they wouldn't go to jail without a lot of warning. Also if they were going to different doctors at the same medical centre then they had to have known each doctor would find out.

I am glad you are okay and stood up for yourself. I worry I am going to end up on such a list sometimes.

 

[Jabberwocky]

In my recent experience General Practitioners (Family Doctors or Primary Care Physicians) will only provide scripts for Schedule 8 drugs and benzos or benzo-like drugs on the advice of your specialist doctor. So for example, my GP will write me a valium script because my psychiatrist has authorised valium as part of my treatment plan. When I recently had surgery my surgeon told me to contact his office if I needed additional Endone and they would send a note to my GP.

GP’s are largely governed by something called a Standard of Care (I think, or something similar) for each condition that tells them what drugs that can and can’t prescribe and for how long. So the anxiety or insomnia ones have benzos as the 2nd or 3rd option for the doctor after psychosocial interventions. A doctor could still legally go straight to benzos but they would not have a defence in a malpractice suite or the support of their union if that subsequently proved a problem for the patient. The government also uses Big Data techniques to monitor the number and locations of prescriptions so if a doctor is prescribing more than ‘the system’ indicates is appropriate for the demographic area he or she operates in they will get a ‘please explain’ from the government medical authorities.

It’s not that the doctor is being a prick mostly, but that they are no longer as autonomous as they used to be.

There is also a big difference between being in a Public vs Private Hospital. In a Public hospital 10 years ago I had to beg for pain relief. In a Private One this year I had to ask them to stop giving me Endone because I don’t like it and didn’t really need it.

 

[anonymouse77]

In my recent experience General Practitioners (Family Doctors or Primary Care Physicians) will only provide scripts for Schedule 8 drugs and benzos or benzo-like drugs on the advice of your specialist doctor. So for example, my GP will write me a valium script because my psychiatrist has authorised valium as part of my treatment plan. When I recently had surgery my surgeon told me to contact his office if I needed additional Endone and they would send a note to my GP.

GP’s are largely governed by something called a Standard of Care (I think, or something similar) for each condition that tells them what drugs that can and can’t prescribe and for how long. So the anxiety or insomnia ones have benzos as the 2nd or 3rd option for the doctor after psychosocial interventions. A doctor could still legally go straight to benzos but they would not have a defence in a malpractice suite or the support of their union if that subsequently proved a problem for the patient. The government also uses Big Data techniques to monitor the number and locations of prescriptions so if a doctor is prescribing more than ‘the system’ indicates is appropriate for the demographic area he or she operates in they will get a ‘please explain’ from the government medical authorities.

It’s not that the doctor is being a prick mostly, but that they are no longer as autonomous as they used to be.

There is also a big difference between being in a Public vs Private Hospital. In a Public hospital 10 years ago I had to beg for pain relief. In a Private One this year I had to ask them to stop giving me Endone because I don’t like it and didn’t really need it.

Thank you for your reply. Do you know about how prescribing for chronic pain works? A few visits ago for a while my GP was saying that I needed to see another GP regarding my norspan patch as another doctor needed to do a pain review but last visit he didn't mention it. I am now out of it and not sure what to do.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Thank you for your reply. Do you know about how prescribing for chronic pain works? A few visits ago for a while my GP was saying that I needed to see another GP regarding my norspan patch as another doctor needed to do a pain review but last visit he didn't mention it. I am now out of it and not sure what to do.

You should take the initiative and ask your doctor what the procedure is for getting/keeping/renewing your particular pain medication. If whatever your GP does does not satisfy you, then I would suggest you ask for a referral to a specialist pain clinic. See this attached NSW government website for everything you need to know about how people get referred to higher and higher levels of pain management expertise. GP’s are not expected to manage chronic pain by themselves - they are supposed to refer upwards for truly chronic pain. https://aci.health.nsw.gov.au/resources/pain-management

 

[anonymouse77]

You should take the initiative and ask your doctor what the procedure is for getting/keeping/renewing your particular pain medication. If whatever your GP does does not satisfy you, then I would suggest you ask for a referral to a specialist pain clinic. See this attached NSW government website for everything you need to know about how people get referred to higher and higher levels of pain management expertise. GP’s are not expected to manage chronic pain by themselves - they are supposed to refer upwards for truly chronic pain. https://aci.health.nsw.gov.au/resources/pain-management

Thank you. I will. I have been referred to pain management clinics at the public hospital once before following an injury which left me with chronic pain and all they do is tell you how bad opioids are and try to get you off them.

I am super depressed without any pain killer and just feel like life is not worth it.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Thank you. I will. I have been referred to pain management clinics at the public hospital once before following an injury which left me with chronic pain and all they do is tell you how bad opioids are and try to get you off them.

I am super depressed without any pain killer and just feel like life is not worth it.

There is a lot of evidence that there are effective approaches to chronic pain besides opiates. My advice is have an open mind to learning new ways to cope with your pain. If your mind is just set on opiates and that’s that then you may miss some things that may help.

 

[✿Dai₷y✿]

Regardless of the law, which I really don't think any of us are in a good place to comment on, you have already really screwed yourself by even hinting at the lost Medicare card. If I were you, I would immediately develop a plan of deflecting this comment as something you didn't truly think through when asked about and be ready to be fully and completely honest. I'm not trying to scare you, but I also don't want to misguide you. If what you are describing to us is the true story, you have lowered your chances of being treated well from 50/50 to about 10% by being dishonest about this. Pretty much every pharmacy is going to have a camera set up at their window/in their store. It's not something you can very easily conceal man, especially if the cops get involved.

Honesty really is the best policy. Even if not for the moral/ethical reasons. It could be simply because you are likely to get caught eventually. As an addict you're likely to keep letting yourself slip, one more early pick up, one more questionable appointment and if you think you're going to snap back into good form before making a fatal mistake you are not approaching this with a good sense of how these things work.

I really only want to help you and I really feel like any naivete is only going to fuck you over more at his point.

This.Doctors don’t believe flimsy excuses and would be aware there’s doctor shopping going on. He would have pretended otherwise to get out of an awkward situation without confronting.

It’s probably going to help with being taken seriously re pain meds if patients have shown they are doing regular physio or some type of rehab for injury too. Opiates can’t be handed out forever without reason anymore. The replacement antiinflammatories and lyrica are shit and worse for your body, unfortunately it’s not worth losing a license over for some and pain doesn’t get treated.

 

[AyahuascaSeeker]

I am addicted to opiates. I have been seeing different doctors. One doctor from a different clinic and a few doctors from the same clinic. I have been getting endone and OxyContin from one and oxynorm and OxyContin from the other. One of the clinics I have seen probably 4 different doctors just because it is so hard to get in to see my original doctor. I just went to the clinic that I just see the one doctor and he said he got a letter from Medicare saying I have been identified under the prescription shopping programme. It had what medications I have been getting and the number of doctors. He asked me if I had been seeing a different doctor and I lied and I said no I havnt seen anyone else but him. He asked if someone would be using my Medicare card and I said that I misplaced it a few months ago so maybe someone could be. I said I would contact Medicare and get to the bottom of it because there was no way this could be right. He gave me a weeks worth of medication and told me to ring Medicare to sort it out. I have no idea what I am going to do. If he got the letter then the other clinic would have got the letter also. At least I can say that I have been seeing a few of the other doctors there but there is different opiates prescribed so that makes it hard. Can anyone offer me any advice?? I really want to stay with the doctors from the clinic that I see a few different doctors at because I get prescribed a larger amount of opioids from there. If I get cut off by both of them I am screwed. I will go into withdrawal and be sick over Christmas and I need them for my chronic back, leg and coccyx pain. I am so scared. Has this happened to anyone else and how did you get out of it?? Desperate

Being cut off from opioids is the least of your troubles. Doctor shopping is against federal law, the act is considered a felony. If you get caught doctor shopping (which it sounds like you have) your punishment could result in a multi-thousand-dollar fine and several years in prison. You need to get a lawyer quickly, because going through withdrawals during Christmas isn’t as bad as going through withdrawals in jail during Christmas.

 

[JessFR]

There is a lot of evidence that there are effective approaches to chronic pain besides opiates. My advice is have an open mind to learning new ways to cope with your pain. If your mind is just set on opiates and that’s that then you may miss some things that may help.

While I generally agree with you. I can't say I have any trust in the doctors who say that stuff. They have a vested interested in believing that there are other better options than opioids

If they believed opioids were the best option and that they were leaving their patients to suffer needlessly that would be much harder to live with. So they have a reason to wanna believe that's not the case.

Don't misunderstand I'm not dismissing the science regarding things like hyperalgesia and I don't think opioids are the best and only pain relief method for all significant pain. I just don't trust that 99% of doctors are really being honest to their patients in an unbiased manner.

 

[AyahuascaSeeker]

While I generally agree with you. I can't say I have any trust in the doctors who say that stuff. They have a vested interested in believing that there are other better options than opioids

If they believed opioids were the best option and that they were leaving their patients to suffer needlessly that would be much harder to live with. So they have a reason to wanna believe that's not the case.

Don't misunderstand I'm not dismissing the science regarding things like hyperalgesia and I don't think opioids are the best and only pain relief method for all significant pain. I just don't trust that 99% of doctors are really being honest to their patients in an unbiased manner.

I got put on this opiate "shoppers" program a while back. I can't even get panadeine forte prescribed these days, even when I had 4 wisdom teeth out at once I was suggested Panadol and rest . I've switched to Poppy Seed Tea, thanks to that. Now it's becoming increasingly harder to kick this habit. Next stop, smack. Thanks Aussie Government for helping those who need it. Grubs.

 

[JessFR]

I got put on this opiate "shoppers" program a while back. I can't even get panadeine forte prescribed these days, even when I had 4 wisdom teeth out at once I was suggested Panadol and rest . I've switched to Poppy Seed Tea, thanks to that. Now it's becoming increasingly harder to kick this habit. Next stop, smack. Thanks Aussie Government for helping those who need it. Grubs.

I really hope you don't switch to heroin. It's sooooo addictive and destructive.

If there's another opioid like poppy seed tea that helps I hope you'll stay at that.

IME poppy seed tea is much stronger Panadeine Forte anyway.

It's your life, and you're the one that's gotta live with whatever pain you're in not me. It's just hard to not wanna caution you with the sheer magnitude of what my heroin addiction resulted in in my life.

I wish you luck.

 

[AyahuascaSeeker]

I really hope you don't switch to heroin. It's sooooo addictive and destructive.

If there's another opioid like poppy seed tea that helps I hope you'll stay at that.

IME poppy seed tea is much stronger Panadeine Forte anyway.

It's your life, and you're the one that's gotta live with whatever pain you're in not me. It's just hard to not wanna caution you with the sheer magnitude of what my heroin addiction resulted in in my life.

I wish you luck.

I haven't gone down the route of seeking out anything more than PST. My goal is to slowly, one day, wean myself off it too. But who knows what the future holds... The more they restrict medications/drugs whatever, the more people are going to go down a very dark and nasty rabbit hole to fill that void. Yes I know there's a lot of "ifs", but I for one have thought of perhaps just smoking some H to try it out... Thankfully I've seen what it has done to a lot of people I know, but I'm one of those blokes who are like "won't happen to me"... But it very well could if I tried it, and found I enjoyed it over everything else... That's life I guess.

Hope you're doing well and enjoying life these days Well done for kicking.

 

[anonymouse77]

I haven't gone down the route of seeking out anything more than PST. My goal is to slowly, one day, wean myself off it too. But who knows what the future holds... The more they restrict medications/drugs whatever, the more people are going to go down a very dark and nasty rabbit hole to fill that void. Yes I know there's a lot of "ifs", but I for one have thought of perhaps just smoking some H to try it out... Thankfully I've seen what it has done to a lot of people I know, but I'm one of those blokes who are like "won't happen to me"... But it very well could if I tried it, and found I enjoyed it over everything else... That's life I guess.

Hope you're doing well and enjoying life these days Well done for kicking.

Sorry you are going through this. Why don't you try to get on suboxone and admit you are addicted to opioids? If things get worse and PST doesn't hold you over it's something to consider.

 

[AyahuascaSeeker]

Sorry you are going through this. Why don't you try to get on suboxone and admit you are addicted to opioids? If things get worse and PST doesn't hold you over it's something to consider.

I'm almost at that point. Might be the smarter way to get off this God forsaken shit. Thanks for the advice

 

[anonymouse77]

I'm almost at that point. Might be the smarter way to get off this God forsaken shit. Thanks for the advice

Good luck! I am the last person to be giving advice given my own fucked up-ness but I hope it works out for you.