pharm wouldn't fill the done script

[MissyAggravation]

my husband and i just did a medically assisted detox. while in the hospital we were each administered methadone in varying doses to assist in our coming down. we were there wed - sun. upon leaving i was blessed enough to be given a script for suboxone from the ONE doctor in the entire county that is able to dish it out. i had already made an appt. with this doctor prior to our hospital admittance which is why i suppose i was the lucky one. my husband left with nothing but a handful of other scripts that he really wasn't all that concerned with. now after an almost three year steady diet of oxycontin and fentanyl - my husband was left to fend for himself. the one methadone clinic in town will not take prescription drug addicts and there is no one within an hours drive that will prescribe the subs.

so i DID make an appointment with a doctor an hour away for my husband with a sub doctor but it's not until the 17th of may. which of course when you're still somewhat sick from lack of your d.o.c .seems like lightyears away right?

so now to my dilemna and i'm hoping someone here can help me understand what happened. i talked our lovely general physician into prescribing hubby enough methadone to get by for 15 days. i will admit that i know next to nothing about methadone - i had never had it before this last hospital visit. so i certainly do not understand the legalities of prescribing it but our doctor said that as long as he was prescribing it as a taper and not maintainence- it would be legal and okay.

so we pick up the script and drop it off at walgreens and they act like it's fine and tell us to pick it up in 30 minutes. my husband and my father go back in 30 minutes to pick it up - and the pharmacist tells him he couldn't fill it and that we need to call our doctor and that they destroyed the script.

this all happened late yesterday afternoon and we are going to see the doctor today and we'll talk to him about what happened then. but can anyone tell me why this would have happened? the script was written out where hubby would take 30mg for 5 days - 20 mg for 5 days and then 10 mg for 5 days and then he would have been seeing the sub doc.

so yeah i am going to google the legalities of methadone in my state and i'm going to talk to the doc this afternoon but maybe someone here can clue me in.

oh and sorry that this was so long and rambling - i have not yet taken my subs this morn.

[candy]

Call your doc and have him call the pharmacy.

Don't know the laws of your state, but calling my doc would be the first thing I would do!

[nick]

Sounds ridiculous,but I believe you-plenty of dumbness around the war on drugs.

Actually,it ain't a war on drugs.It's a war on drug users......US.


Hope it works out for you and hubby.

Oh,If you have trouble contact your local NAMA representative.

[MissyAggravation]

it is ridiculous. i am fuming. and i am sitting here feeling guilty because i have the relief of the subs and meanwhile my beloved is sick as a dog.

the pharmacist did call the doctor and the doctor then in turn called my sub doctor who i had an appointment with yesterday after all this happened at walgreens. the sub doctor really didn't even say what he and out gen. doc had discussed but we are leaving in about and hour and a half to visit our gen. doc and hopefully he will have the answers.

i keep thinking that maybe had i just went to a different pharmacy everything would be okay.

and i'm googling my little fingers off trying to find info on methadone laws in the state of illinois and i am coming up with nothing substantial. if anyone has a link to some state by state info on the laws of prescribing methadone i would be most grateful.

oh and i did just register at walgreens.com and did the whole "ask a pharmacist" thing to inquire as to WHY this happened.

i'm pissed and my poor hubby is sick as hell and i want some answers as to why a pharmacy would go against doctor's orders.

oh and good morning/afternoon/evening to you all. hope you're all well and happy and happily well medicated. :)

[nick]

Contact NAMA.

at

rikaros19@peoplepc.com

I think you can ring them at NY 212 595.

They can help.

Good luck.

[MissyAggravation]

thank you muchly nick for that email address. i will be shooting out an email in the next few minutes.
i did check out the nama site but i'm just so frazzled right now that i couldn't quite find what i was looking for and i appreciate your help.

[halo in reverse]

Holy Shit, I was just about to write up a post about Walgreens and how shitty I was treated.

I went into Walgreens yesterday because it's is closer to my doctors office and I didn't want to run all the way home to my regular Pharm to fill my Fent script. Wallgreens told me that they would not dispense Me the Fentanyl as scripted, because my doctor put one patch evry 48 hours (which is what I need to be on) as appose to what the box says which is 1 every 72hours. They said that the computer would not let them do it, so I said fine I'll take it to my regular Pharmacy.... They said sorry we have already crossed off the script it is useless now, it can't be filled anywhere. I was so pissed. Now I have to wait till Friday get 2 boxes from Wallgreens and get another script for 1 box from my doctor, and take it to my normal local Pharm who never gives me a single problem. I have learned this before, with a issue at CVS , they gave me shit about a script for 180pills saying the max they could do for a controlled substance was 120.... I learned stick with the mom an pop pharms.

[freedomclub]

Although just about any doctor is able to script methadone, I think it's not legal to do so for the purposes of addiction or weaning, only pain management. The asshole at Walgreens probably took it upon himself to destroy it after seeing how it was prescribed.

[nick]

Although just about any doctor is able to script methadone, I think it's not legal to do so for the purposes of addiction or weaning, only pain management. The asshole at Walgreens probably took it upon himself to destroy it after seeing how it was prescribed.

This would never happen in the UK......NEVER.


Jesus,I thought this was to be a civilised society.


My mistake.

[ChrisCuts]

The Larger scale pharmacies all follow the advise of the Department of Justice/DEA prescribing guidelines and not that of the Doctors.

It's quite retarded actually, that people who have no medical background have more say in the dispensation of MEDICINE than those who have spent a majority of their lives learning how to practice medicine.


:mad:

[MissyAggravation]

oh no - i had typed out a huge email to that email address that you gave me nick and it came back as undeliverable. :(

i have to get ready to escort hubby to the doc's office but when i get back if our situation was not rectified i will try to email nama again.

i am SO thankful for these forums. i can't thank all of you enough for your help/comments. there's no where else i could go on the internet or irl and find so many people who know what it is we're going through. you all will never know just how truly thankful i am right now.

and for those of you that believe in prayer/positive energy - if you could spare some right now for my hubby i would really appreciate it. his mental state is pretty horrible and his physical state isn't much better. please, please wish the best for him. he really is a beautiful + peaceful person when he is right.

[greasy_bear]

What a mess!
Sounds like your doctor f*ed-up big time.
He tried to be helpful to your husband and was honest with the pharmacist.
That's no way to win a war on drugs.
Had he just had the script labeled "Take as directed" it may have slid through.
By describing in detail how your husband should taper, the pill counter got suspicious. When questioned, your doctor admitted that he was prescribing a narcotic to help an addict come down. That's a violation of federal law and exceptions are made for licenesed clinics. If the pharmacist wants to be a real prick, he might report the doctor to the DEA or the state medical board.
The conversation between the two doctors probably went something like:
Doc #1 - How can you be so stupid?
Doc #2 - Yeah. That's the last time I try to help a junkie. I have boat payments to make!
Sad. I hope everything works out.

[nick]

I'll try and get a faster e mail hook up for Nama.


Good luck with the doc and I'll be back.


Try bluelady16.1@netzreo.net

this is for a methdone worker in Cali,she should be able to point you in the right direction.


Oh and try the other e mail again,I checked it and it appears to be right.


Right this is the Illinois Nama rep's details......AndyRo2311@aol.com (details......AndyRo2311@aol.com)

or call (847) 949 682.

[Genon]

Contact NAMA.

at

rikaros19@peoplepc.com

I think you can ring them at NY 212 595.

They can help.

Good luck.


This is what I found. Hope it helps. Also, My Dr said I would be RX'd meds to taper me off of them when I am ready. Similar to what you described. So I am not sure how it can be illegal. I did a copy/paste on that addy Nick posted and it left out the '0'. That's probably why it didn't work.

Good Luck, I will be thinking more on this and discussing it with my Fiance'. She has been in the medical field for 12 years. Not a Dr, but has worked very closely with many. She also knows the medical insurance bizz inside and out. So if anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to hit me up. I'll do my best to help.


Erika Lear, CMA, Grievance Coordinator
rikaros019@peoplepc.com (rikaros019@peoplepc.com)
Or mailed to:
National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
435 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Or faxed to:
(212) 595-nama/6262

p.s.

Hey guys, thank you all VERY much for the replies to my first post. I never expected in a million years to have it replied to so quickly.


</B>

[jacky]

if you reside in the USA, it is most likely that methadone is illegal to prescribe for opioid maintenance therapy...that is, you can have methadone for pain relief, but not for detox or maintenance UNLESS, it is prescribed/filled by a methadone clinic.
SOME of these clinics will mail methadone to patients if they move to another state, but only for as long as it takes them to detox their patient, and only if that patient was compliant.

there are some exceptions, a few states I think back east have allowed normal prescription status to methadone maintenance patients.

in some states methadone isnt allowed at all for detox...only certian chronic pain patients can get the drug. and in that case they can get it like most prescription.

I belonged to a methadone program in a state that allowed me to take weekly dose amounts home with me, I lived just over the border in a state that doesnt allow methadone for junkies.

in short the laws regarding methadone are largely state decisions and therefore, the laws are all over the place...., unlike buprenorphine, which is legal in even states where methadone maintenance is not allowed for addicts.

the methadone clinic program is both a godsend, and a stupid hinderance to trying to live a normal life if you consider going to a clinic daily, or weekly for that matter, a normal life.

ohh, and the methadone laws are of course different for the rich and powerful, they get whatever the fuck they want. I have seen various cases of trust fund kid junkies getting methadone prescribed for back pain for months in states where methadone maintenance is either illegal, or maintained in the daily/weekly clinic environement. nice for them, sucks for us.

[MissyAggravation]

so we just got back from the doc's office and although the doctor was very regretful - there is nothing further he can do as far as methadone goes. and i'd been trying to get us both into the only methadone clinic in town for the past 5-6 months and they've been absolutely horrid to deal with. they basically laugh us off because we're pain pill addicts. they tell us that they have a huge waiting list for people wanting to come in but then they don't even bother putting us on that list. very disdainful but i'm sure there are clinics like this everywhere - maybe just as many treating people like shit as there are helping people.

so for right now i am sharing my subs with hubby.

i had a question that i just posted in the sub forum and i hate to cross post but i wanted to ask if anyone knows anything about the wearing of dentures and administering subs and if the dentures should be taken out or what. he's had a pill that i cut into two in his mouth now for almost 25 minutes and it's not properly dissolving.

i have to leave again to drop off his script for prozac.

and thanks to everyone for the help and i'll be checking out those links and sending out emails upon my return.

be well everyone! :)

[TappyTibbons]

Th majority of the people using the clinic in my area ARE pain pill addicts. I would say a good 75% of the people i met in there, were their for oxycontin. All anyone had to do to start receiving treatment was walk in, on any weekday morning, and go through a little intake paperwork and get some blood drawn and bam, you paid your 12 bucks and got dosed. Shit, they couldn't even get my blood. So really they had no way of proving that I had been using, and they dosed me 30mg. of done the first day. They said they would have to try and get my blood on a later date... but they never did. My area seems to have a SEVERE problem with youth using OC, the clinic wouldn't dare turn away someone addicted to pain pills here.

[MissyAggravation]

Th majority of the people using the clinic in my area ARE pain pill addicts. I would say a good 75% of the people i met in there, were their for oxycontin. All anyone had to do to start receiving treatment was walk in, on any weekday morning, and go through a little intake paperwork and get some blood drawn and bam, you paid your 12 bucks and got dosed. Shit, they couldn't even get my blood. So really they had no way of proving that I had been using, and they dosed me 30mg. of done the first day. They said they would have to try and get my blood on a later date... but they never did. My area seems to have a SEVERE problem with youth using OC, the clinic wouldn't dare turn away someone addicted to pain pills here.


i think in an ideal world every methadone clinic would operate like that. sadly such is not the case. and also our demographic is such that an oxy/fent habit as serious as ours is a rarity - heroin is quite big in these parts and opiate pain meds are VERY hard to come by and when they are available they're mostly so overpriced that in an area like we live in (very low income median) if anyone does abuse pain killers it's purely recreational and not habitual. and so since there's only one clinic in town - they give top priority to the heroin users. i mean i'm glad that they are there to help those who need it - but they're picking and choosing who needs it and it just doesn't seem fair.

[prettypoppy]

It is illegal for doctors to script methadone for addiction treatment for more than 3 days. They can script for three days--or maybe it's just that they can DISPENSE enough for 3 days--IF the person is waiting to get into a program and is in withdrawals, or some catastrophe has prevented them from being dosed at their clinic, etc. They canNOT script 15 days worth of done for tapering purposes. He would have had to put "for pain" on there, and the way he write it, it was obviously for tapering, so the pharmacist (god's own drug war troop leaders) took it upon himself to call the doc and enlighten him, and destroy the script, and then was too cowardly to bother explaining to you and put it off on the doc who tried to help you. I do believe it's against the law in every state for them to script for more than 3 days for addiction.

[lolleedee]

I'm sorry for all the trouble you are having. It is ridiculous that the medical establishment sees addiction as an "illness" or a "disease", yet won't prescribe medicaton as they would for any other "illness" or "disease". makes me ill and angry!!!!:mad:

[tonyk]

Missy & Hubby, I hope things get better for you. You are trying so hard to do the right thing and the U.S.of A. Gov't. just fucks you over and over. Just hang tough, I don't know if it means much to you two but you are in my very heartfelt thoughts and prayers for something to work out for you! Posative thoughts and vibes your way!

[MissyAggravation]

much appreciation to everyone who commented/offered advice/sent postive vibes + prayers. it really was a great help as hubby has done a complete turnaround in the past 48 hours. luckily my sub doc was kind enough to suggest that i give some subs as needed to hubby to get him by until he gets to his own sub doc on the 17th and the subs have really worked their magic on him as he's returning to work his midnight shift this evening after being out of work for the past 10 days.
and i did find out from my gen. doc about the whole three day thing vs. scripting it for pain. had he written it up as a script for pain it most likely would have gotten through he admitted. but because he has an excellent reputation and is an honest man he thought that being truthful about it was the best way to go. that and my own sub doc had instructed him on how to write the script for the done - i guess not realizing the true legal issues a gen. physician could get into if the pharm really wanted to be a dick about it.
but like i said - right now everything in our home is peaceful and somewhat normal considering what we've been through the past two weeks.
thanks again to each and every one of you.

[HeidiW]

Unfortunately, it is ultimately the pharmacist's descretion. I have gone round and round and round with them bastard's over my methadone. I've had them accuse me of forgery, call my Dr and question HIS judgement, you name it. I can't BELIEVE the authority they have (or think they have;))

Best of luck to you.

[MissyAggravation]

thanks heidi! :)

yeah i think what bothered me most about the pharm issue was that the fucker thought that he had the right to override my doctor. i mean i understand the legal issues and all - but still for some stupid pharm tech to get his panties in a bunch over what my doctor thought was best for my husband left a really bad taste in my mouth. basically all the franchise pharms may as well be little dea substations or something. fuckers.

we're going to be switching all our scripts over to a mom and pop pharm as i think they'll be less likely to hassle us in the future no matter what the script is for(because walgreens even freaked about my sub script).

[antigonemuse]

bless mom and pop pharms

[Papa Verine]

As you have learned Missy, it is illegal for doctors to prescribe methadone in this manner in Illinois. They're only allowed to write it as a pain med... not to taper off other opiates/opioids.

Your Gen. Doc meant well but he should have wrote the script "as needed for pain" or whatever.

I talked a doc. into giving me a low dose of methadone for a week when I was kicking heroin once but she made it very clear to me that I was taking the methadone for pain. We discussed this issue for a while before she wrote it.

Very good thing, you sharing your subs with the hubby! That will really save his ass.

[Sinderella]

You know now that I think about it if a doctor were actually to write a script for a tapering amount of methadone for someone coming off pain pills or herion and put on the script "for pain" he really wouldnt be lying..Hell I know all the times I have went through withdrawals I hurt like HELL!!

[vanilla_mlkshake2007]

This happened to me to MISSY and also on the !st..I brought my script to the pharmacy and they said 10 minutes,so I come back in 10 minutes and they say"We can't fill it without a P.P.A." and yours has expired" so anyways I go back home after spending $15 bucks on cab fair,Wait till the next day and still no PPA.
Well I finally get my PA last night and they said it was a new state law for people that had been on the Suboxone program and this had to be done yearly.Well then the bastards say they will fill the script because they now have the PA,so I'm all sweaty BAD,BAD,SWEATY,not to add edgy, bitchy,and getting really pissed off but I know in 15 minutes that I will be able toeat my wafer right there in the drugstore.
So I go shopping a bit while they are suppose to be filling my script and the pharmacist finds me in the store and says"We've had a bit of problem,the DR that is your normal DR. didn't fill out the script.It was filled out by DR.B and was supposed to be written out by DR.M.
Well by this time I am sweating to death right before there eyes because I always get my drugs monthly and did quite a bit of extra morph ,while anticipating this script.So anyways I get ready to leave the store and I say to myself FUCK THIS!!! THEY ARE TREATING ME LIKE THE JUNKY I AM!!!,so I go back to the pharmacy a third time and say "Look there has to be something you can do" and they say not till I have a script with DR.M's name on it.
Anyways, I have spent almost 30 bucks in cab fare going to this pharmacy between the 1st of May and today.So I tell the pharmacist this and that it will cost me another 16 bucks to come back here for the script.So I ask him how much the script is and he says $17.
So I bought it.Fuck Maine Care.I don't know what the new law is about getting meth prescribed to you after you have been on the suboxone program,but next time they throw this shit at me about PPA's and the wrong DR signed it ,I'll just pay for the shit.I got 30 of the 40 milligram methadone wafers for under 17 bucks.Alot better then throwing my money to the cab companies right?
I do get a measly 40 milligrams a day of methadone for pain but I use it when I'M outta pain meds or for withdrawals.I do 80-120 a day easily so the script doesn't last long,but I make it last till I get my morphine script That I score monthly.

[MissyAggravation]

sinderella you are dead on right saying that technically the done prescribed for someone in deetees IS for pain. i hadn't thought of it from that angle but now that i see it like that i think it's a shame that the medical community/pharms don't see it that way.

and vanilla - you poor thing. you must definitely have my sympathies. i know what it's like to be sweating and sick and waiting and THINKING that you're so close to relief and to then have it not be possible. with me it was dealing with my dealers though and mostly them waiting on getting their scripts so i could get what i needed to get me right. but i really feel for you because i have been there mentally/physically. and it's horrible that you're having to spend all that money on cab fair going back and forth when they can't get their shit straight. i'm so sorry that you or anyone else has to go through bs like this. oh and you mentioned maine care? are you in maine? i ask because my hubby and i might be moving there in the next couple of months for hubby's promotional transfer. we're thinking either houlton, maine or central point, oregon. and now that i'm on suboxone and hubby will be on it soon i am worried about the rural area of maine that we would be in and if there are even sub docs out there. we might have to base our decision on where to move basied solely on whether or not we're able to find sub docs. so if you do live in maine and can offer me any info on how things work in your state for us junkies/recovering junkies i would be most appreciative. if you prefer not to disclose it here you could always pm me. :)

and to the rest of you - hope you're all well and happy and happily well medicated!