Louisville ER doctors seeing more patients overdosing on Meth. This makes me angry!!

[All Tell]

LINK

 

Why am I angry?

 

25 days ago I bought a box of 15 Claritin D 24 tablets. 10 days ago I took the last one and bought a box of 10 that evening. This morning I took the last one of those. Claritin D is the only thing that will clear me up when my seasonal allergies act up and they've been exceptionally bad this year, regular Claritin won't do it. It's a beautiful day, I decided to walk the 1.25 miles to Kroger to buy another box so I'll have in in the morning. Since it's been so nice the last few days I've been outside a lot and I know I'll have a head full of snot when I wake up tomorrow morning. I wait in line at the pharmacy counter since you can no longer buy it off the shelf, tell the technician what I need and give her my ID when asked. She scans it, gets a troubled look on her face and tells me she can't sell it to me. I know this poor, underpaid lady had nothing to do with the IDIOTIC rules we live under concerning pseudoephedrine so I calmly asked her if she could tell me when I will be able to buy more, she said she couldn't.:irked:

 

Folks, any law that keeps a law abiding adult from purchasing a legal, non-prescription medication to use for it's intended purpose is stupid and wrong. Now I know I'll face a day of sniffing, snorting and sneezing tomorrow. That's :poop:.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Jumper_Dad
R8

[Jumper_Dad]

Did you see her W2?

[Jumper_Dad]

I am sympathetic to your plight, but limits have drastically curtailed method use and just as importantly reduced the number of dangerous homemade meth labs.

 

Louisville may be showing an uptick, but limits seem to have helped tremendously in a lot of areas.

 

I would like for a better solution to be worked out for people that actually need it versus those just wanting to abuse it.

[All Tell]

She works for Kroger, by union rules pharmacy techs are paid the same as baggers so I assume she's underpaid.

[All Tell]

I am sympathetic to your plight, but limits have drastically curtailed method use and just as importantly reduced the number of dangerous homemade meth labs.

 

Louisville may be showing an uptick, but limits seem to have helped tremendously in a lot of areas.

 

I would like for a better solution to be worked out for people that actually need it versus those just wanting to abuse it.

 

Only to be replaced by opioid addictions of epic proportions. We throw free Narcan at that. Addicts will find something. I would love to save up all the snot I'm going to produce tomorrow and give it to a tweeker.

[Jumper_Dad]

She works for Kroger, by union rules pharmacy techs are paid the same as baggers so I assume she's underpaid.

 

Crappy union if that's true. She should go basically any place else in the world where techs make more than the bottom of the scale.

[Jumper_Dad]

Only to be replaced by opioid addictions of epic proportions. We throw free Narcan at that. Addicts will find something. I would love to save up all the snot I'm going to produce tomorrow and give it to a tweeker.

 

Friend I know buys it year round, even when he doesn't need it to stock up for allergy season.

Since the law isn't going to change this weekend do you have a significant other or parent that can buy a box?

[All Tell]

Friend I know buys it year round, even when he doesn't need it to stock up for allergy season.

Since the law isn't going to change this weekend do you have a significant other or parent that can buy a box?

 

Probably but why should I have to resort to skirting a stupid law that as far as I'm concerned does more to inconvenience me then to correct the problem it was intended to address? Kind of the same as a 17 year old finding a willing adult to buy cigarettes for them. What gets me the most is that I really don't understand why I couldn't buy it today. I used it once a day as directed and didn't try to purchase more until I had waited the elapsed time for the stuff to be used properly and had run out of it. Did the idiots that wrote this law even look at how much a person could use as recommended in a day or did they just pull an arbitrary number out of their collective backsides when deciding how much a person could legally buy?

[All Tell]

So I did a little research about this and what I read was slightly terrifying. Below are a few links. They are a bit dated but relevant to this.

 

LINK 1

 

LINK 2

 

LINK 3

 

Two things jumped to my mind. First, some private company who makes the program pharmacies use has access to what I would consider a medical record and they can give law enforcement access to those records without a warrant. One of the articles asked why not just make pseuduephedrine a prescription medication again and it implied that law enforcement would rather it remain OTC because if it were a prescription drug they would need a warrant to see buying history.

 

Second, you could be flagged if you make or attempt to make "suspicious" purchases, including attempts at different stores. I bought some in Florida when I was there last year, should i fear a visit from a LEO? Also if you're blocked from purchasing to many times that sends out a flag.

 

Now I'm paranoid about trying to buy it again tomorrow.

 

I also found out that there may be a way to see your personal buying history but since I didn't make a purchase today I didn't get a receipt and a transaction number from the receipt is required to get into the system.

Edited August 5, 2017 by All Tell

[BaseballIsLife]

The easiest solution is to just call your doctor to get a prescription for Claritin-D because that bypasses all PSE restrictions and you can get as much as you want (within reason) because it goes through the process as a prescription and not an OTC PSE item.

 

Also don't get me started on Kroger's unions that lump together pharmacy technicians with cash registers who work at the front of the store and subject them to the same pay and wage increases. Technicians do infinitely more and have much more responsibility yet are treated the same. And when you can compare them to other pharmacies near myself they are often making about $2 more an hour and then management has the audacity to say to try and improve retention rates and give them MORE responsibility. It's mind boggling. (PSA I'm a Kroger Pharmacist)

 

And unfortunately Meth use and consequently PSE abuse is alive and well throughout the state because there are some Kroger pharmacies have had to make it even stricter for some locations because of inordinate amount of PSE sales compared to their size and other stores. It will never go away but the limitations are imposed for a reason and if you need to get around it you just simply have to get a prescription for it.

 

And sorry for any misspellings/typos as I have been typing this on my phone while I'm at the car wash.

[All Tell]

The easiest solution is to just call your doctor to get a prescription for Claritin-D because that bypasses all PSE restrictions and you can get as much as you want (within reason) because it goes through the process as a prescription and not an OTC PSE item.

 

Also don't get me started on Kroger's unions that lump together pharmacy technicians with cash registers who work at the front of the store and subject them to the same pay and wage increases. Technicians do infinitely more and have much more responsibility yet are treated the same. And when you can compare them to other pharmacies near myself they are often making about $2 more an hour and then management has the audacity to say to try and improve retention rates and give them MORE responsibility. It's mind boggling. (PSA I'm a Kroger Pharmacist)

 

And unfortunately Meth use and consequently PSE abuse is alive and well throughout the state because there are some Kroger pharmacies have had to make it even stricter for some locations because of inordinate amount of PSE sales compared to their size and other stores. It will never go away but the limitations are imposed for a reason and if you need to get around it you just simply have to get a prescription for it.

 

And sorry for any misspellings/typos as I have been typing this on my phone while I'm at the car wash.

 

And pay more for it since since a pharmacy will charge a fee for filling a prescription assuming your physician is willing to write such a scrip. I won't even bring up the cost for a consultation with your doctor to get the scrip. Again, why should someone have to jump through all those hoops to buy and properly use a legal product?

[BaseballIsLife]

And pay more for it since since a pharmacy will charge a fee for filling a prescription assuming your physician is willing to write such a scrip. I won't even bring up the cost for a consultation with your doctor to get the scrip. Again, why should someone have to jump through all those hoops to buy and properly use a legal product?

 

Because meth use and production is still a problem and limits need to be put into place to help stifle that. For arguments sake, let's say we remove all the limits.... what then? Meth use will go through the roof. So what then will you do to stifle it?

 

Regardless the easiest solution in all of this is to just get a prescription from your doctor and we will run it through your insurance. If it's not covered then we will charge cash for it. And for the "fee" we charge, it's built it when we charge your insurance and they pay us that fee, not you. They may stick you with something to pay but that's what all insurances do. And if it's not covered and it's cash well there is no "dispensing fee" assessed as that is what's done when insurance covers it. Kroger just charges a cash price based on what they paid to get the drug so they can make some money on it like any other business.

 

My best advice is to just call your doctor and explain things and get him to send in a script for you. He might not even require you to come in thus avoiding a doctors visit and thus a co-pay. There are legal avenues for you to get around this and are needed to stem meth abuse. Whether you choose to use them is up to you.

 

Another alternative is to take plain Claritin and then use Phenylephrine which is an alternative decongestant to pseudoephedeine and may help you just as much as Claritin-D. Phenylephrine doesn't require you to go to the pharmacy counter to buy it with your ID and is instead available in the aisle.

[All Tell]

Because meth use and production is still a problem and limits need to be put into place to help stifle that. For arguments sake, let's say we remove all the limits.... what then? Meth use will go through the roof. So what then will you do to stifle it?

 

Regardless the easiest solution in all of this is to just get a prescription from your doctor and we will run it through your insurance. If it's not covered then we will charge cash for it. And for the "fee" we charge, it's built it when we charge your insurance and they pay us that fee, not you. They may stick you with something to pay but that's what all insurances do. And if it's not covered and it's cash well there is no "dispensing fee" assessed as that is what's done when insurance covers it. Kroger just charges a cash price based on what they paid to get the drug so they can make some money on it like any other business.

 

My best advice is to just call your doctor and explain things and get him to send in a script for you. He might not even require you to come in thus avoiding a doctors visit and thus a co-pay. There are legal avenues for you to get around this and are needed to stem meth abuse. Whether you choose to use them is up to you.

 

Another alternative is to take plain Claritin and then use Phenylephrine which is an alternative decongestant to pseudoephedeine and may help you just as much as Claritin-D. Phenylephrine doesn't require you to go to the pharmacy counter to buy it with your ID and is instead available in the aisle.

 

Doesn't work I tried. You said yourself that there is still a Meth problem. Frankly there's a big part of me that says let Meth use go crazy and Darwin's law will take effect and the tweeker population will eventually go down. Not a whole lot of sympathy from me when someone is stupid enough to use the stuff. If it's a choice between me being able to easily get a medication that work for me and thes laws I know what I'll take. No one should have to jump through hoops to get a legal product when it is intended for its proper use.

[capt278]

And pay more for it since since a pharmacy will charge a fee for filling a prescription assuming your physician is willing to write such a scrip. I won't even bring up the cost for a consultation with your doctor to get the scrip. Again, why should someone have to jump through all those hoops to buy and properly use a legal product?

 

My RNP writes me a Rx for Zyrtec D for exactly the reasons you rightfully complain about in your OP.

 

It is ridiculous what the law abiding citizens have to put up with thanks to all the junkies, tweekers, crack heads, etc.

 

The same problem with our grand legislators in Frankfort passing HB333 and Bevin signing it into law. 3 days worth of opiates or opioids for acute need. How flipping idiotic. This was a knee jerk reaction by the legislators to say they did something in response to all of the recent heroin, heroin/fentanyl, heroin/carfentanyl overdoses. It does absolutely nothing to curb those overdoses. ZERO. Just makes it difficult for law abiding citizens to get needed medication.

[rockmom]

She works for Kroger, by union rules pharmacy techs are paid the same as baggers so I assume she's underpaid.

 

Ummm, no they aren't paid the same. My son worked as both.