CVS promises to investigate why Vietnam Vet couldn’t buy allergy medicine
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Charles Raby says his mother’s allergies were awful on Sunday. So before church, he took his parents to get some medicine. It seemed like a simple, everyday errand. Raby was wrong.
Because the allergy medicine they needed contained pseudoephedrine, the pharmacy told his stepfather, John Wisman, he needed to show a valid driver’s license to buy it.
Federal and state law requires that the sale of pseudoephedrine be logged, writing down the name of the person making the purchase, his or her address and the quantity being purchased.
Wisman had no problem with any of that, but he didn’t have a driver’s license.
Both Wisman and his wife are in their 80’s. Neither of them drive. They recently moved here from California, so they didn’t see a need to get one.
“They’re ringing it up and she says I need your ID. So dad gets his military ID out. She says no, I need a valid driver’s license,” explained Raby.
Raby says the pharmacist stood her ground. But neither Raby or Wisman understand why.
Wisman served in the Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. After more than 20 years of service, he retired and received a federally issued ID that validates it. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, it is a legally allowed form of ID that can be used in making pseudoephedrine purchases.
11Alive’s Rebecca Lindstrom contacted CVS to learn more about their corporate policy. A spokesperson insisted that military ID’s are allowed and Wisman should have been able to use it to make his purchase.
But when Lindstrom called several other local CVS stores, she received the same response. No driver’s license, no medication. CVS promises to investigate.
Lindstrom also called several RiteAid and Walgreens pharmacies. The response was mixed, but before the call was over, all of them indicated a military ID would be allowed to make the purchase.
To resolve the matter, Raby ended up buying the medication for his parents but says he shouldn’t have to do that. The CVS is located within feet of the retirement home where his parents live. Raby says they should be able to walk over and buy it any time they need.
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Filed under: General Problems
Just today my military ID was refused at a CVS in Tyler, TX and I was not able to purchase my son’s prescribed medications.
There is so much chaos and confusion in the Rx world these days that honest every day model citizens of the United States are ready to go postal. We have corporate chain Pharmacy’s with piss poor training for their employees. Then the governments involvement in everything medical has created much more chaos and contusions then there needs to be. Our federal government reminds me so much of a meddling mother in law trying to tell us how we should raise our children and we just want to tell her to shut the hell up.
Same thing happened to my son at Walgreens, they wanted his ID to pick up his medicine. They were hell bent on not giving him his medicine, so I went in and they asked me for my ID I gave them my military ID and they refused to accept it, at this point I’m pissed, I’m telling them that a federal military ID is better then a state issued ID. They would not accept it, until I got corporate on the phone speaker at that. They gave me his medicine, and we have never been back to Walgreens.