Doctors prescribe medicine for their patients but the pharmacy won’t fill them. Why?
DEA and pharmacist point fingers at each other
Some pharmacists blame the DEA for overreaching in the wake of the pill mill crack down.
Now the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Tampa is answer those allegations.
Legitimate patients living with crushing pain day in and day out say their pharmacists turned off their medicine supply like a switch.
Never ending – that’s how Robert Harris describes the his back pain. A car crash compounded his chronic back issues. For the last nine months he has gone to the same doctor who’s prescribed the same pain medicine in the same dosage.
But the pharmacy notified Harris it would no longer fill his prescriptions. Desiree Harris said they were given reason. And other chain and grocery store pharmacies turned Robert away as well saying they were out of supply.
We’ve heard from dozens of patients all with similar stories. We spoke with four pharmacists for this story including, Dan Fucarino, the owner of Carrollwood Pharmacy. All admit to turning away legitimate patients based on fear of the DEA. And Michael Corbin with Kings Pharmacy feels he has no choice but to turn away half of all pain patients who come in.
But is the DEA to blame?
The head of the DEA’s Tampa district office says the pharmacists are pointing fingers in the wrong direction.
Special Agent James DiCaprio heads up the DEA’s Tampa District Office. He maintains the agency does not control the distribution of legitimate drugs.
The Drug Enforcement Administration cracked down on pill mills in recent years. Two years ago the DEA targeted a Walgreens distribution center and six stores in south Florida. The case ended in a record $80 million settlement with the DEA for filling suspicious drug orders.
The action may have left other pharmacies weary of filling too many prescriptions for pain medicine.
The DEA was clear in our interview: In no way do they regulate the prescribing or distributing of legitimate narcotics to customers.
While two bills work their way through Congress that could help patients obtain their medications, relief could be months away.
The best a patient can do is form a relationship with their local pharmacist and urge the pharmacist to check the state data base that will notify a pharmacy if the patient has been filling prescriptions elsewhere.
Filed under: General Problems
“He maintains the agency does not control the distribution of legitimate drugs.”
I love how the DEA uses specific words to pretend they’re not to blame for the war against pain patients. No, the DEA doesn’t “control” the “distribution.” The agency controls the “supply.” And when you use fear as a motivator, then yes, you are also “responsible.”
When the DEA closed down hundreds upon hundreds of pain clinics, ruining doctors’ livelihoods and reputations (sometimes without even bringing any charges against them), and fining distributors, what did the agency think would happen? That everyone else in the industry wouldn’t be afraid that the same thing would happen to them?
Defund the DEA. No. More. Drug. War.