I think it would be easier for me to score some crack than it is for me to fill the Adderall prescription I picked up from the doctor last week.
I have been to every pharmacy in town. They cannot fill my prescription because either they don’t have it in stock, they don’t have the ability to fill a partial and make up the difference in a week, they can’t even order any because they are without a pharmacy manager who must sign off on an order of controlled substances in order to receive them, or they are incompatible with my insurance and pharmacy benefit system (not that they do much besides make it harder for me to get these medications at a decent price…).
Here we are, five days away from the beginning of school and there are exactly four. pills. left. Just four. My prescription ran out a week ago — I’ve been borrowing from Sticks’ prescription (we have the same script and same milligrams, so it’s not a sin….) figuring I’d fill both of them at the same time and be done for 90 days. I am an optimist. A naive optimist.
I really hate the way our meds are viewed by the insurers, state and pharmacies. I do understand that there are huge potentials for abuse, but let’s face facts — kids are getting high from Sharpies and huffing anything they can get their hands on, including canned air for blowing dust out of computers. Sudafed is off the shelves and behind the pharmacy counter because it can be distilled into meth and I’m waiting for them to announce on the nightly news that Starbucks is highly addictive and therefore has been restricted to adults over the age of 21. I’m sure someone is trying to figure out how to distill lattes into crack, too. Does anyone really think these measures really stop people who are determined to get high?
No. The people who are stopped are people like me. Between the arrogant little insurance pissants who don’t know me from their favorite grocery clerk but think they should tell me what medication to take if I want the insurance that my employer AND I pay handsomely for to cover them, the pharmacies who are completely useless when it comes to filling anything more advanced than a prescription for antibiotics and the federal and state watchdogs, getting this medication takes an act of God. Or a criminal mind. At this point, I’m not sure which one would be more effective.
At the same time, the guy down the block that just got out of jail after the cops pulled him over for a DUI and found meth in the front seat was in his garage tonight making noise, being obnoxious and speeding higher than a kite. Evidently he hasn’t had a problem scoring his speed, but I’m sitting here with a piece of paper and the prospect of being out of meds in four short days. What’s wrong with that picture?
Where exactly are all the folks scoring the prescription drugs that are being abused to such an extent that those of us with legitimate purposes for having them cannot get them? I want to know, because I’m already paying for these medications out of pocket since the aforementioned pissants decided that my doctor doesn’t know what he’s doing and dictated what medications they deemed appropriate in the place of his judgment.
If I could just find a dealer maybe I could avoid the aggravation that I’m having now and that I have every 90 days when I’m faced with filling yet another one of these prescriptions. Maybe I’ll pay a visit to my neighbor tomorrow.
