Just When You Think You've Seen Everything

I was just sitting down to write a post allowing me to vent about all of the controlled substance issues that I encounter at work as a pharmacist, when I found out that Taylor Drug had another Oxycontin robbery at 3:00 on Friday morning. I didn't work yesterday so I didn't find out about it until now, but apparently it was pretty bad. The robber wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and forgot to bring a bag to store the loot in, so there were Oxycontin pills (along with some Synthroid and glimepiride, for hypothyroidism and diabetes respectively...I wonder what the street value of those are?) strung all over the floor, out the window, through the parking lot all the way to where his car was parked. At this point I don't think he has been caught, but the surveilance cameras were on so at least the police have video. The robber did break several windows and damaged our dispensing robot in the process of his tirade. Apparently everything is still a mess.

Which leads me to the reason for this post in the first place...controlled substance issues. It is sad/scary/stupid/dangerous what some people will do for a high. Prescription drug abuse is a HUGE problem in Utah and I get to see it firsthand everyday at work. Here are a few examples of situations I have encoutered:

• A patient asked us to identify one of her medications over the phone because the pill looked different compared to her last refill and she was concerned. Policy states that we can only identify drugs if they bring in the pills. So she brings hers up to the drive-thru. The other pharmacist I was working with that day dumps the bottle out and finds a bottle full of BEANS. Like the kind you eat. Beans. The label on the prescription bottle said it was supposed to be for Xanax. He leans out the window and tells her, "These are beans." in the most plain, wow-you're-stupid-not-to know-these-are-beans voice. She looks confused at first and then realizes that her son probably stole the Xanax pills and replaced them with beans. She then asked the pharmacist if he thought her son was trying to kill her...wow, that's a loaded question. Why she had to bring the beans to the pharmacy to figure out they were beans and not Xanax I'll never know.

• A patient calls and says, "Can I get your price on #210-80-OCs?" FYI, in the legitimate pharmacy world, OC usually stands for Oral Contraceptive, aka birth control. So when Megan, our intern who was speaking to her, asked her to clarify what she was asking, she had a shocked voice when Megan didn't know that OC = Oxycontin. Sorry for not doing the street drugs, sweetheart. FYI, the price is over $2,000. The patient was somehow willing and able to pay $2000 cash for medications. I don't know about you, but I don't know where else you can get $2,000 cash except on the street. Oxycontin goes for $1 per mg on the street so she made $16,800 on her "legitimate" prescription by selling it on the street. No wonder she can afford to pay a measly 2 grand to the pharmacy for the drugs! The other thing is, who needs 210 Oxycontin 80's? That would be 7 pills a day for a 30 day supply which is crazy! You'd better be at the end stage of a very painful terminal illness to warrant a narc load like that to your body. It makes me think one of 2 things: either the prescription is a forgery or the doctor is a candy man.

• There was a story in the local news recently about a father and son who robbed a pharmacy of Oxycontin, took a whole bunch of them, then the son didn't feel good, so the dad drove to the ER and fell asleep in the parking lot. When he woke up, his son was dead in the seat next to him. It's a very sad story, but it's real. I am surprised at how quickly the consequences of their actions hit them, but those consequences were going to hit eventually.

I could go on, but I won't. I think I have vented enough for one day. I really don't want to come across as heartless or unfeeling, I just want to tell everyone that addiction is real and it makes otherwise good people do very bad things. I am not trying to say that prescription pain killers (or anti-anxiety medications like Xanax) are bad drugs either. If you are truly in pain, by all means treat it. It's OK to take Percocet after having a baby or Lortab after breaking a bone, etc. There are actually really good studies that show that if you are truly in pain, your chances of becoming addicted to prescription painkillers is very, very low. What I am trying to say is talk to your kids, nieces, nephews, etc. about the dangers of using these drugs the wrong way. If you have some kind of sphere of influence over pre-teens or teens, talk about it. Just because they are legal, doesn't make it right or safe to take them if they aren't yours.