2011 30 Mg Oxycodone Shortage (Page 2)

I am a 51 y/o who lives in Florida, suffering from chronic back pain, and have been prescribed to take up to six 30mg oxycodone tablets a day for over two years by my Pain Management doctor. However, when I went to fill my prescription almost 4 weeks ago, my pharmacy told me their distributor had stopped shipping oxycodone to Florida pharmacies. Since then, I have personally visited about 100 pharmacies but have been unable to find them in stock anywhere. As a former paralegal, I attempted to research the situation, but could only confirm that the DEA has yearly quot on all controlled substances (for oxy's is 98 million grams in 2011). From I gather from the Internet, it appears that the ENTIRE state of FLORIDA is not getting any shipments of oxycodone 30 mg. from distributors, but are other states having this problem as well? Also, can anyone confirm whether (and HOW) the DEA is pressuring distributors to avoid Florida?

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in response to Eureka of Wednesday, 11/23/2011 4:02:16 PM
As a doctor, I thought that chronic intractable pain was rare. How can it be that you, your boyfriend, both take oxycodone on a daily basis? and even if you each are prescribed pain medications why oxycodone? There are other effective pain medications, i.e. morphine, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, and more. Can anyone tell me the big deal with oxycodone?

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Opana ER = Extended Release
Opana IR = Immediate Release

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Dr Jake ..I wanted to address your question from my point of view. People who have been diagnosed as intractable pain patients are given a "one of a kind treatment" So for the person who said that she and her boyfriend have the same name medication and been diagnosed with intractable pain, you don't know if one of them has..say Lyme disease and the other Fibromylagia,
Intractable pain is as defined here,: is
constant, severe, disabling pain, which causes changes in pulse rate, blood pressure, and adrenal hormone production"
People who have chronic pain..it isnt a picnic!

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I believe intractable = untreatable. Anyway, if you read any modern medical tracts or articles they will tell you that it doesn't need to be intractable; pain is to be shut out of the patients life, for reasons that a life spent in miserable pain is barely worth living.

As to Oxycontin- to be perfectly honest, the young users like it becaquse it feels more like good heroin than does any other opioid or opiate. It was aggressively marketed by the maker who claimed it had little addiction potential. Yep- just like Bayer claimed with Heroin. HOWEVER:

Oxycodone SR is effective and much safer. The morphine I have taken for many years for sciatic and cancer pain is also SR, and I stop taking it periodically to assure myself there is little or no dependency and there isn't. However my life is miserable without it and since modern MDs have finally accepted the facts that pain should be treated aggressively (and I agree, even as an addiction professional) if life is otherwise as bad as pain can and will make it.

Before this policy but after a serious sciatica developed in me it kept driving me to street drugs, helping a thriving illicit market thrive even more.

To be perfectly honest i do not see how, as an MD, you have not read the hundreds of articles that elucidate the policy that it is a violation to NOT treat pain effectively. The journals are there to read, not just to waste huge amounts of money on. Furthermore, continuing education requirements must have touched on this.

If I may be so bold- I'm a bit skeptical of your assertion that you are a doctor, at least of medicine. If I am wrong please accept my sincerest apology.

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bravo!

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Thank you ChrisF and iwearsneakers, for responding to my posting. I did write it to have you to believe that I don't have a clue; but my practice is completely opioid pain management in Fort Lauderdale. I am a professor at the medical school in town so I am teaching as well. But my point is I can't see anything magic with oxycodone. And, I think I smell a rat when I see that everyone in the same family has severe chronic pain that requires high dose oxycodone. It becomes impossible to sort out who has pain and who are playing some sort of dangerous game.
As in some of the posts that I have seen on this blog; some people would rather wait until oxycodone becomes available again, going with out pain meds all together instead of working with the doctor to find another combination that works.

My patient schedule is low (12 to 15 patients per day) due to my very diligent screening and selection process. I believe that I can treat appropriate patients while a small number of inappropriate people slip through the cracks, and we have a good exit strategy to get those that are misusing their medications to the proper specialist for care. Over the last 3 years that I have focused on pain care at Medical Help Family Pracice, I have continued to learn and adapt my practice of medicine to achieve better results with more patients.

But like many post I have seen, I am very frustrated that at this time oxycodone is so hard to fill. Between limited availability and the DEA threatening pharmacies and distributors it has become a challenge to sort out facts from rumors.

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I've had severe back problems since 2001 abd ended up having surgery 10 2004.
I was on 40mg Oxycontin three times a day for a very long time. On one visit the doctor daid that by law he could give me no more then two pills a day since it was a 12 hour medication.
With-in a day or two I started to de-tox when it was time for my 3rd Oxycontin. I don't remember how long I was de-toxing the other eight hours in the day, but I can tell everyone that the pain you experience makes you wish you were dead {no B/S}.
I mentioned to my pain doctor I wanted off this s*** and it had taken him four tears to lower my pain doseage from the 40mg Oxycontin 3 times a day down to 5/325 Oxycodone three times a day.
Then after 34 years of marrage I was left with no other choice but to divorce my wife in late 2001 ~ and could no longer afford any doctor visits and due to their high fees and started taking about 20 to 24 @ 500mg Tylonol each day.
This lasted for 13 months, and after still having 24 hour pain a day, ended up calling my old doctor up to ask for some 5mg's two times a day of Oxycodone (10's that I had cut in half to make a 5mg{to keep the cost down}) and he gave me a script for 21 days then come back, I was quite suprised when oon my next visit his reply was to either live with the pain ro have addtional surgery.
(I LIVE IN NEW YORK STATE).
I an now seeking a Lawyer to see if I have any chance of a lawsuite against the doctor who read my recent MRI and couldn't locate the area of the pain. For anyone with backpain on this thread, the back pain fells like you were hit in the lower center of your back when bending over about 30 degrees (leaning over a sink, etc.) or standing on a ladder for about five minutes. I am now ready to give myself a 58 year old ABORTION if I want to end rhis back pain. I'm positive that i'm not the only person thinking of this.
*thanks to all that voted on the new health bill*

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Dear "Dr. Jack:"

While my previous experience as a paralegal who worked exclusively for Florida criminal defense firms naturally leaning towards verifying an individual's claim of earning a doctorate from a recognized college or university, our collective need to concentrate on the problem at hand teaches me to welcome your input and advice.
Fortunately, today I was able to successfully return the script for oxycodone that I was issued the day before before Thanksgiving and exchange it for a script fora comparable number of 8 mg. Diluadid, which affect my pain differently but surely beat nothing.
Amazingly, I had absolutely NO PROBLEM whatsoever in getting it filled at the local pharmacy with NO HASSLE WHATSOEVER. However, that experience LEADS me to once again question why the ENTIRE STATE OF FLORIDA is no longer an adequate supply of oxycodone 30 mg. tablets at the pharmacies. Can anyone provide me with verifiable information regarding the 2011 Florida Legislature's enactment of legislation limiting the amount of pills that each pharmacy can order per period, or credible information as to how the DEA may be pressuring distributors to NOT ship to Florida?

In the Struggle --

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After I posted to this blog last night I went on to the FDA website to see if there was a registered shortage in the state of Florida for oxycodone..there was not! Therefor this shortage is not ethical. For those patients who suffer from life long illness, cancer, Fibro, Lyme or any other terrible disease or condition that causes pain that tylenol or motrin does not relieve and are prescribed oxycodone for pain..in a nut shell this unethical shortage is not right!
I like most went through months of 'lets try this and lets try that" to get the correct combination of medicine to at least bring the pain down to a level that was tolerable and one could live with. When you wake up in the middle of the night from pain that makes you cry and your afraid to move because you know with each movement the pain will only worsen..Or you suffer from migraines and in the past have taken 4500 mg's of tylenol or motrin and have liver enzymes that are 300 from it..oxycodone is the least of a person's problems! If your licensed anesthesiologist pain management physician has prescribed oxycodone, a patient should be able to go in to their local pharmacy and fill their prescription!

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In response to pcrwriter. First, having studied the law changes in 2010 and 2011i have not seen limits placed on shipments to pharmacies. Second, a to how the DEA pressures distributers, I have seen examples.about 18 months ago the DEA determined that Harvard pharmaceutics of livonia MI was sending medications to pain clinics and that they should have known that something was wrong with the quantities of pills (oxycodone) ordered as compared to the number of ordering physicians. The DEA had the power to pull their license to sell controlled medications nationwide. Harvard pharmaceuticals is the 5th largest distribute of all medications on the country. They are just now regaining their rights to sell schedule II medications. At the same time the DEA Shut down Sunrise pharmaceuticals, and penalize/fined Paragone pharmaceuticals.

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Sorry about the typos. I responded using my phone.

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DEA HAS TOO MUCH POWER! Cannot AMA put on some pressure? (Apology for expressing any doubt as to your status as an MD- your tone just seemed too naive). I see now. Why has AMA defaulted SO much power to DEA? They tell y'all how to treat your patients. Of course they oppose the trend to avoid the depression and despair of chronic pain via adequate painkillers. I mean... SOMEBODY might feel TOO good. I know you recall or know of the old times of "the last 3 days of life" being the standard for opioid prescribing as well as the myth that they would "stop working" when a practically infinite dose can be tolerated. Take my word- I hold the SF General record for tolerating painkillers when I was being treated fort Sx secondary to Rado-Chemo after many many years on methadone. Approve or not- patients are individual and cannot exist under DEA mandated maxima for each controlled substance.

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I can't believe how many typo's I made in the above comment.
The divorce was signed in 2011, not 2001. Plus I noticed a few other typos.

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All it will take is several people dying from withdrawal and the state being sued for manslaughter. You all wanted government healthcare and voted for this, remember that!

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response to ChrisF:
The AMA is a lobbying organization with opinions. The DEA is a federal regulatory agency with ENFORCEMENT authority. If they have different opinions who would you listen to?

to Tweaky Marie:
Opioid withdrawal is RARELY fatal. It just feels really bad.

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How many of you folks are tired of being looked at as a criminal by other criminals? When you go into a pharmacy to fill your opiate script and the foreign pharmacist eyeballs you like your a dirt bag scum. They think low of you on one hand and on the other hand they gouge you on the prices which makes them criminals. Maybe they should look in the mirror next time they judge. P.S. I said foreigner because not very many americans in the Pharm biz any more

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Yes I live in oklahoma and I went to my local pharm and first about 3 months ago prices doubled Isuffer from CRPS2 also known as causalgia and nothing but 30s take even adent in my pain then a few days ago I was ill and my mother not knowing I hide them in dirty jeans washed my opana er and 30s I have the best Dr in the world so he savedmy but and wrote me a 1 time emergency refill I went to 12 pharms before Ilucked upon a walgreens who had just received an emergency shipment everywhere else said no more til next year

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To Dr.Jack:

I am sorry for the delay, but changing to the Diluadid has proven problematical, e.g., oral bio-availability issue, extreme nausea, and extreme drowsiness, resulting in the theft or loss of meds that will not be replaced. It seems like I have never found a practitioner who will prescribe a quantity of both timed and instant release meds sufficient for my tolerance. Instead, I often have to resort to self-medicating. I have "severe" COPD, 8 herniated disks, and stenosis of the lumber. I seemingly cannot move when i do not have any opiates, so why should the government care about what I get? Hell, if I overdose, they save money (e.g., SSI).

I am familiar with the arrests that occurred in Ft. Lauderdale last summer, and I cannot stress the importance of finding out exactly what is transpiring behind the scene. A pharmacist told me two weeks ago to thank our "governor" and "Walgreens," which purportedly funded some kind of effort to get the Legislature to enact something. If we can only find out why distributors cut off Florida early/limited supply, then I can shop out a potential class action.
Please Help-

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1) I never did vote or want national healthcare, also, I take about 40 to 50 over the counter pills a day now help with the pain (nothing works)...[acetamin.&ibuprofen]KWYSW

2) I believe there are going to be a number of people who really need their pain medication to survive, be watched by some stalker/addict near the counter and rob or kill her/him after they leave the store...

3) I posted a message below (with a lot of typos) about my experience with pian management and my fight with Oxycontin over the years...

4) I believe prior to receiving any pain medication script, the doctor should have you sign a form saying the medication is helping the pain through the brain cells, and not at the pain's location...

5) I was as dumb as a 5 lb rock back when I was prescribed 40mg Oxycontin three times a day ~ {what the hell do I know, i'm not a doctor}, because I actually thought the Oxycontin went to the existing pain location in my lower back... LITTLE DID I KNOW IT WAS ACTUALLY GOING THROUGH MY BRAIN & THROUGHTOUT MY ENTIRE BODY...

[Don't you think someone should atleast mention this to you]

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I too have not been able to fill my roxi 30mg Rx which I have been compliant and taken for years for chronic pain. I was just told by a reputable source that the DEA halted ALL shipments and is forcing a reformulation of the IR oxycodones. Can anyone confirm this? It is so sad that we will all suffer for the negligence of a few bad eggs! I have tried others and these have been my miracle drug. They provide me enough pain control to function and work! I am sick with worry about not getting my RX filled. I have used the same pharmacy for years and I cannot pound the pavement looking for a pharmacy that will fill. They treat you like a junky and it is sickening as I am a professional who needs these to maintain my daily life!

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