Shortage In Florida
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March 3 2013 I can't find Methadone anywhere in Jacksonville FL. I've searched for five days and have called dozens of pharmacies and visited several that would not tell me over phone

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17

For all who live in Florida you are aware of the terrible problem of filling narcotic pain medication prescriptions. I am not connected with this petition but want you to be aware of it and I am providing a link to this petition so hopefully pharmacies will be forced to carry adequate supply of medication for refills. I moved to Florida to retire from Missouri. I am sorry I made this choice as I must go sometime weeks waiting on a pharmacy any of them to have quantity to fill my script. As you know 9 out of 10 times the pharmacies never have any on hand. Then we are forced to drive (not able to call) to pharmacy to other pharmacy to see if they can fill it. The law in Florida is so strict you cannot leave your prescription at the pharmacy to be filled, nor can you be provided by phone if the pharmacy can fill it, using walgreens as an example, if at a walgreens and they inform you they are unable to fill it, that store is not allowed to call any other walgreens as a courtesy to see if any other walgreen location can fill it for you. This means spending whole days driving from pharmacy to pharmacy just trying to get a script filled. So if this pertains to your life, sign this new petition. I hope you then will at least feel better by knowing you tried to help. Thanks: petitions.moveon.org/sign/florida-prescription.fb50?source=s.fb&r_by=10997709

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16

i have been in chronic pain for 35 years & have gone thru the Oxycontin/then that was taken away/put on methadone/that was taken away/ and it just goes on. believe me there r other ways to help deal w/ your pain & methadone isn't one of them. it went straight into my bones & caused osteoporosis, kidney damage & was literally the worst drug (poison I've ever had to come off of)!!! try a combo of learning meditation so u don't shoot yourself w/ the 2nd arrow. yes, u have the pain, but if u focus on it u r just shooting more arrows into the same spot. when u breath in think silently i feel tension & on your out breath say silently i'm releasing the tension. i still have 25 bottles of liquid methadone just to remind me i never want to take it ever again & haven't touched them no matter how much i hurt!!! please take it from some one who's been there done that!!!!!

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15

I also have been on methadone for over 18 yrs. Began on a clinic, treated terrible. Thank goodness i then started to be prescribed by pain doctor along with break through meds for chronic pain,roxicodone.along with meds for other non controlled prescriptions major health issues.am on disability.cannot express the inability 2 get meds filled.so sick.many people I've heard get theirs filled by mail order thru medicare plans.my concern will they fill my methadone&oxycodone, along with non controlled substances. I am desperate.live in Hollywd,fl. Any answers or info greatly appreciated.

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14

I have to add that methadone's possible side effects far outweigh its benefits much of the time. There are much safer pain meds you can try for chronic, severe pain, and combinations of certain meds may work just as well, without the additional risk. Dosing methadone is extremely tricky. A therapeutic dose for one patient could be fatal in another. The respiratory depression risk is a very real one, and patients who have taken it for years have been known to suffer overdoses when taking their usual dose. I would highly recommend you ask to be weaned off of methadone and put on something else for chronic pain, with another med for breakthrough pain. It is extremely difficult to get off of methadone as well, and some patients remain addicted to it for life, unable to cut it out of their lives comfortably. Everything else, aside from illegal drugs, is safer.

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13

@ Jason..Were you only trying Walgreens or all pharmacy's? I have been trying to fill my prescription and all Walgreens are out. No other pharmacy's want to fill for new patients. I recently switched to this medication because oxycodone was so hard to fill and I was sick of the pharmacy crawl. Now I'm doing it with this medication. Anyone have a suggestion as to what medicine is available that I could have my doctor write me a prescription for? I'm sick of looking for this medicine! As of Sunday, I will be extremely ill!! I need a new pharmacy!!

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12

Why don't we all fight back. Stop the DEA from making Healthcare Choices they shouldn't be making. The DEA is Causing Widespread Suffering. It's only going to Get Worse. If We All Call Every Congress person and Senators Every day. Call the president. You can Get All the Phone Numbers and Emails online. If We Sit By and Do Nothing They will do the Same. If we all flood the phone's and emails and complain enough something will change. But We Can Know Longer Just Stand By and let The DEA make us Suffer. This is the DEA new Front On The WAR ON DRUGS. It's a Waist Of Tax Money. Please make the phone calls and send the emails and letters. We all together can make change

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11

I really don't know much about this issue. I do agree with many people who have posted here that it is cruel to cut people in chronic pain (like my 93 year old mom) off from the only kind of medication that can help them with their pain. She has severe rheumatoid arthritis of the spine (ankylosing spondylitis). There is a kind of knee-jerk witch hunt reaction going on in the country at this time and I hope that it will not prevail and go overboard so that people are forced to end their days in more pain than is necessary-- or live their days so. BUt I do urge caution with methadone, just out of family experience!

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10

@Verwon:
Again, there is no shortage. It's proven by looking at the list of shortages posted by the DEA. Pharmacies in certain states are being threatened to allow very few schedule 2 rx's through or they may lose licensing. There is plenty of product available- that is NOT why they are not doling out prescriptions. I am a medical student with two doctor parents; the DEA's general public statements are not always true!

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9

I've been on methadone for 8 years, for chronic pain. Never had any problem getting my medication before. But the DEA is Making the disabled sick people living in chronic pain hell, we must all take a stand and Complain to every Senator &.Congress person the governor If enough people b**** and complain, tell everyone how people are suffering because of the DEA. If you don't do anything nothing will change. Together we can demand change, I don't won't the DEA Making anymore choices about my Healthcare. Will you Join me in This fight. Make some Calls send some emails and letter. Hell I've been calling them every week. But it will take more than one person we must stand up to This. Enough people have been suffering.DEA know. We have got to complain to Everyone. If they won't to be reelected they will HELP Us.

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8

These people are playing God and think its perfectly acceptable to cut off thousands of people from a super addictive drug that not only makes life normal for thousands of people in pain, but also keeps heroin and other opiate users from drowning in their addiction! It's absolutely pathetic that this country has made such a mess of the healthcare and drug systems and the "war on drugs" is going to hurt far more people than it will help. This is a terribly dangerous drug to abruptly discontinue, yet these idiots at pharmacies in Florida don't care. They'd rather let hundreds suffer than get a warning from the morons at the DEA. Pharmacists are already far too plentiful in this country, so people with jobs are so over cautious with what they dispense, they end up hurting or even killing people! Pretty soon, there will be no need for pharmacists and there is such a deficit of pharmacy jobs, yet new pharmacy schools go up every month! Greed and stupidity. That's what the USbis made of apparently.

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7

My brother died of an overdose of Methadone and cocaine. It's terribly dangerous stuff-- it can just stop your breathing like THAT! And believe me, I am not a moralist when it comes to pain control. I am not sure of the answer, but perhaps there is something else (anything,even morphine, would be somewhat better) that could be used instead. Please -- be careful!

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6

I get a RX for meth. I'm a dis. V. Nam vet w/ back pain and been on meth for over 40 yrs, when in NY i had no trouble getting it, but now in ft.pierce fl. dam i have to pull teeth to find a drug store 6that has it, cvs - no way but some wallgreens carry it. i t is a cheep drug but try to find it, as far as mail order, well it is a FELONY in the US to get it by mail order even with a Rx. don't get caught... go to a pain clinic for it. once a mo.

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5

Thank you for the information. But the pharmacies that I did call on the phone I had them pull my name up in their computer to see that I had gotten the medicine from them before so they were willing to help me. I agree some may have lied to me but I believe most were honest with me. And I did visit several in person so they're definitely is a shortage. Out of all the pharmacies on visited at least half a dozen told me that the methadone was on backorder and had been on backorder for weeks.

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4

i used to be on methadone for severe chronic pain. i had to take mine in liquid form & always had to have the pharmacy order it before i came in. i know the powers at be r limiting the availability of ms_contin & oxycontin & they want the docs to prescribe methadone cause it's so cheap. but i must warn you from my experience. that stuff is pure poison. it made many of my teeth fall out & went straight into my bones. i've had to come off a lot of pain meds in my day, but methadone is the worst. it stays in the body for a long time & it took me a year (even going off it cold turkey) to even begin to feel normal again. please try & find an other form of pain control.

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3

I've had the same problem getting my methadone filled in Florida. It has been a problem for the last 5 months. If you look online the problem seems to be the DEA Is Treating the pharmacies and the companies that supply the pharmacies like the drug dealers. And it is making it almost impossible for people that live in chronic pain to. Get their Legal Prescriptions Filled. I would call your local Congress person and make a complaint hell do what I have been doing call every state Senator Aaron bean is one call bill Nelson call or email the governor. If enough people complain maybe something will change. Call them every day. That is when I'm doing. Intel someone has a better idea?????

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2

Try mail order it has worked for me! FLA is a lock down state as far as methadone is concerned!!

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1

Unfortunately, the ones that did tell you over the phone likely weren't being honest, anyway. It is far too dangerous to tell anyone if they do have it in stock, due to the high risk of theft of narcotics, so they will usually just tell you that they don't have it, or don't carry it.

They have no way of knowing if the person on the phone is a legitimate customer with a prescription or not, so they only way to get an actual correct answer is by visiting the pharmacies in person, with the prescription in hand.

And there are some crazy problems going on all over the east coast right now and a lot of them are being caused by the fact that limits on how much of any controlled substance a pharmacy can order and keep in stock, per month, are being very strictly enforced now. Once they are out, they cannot reorder until the new month.

Have you tried talking to your doctor about using an alternative, until you can get it filled? Or to see if they have any other ideas that may help?


You can learn more Methadone details here.

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