Watson Is Now Actavis - Norco
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My pharmacist that I have known for years due to chronic pain from cancer/severe spinal injuries and a totaled knee, told me last week that it is the DEA that has created the change in ALL pain meds. I have been on Watson Norco for 10 years and now I am in severe withdrawal with actavis buying out Watson. It is unbearable and my pharmacist said that people will DIE because of not being forewarned or informed ahead of time. This is all due to the people that use the drugs recreationally; and whatever else they do has ruined it for us real patients. We all know the DEA is like God and they don't even care about us real patients that have medical records, etc. I have been suffering for over a month now and my pain doc is on an extended vacation. Thank goodness for my pharmacist at least being honest about what is going on. If you Wikipedia Watson you will see Actavis and they are putting the Watson name on a pill that according to my pharmacist is now a regulated/time released pill with binders so it may not be abused. I personally have never felt "euphoria" on these after 10 years but DO have serious/severe pain and now have nerve pain like crazy. Does anyone know if this is part of withdrawing? Watson always worked best for me. My pharmacist also said that the binders can prevent the drug from being absorbed into the gut if you have any issues there. That is where my cancer is and they are not being absorbed. You cannot even bite them barely as they are very hard. They really think we are stupid sheeple. Why does one associate illness and/or pain with being non intelligent? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am also going through a horrible divorce after 28 years with a narcissistic/psychopath. The pain wears the body down even more. Hope everyone that is a real patient is okay and I hope this info clears things up because Walgreens and CVS won't tell you what is going on....

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Walgreens still sells the garbage they call a pain killer. What a joke this is. FDA should investigate Walgreens.

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I am very sorry to hear about what you are going through! I also have had my share of problems but its always sad to see someone else going through a similar experience. I guess because it reminds you of things you thought you'd forgot. The formulation of "Allergan" Norco I found kind of works a little bit better. They have a component that seems to be a little more effective when it comes to nerve damage! I discovered pretty quickly that I am unable to take any of the generic forms of Norco! A doctor said there's no difference between the generic and the brand... What a jacka**! Another doctor said that a lot of doctors just repeat the things they are told my the manufacturers! But they are all aware that the generic forms are allowed by law, to get away with only putting in 8% of the pain killing opioid. The rest are fillers! This is how they are able to make the pills affordable, while still making money off the sales! But that doesn't always work for those of us who live in severe pain! I myself have gone through 3 surgeries. Twice, I nearly bled to death because they had failed to take into consideration that they had been prescribing a pain medication that contained a great deal of Aspirin, which causes a person to bleed more than normal. But I already have a blood clotting disorder! And when they perform surgery... cut into our spines.. it tends to bleed more than any other portion of the body!! More than knee or foot or hand surgery! The surgeon who worked on me last, was so full of himself, because he had just performed surgery on Joe Montana. When he walked into the room, for the first time, he didn't introduce himself, as a normal doctor would have.

He walked into the room and says, "I'm an arrogant son of a so and so, and I hope that doesn't bother you?" I was like, what the heck is that all about? I said, "I didn't come here to become your best buddy for life! I came here to procure your talent to help me from living in this overwhelming amount of pain!" After surgery was scheduled, during the moment you are told, start counting backwards, before you are put under anesthesia, that vicky arrogant doctor says, "This surgery will going to pay for my wife's new fur coat and our trip to the Italian Alps!" I guess he didn't realize I wasn't under yet? And if it had been said a few seconds earlier... I would have screamed out, to please stop the surgery!! That doctor did take off, right after the surgery to the Italian Alps, leaving me there without any after care!!! The incision is about 2 1/2 feet long and 2 inches wide! I woke up in Intensive Care Unit... where I lost over 7 1/2 pints of blood!! The problem we face is that they very rarely care what happens to us, as patients! They get paid whether we live or die... or however we turn out from whatever they do to us!! They use our bodies for experimentations, while getting paid for the experience that they've learned... And to go through something similar to that and then go through a divorce! Nobody needs that kind of stressful torture!! But think of it this way, maybe God is getting rid of the bad marriage, in order for you to be free for a better marriage! Someone who has a big enough heart to help you get through this difficult time! If you have not tried the Allergan brand of Norco.... see if you get better results? Good luck to you! And please try not to lose faith that there is a God who loves us all and doesn't want us to suffer!

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Walgreens continues to sell the lowest grade painkiller Triss instead on Watson Actistris the good one that works. Their lazy HQ knows what is going on but refuses to change their Supplier or tell them to get Watson back in supply. Their memo is Screw the public but what we sell or go somewhere else. Which I have changed my meds store. Costco and Rite Aid are good. It all about money and don’t care about their customers. I will watch their Stocks. It will go down. I hope. Greedy jerks. Unhappy customers we are.

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Walgreens refuses to bring it back. They don’t care about their customers it’s all about money and greed. I will keep posting this so people know what they are getting. The junk is triss. It has no pain killer in it. I reported it to FDA. I will keep calling HQ until they bring back Watson Actavis, the pain killer that works. The FDA should be looking into this by now. I hoped they are fined for selling phony drugs. I am very unhappy with Walgreens.

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Re: Lucy (# 20)

I have been on Actavis oxycodone 10/325 for 6yrs they worked fine for me. I was getting them at Walgreens. They now sell camber brand, hardly any relief from them, I think if you are used to one brand they are good. Now since I take camber they do not work for me. The Gov't should do their job to keep meds the same. Hope you all get better including me.

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See if your pain doctor will prescribe the fetanyl patch. It’s absorbed by your skin and doesn’t need to go through your gut. Shame on the DEA for messing up people’s lives by doing these unspeakable things to our medications and threatening doctors and legitimate pain patients who need these substances to have some semblance of a meaningful life
Advocate until you get what you need in order to be okay and are able to manage your pain. This burden is increasing your stress which increase your pain. Best to you and keep on keeping on!

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Thanks for informing everyone on here about what is really going on. It is a shame & a disgrace that people like us that really do take pain meds because we have a medical condition that warrants us to take them, can’t get any relief from the pain because of the drug addicts out there that abuse pain meds! It’s just not fair!! And I really do feel your pain about being with a Narcissist for 29 yrs!!! I too was with a Narcissist for 11 yrs (can’t even imagine 29 yrs!) & it is a Horrible thing to have to go through!!!

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I totally agree with your message. Withdrawal 4 real this brand donot word I believe they are fake tablets I have spinal issues

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Re: Lucy (# 20)

I have undergone 3 spine surgeries, along with other types of surgical procedures and treatment plans to help relieve the overwhelming nerve pain that is the result of a work related accident. I honestly believe if the large utility company I was working for had properly taken care of my injuries, instead of trying to figure a way out of their responsibilities towards their employees, I might never had a need to go through a surgery! It took me many years to learn how to walk again! And while I've been able to fight and accomplish learning to walk all over again, the specialists were never able to help take the pain away! I was told, "Learn to live with your situation, you'll never walk again!" Yet, against all the odds, I not only learned to walk again but I was able to run on the treadmill... loosing over 120 lbs! My husband and I decided to move to a newer home, to accommodate our younger daughter, her husband and beautiful grandson... in hopes that they would be able to save enough money to purchase their own home! Unfortunately, we hired a well known moving company that we paid thousands of dollars to bring all the packing materials and perform all of the heavy work! They didn't do much of what was agreed upon! We were under the gun because our house sold within 5 days on the market! And part of the agreement was, we had to move out before a particular day and time.

The moving company ran off with 1/3 of our valuables! We were forced into performing most of the work! I was suddenly attacked by one of the workers! My back was turned. There was no one inside the house. I was told to go in and quickly get something to clean up an area where they made a mess. My back was turned, I was bending over to grab the cleaning supplies, when the guy jumped on me, with all of his weight, pinned me down, grabbed me so hard in a way that I am sure those pole/lap dancing women would never be grabbed and hurt... He left bruising all over my private parts! I tried desperately to defend myself, that I tore my rotator cuff in two places and ripped my bicep! I was bedridden since! The weight pushed my vertebrae forward, where its nearly severing my spinal cord! I am in such severe pain, at times, it feels so overwhelming bad, I can barely sleep! Its caused my blood pressure to skyrocket! Since they took Vicodin off the market and replaced it with Norco... then removed the brand name of that, to only generic brands... I've not been able to get much help to relieve the pain! I've never been the sort of person who likes any type of drugs!!! But the amount of pain I experience, leaves me with no choice! I've never been a drinker... I never smoked! I've suffered from severe allergic reactions to so many medications!

I think that is the main reason why I've never been the kind of person who willingly takes any type of medications! I am super disciplined when it comes to medicines! Most of the time, my husband and family members are always scolding me, making sure I took the yucky stuff!! It's really unfair to allow government agencies and insurance companies to dictate how our physicians medically prescribe treatments for patients who have a long history and miles of documentation to back up why they are prescribing what they do! I've done a lot of research and found a lot of unsettling things going on... not just with the government agencies and insurance companies but between the pharmaceutical companies themselves!! Where they have invented problems and built tools of propaganda, in order to run their competition out of business!!! As the old saying says... A few bad apples doesn't spoil the whole bunch! I honestly believe someone is responsible for creating a media frenzy over the Opioid epidemic!! Opioids have existed for centuries!!! There's always been some idiots who attempt to abuse and exploit anything for the love of money!! It really isn't news! I think all of this really is a matter of politics and pharmaceutical companies themselves trying to do away with their competitors! After living around high profile politicians my entire life, I know for a fact, they pull all kinds of nonsense to get their way! I wished I were healthier... I wouldn't hesitate to fight for those who have trouble fighting for themselves! Like when I came up with the bright idea of how to get the Disabilities Act passed!!! But unfortunately, I am not strong enough to take on this issue alone!

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I tried Amneal pharmaceutical & they worked ok, it hard to find the one that work for you. I like qualitest parm. The yellow ones but can't find them anymore.

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You said everything I felt perfectly thank you for the Post

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Re: cd (# 25)

Trump doesn’t care about anyone and now he has repealed the bill Obama signed to back off of states who have medicinal or recreational marijuana.

The US Government has patents on marijuana proving their effectiveness but Big Pharma wants us dependent on them for prescription pills and they do not want us to be able to grow our own safe plant based pain relievers.

It’s all about dollars, not about sense!

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Re: Pharmacist (# 12)

I doubt you are a pharmacist. you would have had to go to college,etc. and yet you can't even spell "Dye" correctly. And you would not use "u" and "Ur" either. you appear to be a fraud. what is your motivation joining this discussion? you need attention? go somewhere else.

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I have the same issue and with other generic brands I still suffer some detox symptoms like diarrhea, cramps, etc and need more to even tolerate the pain. The norcos are still there but they dont accept ins and im on a fixed income w/ medicare and cash only price for my script is 1006.00 mo. Are u kidding. I always knew they were expensive for name brand but thats insane. I'm researching from watson to actavis to now allergan owns them. Actavis said they arent making generic as of now. Stronger meds have almost done me in just tryin and im scared of them. Norco or generic which were watson 853 were working just fine even after 10 yrs. Have had no adverse or long term side effects that any specialist has seen. There are makers that help with discounts and did when oxycontin almost killed me. Price outrageous too. But the walg brand I believe are er. But some others aren't. I'll keep researching because of wrong people misusing something some of us really need. One said no longer making generic. Not sure cause ive called several not in this but no longer making generic. This is ridiculous with no warning other than opioid problem but mainly east coast and stronger meds. I will keep researching cause I certainly cant afford name brand. Sad day for chronic pain patients. I'm 64 too. Not like out on street. Am crippled. Just afraid of stronger meds. Like for yrs marijuana was a gateway drug, I grew up with rock n roll and just never took such drugs. It's a choice. Like dwi and pulling a trigger. *****s. And people making money on a 50 aver cent pill. God help us. Watson is the only one whether it was fillers or way they compounded em. They worked. Only thing prior is I went from yellow to white. Same med though. I pray can find some discount coupon but it's not easy and it's not norco causing all the deaths unless taking massive doses and massive doses of some over the counter meds can take you away. It's the patient/dr that should be in control of generic norco. Or get a manufacturer to reduce the outrageous price. The diff in price is insane compared to other meds.

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Re: Comments Submitted (# 23)


Nerve medications do not work for everyone. I tried them and it slowed down my ability to think and had no impact on reducing my nerve pain.

Nerve medications slow down all transmissions everywhere in the body and are not specific to only the signals related to pain information.

It seems many people are uneducated about how medications work and then give unhelpful advice to those who are suffering.

It is difficult to be in pain and then read information or suggestions which are not based in reality or in science.

Pain is an often hidden disability and it is insulting when it is trivialized or when people make ignorant suggestions.

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I understand your frustration and pain. I just went to get my hydrocodone 10/325 from wallgreens and bc Actavis was back ordered I ended up with some other manufacturer Amneal and like Mallinckrodt it doesn’t work at all. I am very sensitive and the change in manufacturers has caused me to be in pain for several days. I too have nerve pain which radiates Into my arm and hand and is unbearable. To the person who minimized your use of medication stating it’s ‘a band aid’ obviously hasn’t experienced nerve pain. We know it’s not a cure as often there is no cure for nerve pain. This is a quality of life point. How are we to prepare food, eat, dress and groom ourselves and work a job if we are in constant pain which severely limits our functioning, depresses our mood and interrupts our sleep? We take these medicines so we can do just that and ‘live a somewhat normal life’.

I’ve used pain medicines off and on for over 25 years. I do not misuse nor abuse them. I am very concerned that folks without legitimate pain who use these medicines recreationally without medical supervision are impeding our ability to access these quality-of-life saving medicines and are impacting the way they are made. Take care!

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Re: Deb G (# 5)

CVS changed to a different brand here in Michigan. Lupin is the manufacturer from India and they have 134 violations. Goldberg has written articles about the company. I do not like the Norco they make. CVS has them and I will change to a different pharmacy. I wish I would've looked at them before I left. The government is trying to control our life or Lupin just makes bad Norcos.

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Thank you for sharing this info!! I knew something was different but didn’t know what. I hope all these people that have been abusing pain meds are happy! They have made the lives of people who REALLY need these meds Horrible!

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Re: Dottie (# 24)

Every Walgreens in my city is saying they are out as well . They have not got any in and have no idea if or when they will . Very scary for those of us that have been on this for years and depend on it . I don’t understand why we are being penalized when we follow doctors orders .

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What are red pain pills with specks but no imprint

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