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Late-Night Pharmeceutical Adventures
Mar. 20th, 2013 12:43 amSo, around midnight, I went to take my meds only to discover I had run out. "No problem," I think, "the pharmacy I use is open all night, and my doctor called the prescription in last week." Now, I've had some bad pharmacy adventures, particularly of the kind where my meds for a month cost what I make in a week without insurance. Fortunately, that was not the kind of adventure I had: nothing so dire.
I got to the pharmacy to encounter an agitated woman at the counter alternating between wheedling and throwing a tantrum over the pharmacist not giving her her prescription because she's not due for almost a week, and the earliest that the pharmacist can legally give it to her is in 2 days. She continues, becoming more and more agitated, and it soon becomes apparent that (a) the circumstances here are shady and (b) the scrip she's attempting to get filled is probably CIV (Schedule 4) or higher.
(A brief explanation: Schedule refers to how tightly regulated a drug is, based on potential for abuse. For instance, heroin is CI, which means it has severe potential for abuse and has no meaningful therapeutic use. By contrast, a lot of psychotropic medications like benzodiazepines are CIV, which is to say that there is some potential for abuse, but on the "college students selling their ADD meds" scale rather than the "break into houses, rob liquor stores, etc for a fix" scale.)
Finally, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the pharmacist gets her to leave, at least until the morning, when she will--most likely--go through the same song and dance with whatever pharmacist is on shift. I suppose that's what I get for going to a pharmacy at midnight.
I got to the pharmacy to encounter an agitated woman at the counter alternating between wheedling and throwing a tantrum over the pharmacist not giving her her prescription because she's not due for almost a week, and the earliest that the pharmacist can legally give it to her is in 2 days. She continues, becoming more and more agitated, and it soon becomes apparent that (a) the circumstances here are shady and (b) the scrip she's attempting to get filled is probably CIV (Schedule 4) or higher.
(A brief explanation: Schedule refers to how tightly regulated a drug is, based on potential for abuse. For instance, heroin is CI, which means it has severe potential for abuse and has no meaningful therapeutic use. By contrast, a lot of psychotropic medications like benzodiazepines are CIV, which is to say that there is some potential for abuse, but on the "college students selling their ADD meds" scale rather than the "break into houses, rob liquor stores, etc for a fix" scale.)
Finally, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the pharmacist gets her to leave, at least until the morning, when she will--most likely--go through the same song and dance with whatever pharmacist is on shift. I suppose that's what I get for going to a pharmacy at midnight.
