Retail Pharmacy Paranoia is Understandable –But Patients Are The Real Victims

Jeffrey A. SingerThere is already ample evidence that the war on opioid prescribing has intimidated many pharmacies and pharmacists intorefusing to dispense legally ‐​prescribed opioids. This is tragic for patients, but an understandable result of incredulouslawsuits brought by state attorneys general against pharmacy retailers CVS, Walgreens, and others for allegedly contributing to the opioid overdose crisis by filling opioid prescriptions —even as overdose deaths continue to mount while opioid prescribing continues to drop precipitously. (87 percent of those overdose deaths involve illicit fentanyl, more than a quarter involve cocaine, and more than a quarter involve meth.)A recentstudy by Oregon State University College of Pharmacy found 1 in 5 pharmacies refuse to fill prescriptions for buprenorphine, the Schedule 3 drug used for medication assisted treatment for addiction to opioids. The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies Schedule 3 drugs as “drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. ”It now appears that pharmacy chain paranoia has extended to prescribing psychostimulants. TheWall Street Journalreports today that CVS will no longer fill prescriptions for Adderall and other psychostimulants used to treat ADHD that are prescribed by clinicians working for the telehealth providers Cerebral, Inc. and Done Health. These two telehealth firms have been treating patients with ADHD with ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs