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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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[FL] DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage
#12877714 - 07/10/10 01:23 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage July 10, 2010 - Palm Beach Post
A federal shutdown of pain pill sales at two wholesale drug companies prominent in South Florida has led to a shortage of oxycodone, an inexpensive narcotic popular in the area's controversial pain clinics.
Pharmacists, police and patients with chronic pain said some clinics and small drugstores in Broward and Palm Beach counties that sell large quantities of "oxy" and other pain pills can't get as much as before and are running out.
As a result, patients have been forced to go from store to store to fill their prescriptions. That includes legitimate sufferers as well as addicts and drug dealers who have turned South Florida pain clinics into a major East Coast source for narcotics.
"A lot of people are out there searching," said Broward Sheriff's Office Sgt. Rich Pisanti, who leads a pain clinic investigation unit in Oakland Park. "The number of out-of-state people [at pain clinics] is down noticeably. People hear the area has dried up."
The shortage arose after the Drug Enforcement Administration in June suspended two distributors from selling narcotic medications, including oxycodone, hydrocodone and brand-names such as Percocet and Vicodin.
The DEA said Sunrise Wholesale in Sunrise and Michigan-based Harvard Drug Group, which has an office in Tamarac, were supplying millions of pain pills a year to pain clinics and others that sold them to patients with no medical need for them.
Sunrise Wholesale surrendered its DEA license. Company officials could not be reached for comment despite several attempts by phone. Harvard has revised its oversight methods so it can sell most of the drugs and is working with the DEA to resume oxycodone sales, said company attorney Stephen E. Glazek.
The shutdowns also spooked other wholesale companies, which stopped selling pain drugs in Florida, said Paul Sloan, head of a pain clinic association.
Alicia Murphy, a Deerfield Beach cancer patient who takes oxy pills to manage chronic pain, was one of a half-dozen people who said they were turned away at several stores. She finally filled her prescription in Boca Raton.
"I have traveled over 100 miles looking for my medicine," Murphy said.
Sloan said the DEA is overreacting to the problem and "creating a crisis" for patients who may be dependent on pain medication.
"A governmental agency is shutting down the supply of legal drugs to legally licensed facilities," said Sloan Venice, organizer of the Florida Society of Pain Management Providers
DEA spokespersons declined to comment on the actions against wholesalers and the shortages.
But longtime pharmacist Bob Fishman, owner of Post Haste Pharmacy in Hollywood, said he doesn't blame the DEA for the shortage.
"There's nobody at fault," Fishman said. "It's a complicated issue. You have all these people who actually need the drugs because they are sick or someone got them addicted. Then you have all these people who are selling it illegally. It's pretty hard to separate them… How do we fix the system so we don't hurt the good ones while we get rid of the bad?"
Fishman said patients have told him that some clinics have been making up for lost income by doubling oxy prices to $2 per pill and raising doctor visits by $50 to $75.
Also, he said some clinics have started obeying an impending state law that will let them sell no more than a three-day supply of pain pills, even though the law doesn't take effect until Oct. 1.
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John
ssdp.org


Registered: 08/08/03
Posts: 7,026
Loc: Vancouver, B.C.
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Re: [FL] DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage [Re: veggie]
#12878151 - 07/10/10 03:00 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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this is a good thing imo. pain clinics have become completely out of hand here. in tampa they shut a few down recently. there was literally hundreds of people in the streets forming a line before the places even opened, and that's just one day... the volume of their business was completely out of control. a lot of people travel cross country to come here for pain pills since you walk in and walk out with the pills in hand, no therapy and hassle like other states.
-------------------- There's a thin line between sanity and insanity... and I just snorted it.
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SouthernGulfStyle
FreeDriftinSpirit



Registered: 04/01/10
Posts: 3,130
Loc: texas,usa
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Re: [FL] DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage [Re: John]
#12878532 - 07/10/10 04:19 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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i watched a vanguard episode about pain clinics in florida and i knew the dea were going to hit Florida hard im surprised they let it go this far.
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Awebig Faggot said " Nice fucking question, shivers blood. Seriously, go." ahahah A prime example of getting mad through a computer
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Stonehenge
Alt Center

Registered: 06/20/04
Posts: 14,850
Loc: S.E.
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I can just see the docs rubbing their hands together. A 3 day supply, that means another visit every 3 days @ $30 or so a visit. Trust the govt to make a bad situation worse.
-------------------- “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835) Trade list http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18047755
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Adamist
ℚṲℰϟ✞ЇѺℵ ℛ∃Åʟḯ†У


Registered: 11/23/01
Posts: 10,211
Loc: Bloomington, IN
Last seen: 8 years, 11 months
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Re: [FL] DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage [Re: John]
#12878856 - 07/10/10 05:26 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
John said: this is a good thing imo. pain clinics have become completely out of hand here. in tampa they shut a few down recently. there was literally hundreds of people in the streets forming a line before the places even opened, and that's just one day... the volume of their business was completely out of control. a lot of people travel cross country to come here for pain pills since you walk in and walk out with the pills in hand, no therapy and hassle like other states.
Hey John, you're back in Florida?
And yeah, my friend who lives in Tampa said the same thing... He said they have lines literally around the corner every day, and you just walk in and pay the "doctor's fee" and come out with your pills in like 10 minutes.
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{ { { ṧ◎ηḯ¢ αʟ¢ℌ℮мƴ } } }
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TheShroomJew23
The Chemist


Registered: 11/29/07
Posts: 1,611
Loc: Temple
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Re: [FL] DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage [Re: Adamist]
#12879836 - 07/10/10 09:06 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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My grandparents left my family a house in Ft. Lauderdale, I have a few friends who moved down there in the past years so I called them up looking for bud back in Jan. It was super hard to find any kush, all I could get was pain medications and shitty x.
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AsAboveSoBelow
The matrix has you


Registered: 02/06/08
Posts: 2,515
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Re: [FL] DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage [Re: veggie]
#12890038 - 07/12/10 10:02 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said: DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage
"There's nobody at fault," Fishman said. "It's a complicated issue. You have all these people who actually need the drugs because they are sick or someone got them addicted. Then you have all these people who are selling it illegally. It's pretty hard to separate them… How do we fix the system so we don't hurt the good ones while we get rid of the bad?"
easy... make them available OTC. In fact make all drugs OTC
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You're gonna get hurt real bad They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind
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TrancedShroom
Mr. Hanky



Registered: 03/08/06
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Re: [FL] DEA crackdown leads to pain pill shortage [Re: AsAboveSoBelow]
#12893796 - 07/13/10 04:51 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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