This is what the DEA tells the public in their public statements:
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is not trying to limit or ration access to opioid painkillers, according to a DEA spokesman who says “nothing should stand in the way” of a patient getting a legitimate prescription for pain medication filled.
“We’re not doctors. We’re regulators and enforcers of the law. If something is prescribed for a legitimate medical purpose, we’re certainly not going to get in the way,” said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne.
This is what they tell the healthcare providers (Pharmacists).. when they are in a closed meeting…
This is proof that a little bit of knowledge can hurt. Things have DRASTICALLY changed in the last two years.
Look, I’ve been a pharmacist for 26 yrs. State laws and DEA regulations are very strict on us lately. It is called doing a job and keeping a license to feed our families. Sure, there are bad eggs in my profession (as there are in every profession) who get off on turning people away. I have never done that except in following the guidelines of my state or the DEA.
Many people don’t realize that half of the requirement to be licensed is to pass a law exam. Doctors don’t do that, which is EXACTLY why the DEA requires pharmacists to enforce the law. At a meeting last December with the DEA, they admitted that they have been lax in monitoring the prescribing habits of doctors and they have officially made it now the legal requirement of the pharmacists to be the enforcers of either the DEA regulations or the state law – whichever is stricter. It has always been the law, in the three states in which I am licensed, to refuse to fill a prescription for any reason we wish without legally having to say why. We are now given the responsibility to deny filling prescriptions from problem doctors who do not wish to disclose diagnoses as required in some states when ordering narcotics, to deny filling for patients who try to pressure us for early refills, etc. etc. My location has made many patients “permanent rejects” because the laws tell us to! The DEA flat-out told us in December “we want you to NOT fill narcotic prescriptions”.
So, tell me, in YOUR profession … if you have a license to practice and your livelihood is at stake … would you break the law? I would seriously hope you would say no.
Oooohhhhh, it’s the evil pharmacists’ causing the issue. Pure ignorance. If you had tried doing something in your community to curb the abuse or change drug laws (which won’t happen anymore), we wouldn’t have this problem. Simple as that.
Filed under: General Problems
And so now if I believe the doc is running a ‘pill mill’ and I’m ‘the police’ who do I report it to or do I just deny it, hand it back to the person therby continuing to ‘kick the can down the road’ and bury my head in the sand as we have been doing all along???? And by not filling it I’m also violating the patient’s right to good care!! And if I am WRONG about said doctor then doesnt that open ME up to a lawsuit for slander???? I have liability insurance, but I dont think this is covered. Now I get it…pass the buck, the heck with the patient..thats the government’s way of doing things….why didn’t I see that sooner? **facepalm**
“At a meeting last December with the DEA, they admitted that they have been lax in monitoring the prescribing habits of doctors and they have officially made it now the legal requirement of the pharmacists to be the enforcers of either the DEA regulations or the state law – whichever is stricter”.
In no way should pharmacists be ‘police’. The simple fact is the DEA has failed to do its job. Its job is to insure that the practising physicians prescribe properly. This means the DEA is suppose to be monitoring the docs. It should not be our job to try and determine if a physician is running a pill mill. The DEA should take care of that problem. If they had been doing their job, then there would not be all these issues with some bad physicians running pill mills.
The ‘so called’ war on drugs is a failure. The ‘so called’ war on poverty is a failure. At some point, you would think that government would realize that there are limitations to what it can and cannot do. But, they keep doing the same stupid things over and over. All the politicians tell us all the great and wonderful things they are going to do FOR us. It would be nice if there were a lot of things they did NOT do for us but left us alone to do it ourselves.
So we’re da**ed if we do and da**ed if we don’t….