People who have read me for a while know that for years I’ve been warning of prescription drug shortages or even stoppages. Well, now we have one that’s large enough to have made headlines:
Some patients say the announcement was a belated acknowledgment of a reality they have faced for months — pharmacies unable to fill their orders and anxiety about whether they will run out of a medication needed to manage their daily lives.
Experts say it is often difficult for patients to access Adderall, a stimulant that is tightly regulated as a controlled substance because of high potential for abuse. Medication management generally requires monthly doctor visits. There have been other shortages in recent years.
“This one is more sustained,” said Timothy Wilens,
Now, it may be possible to move to generics, and a lot of the reason for this is how regulated amphetamines are as part of the war on some drugs. Back in the 60s it was possible to buy pure amphetamines over the counter just as at one time one could buy cocaine, morphine and codeine OTC.
That said, supply lines are under pressure and those pressures, though they will fluctuate, are going to get worse over the next years and decades.
Going off Adderall can be nasty, but there are other drugs where it’s downright hell, including SSRIs and Benzos. I know one guy whose careful titration of Xanax took a year, and when another friend’s was without for two days because of a prescription problem his body started just moving and speaking on its own. (GABA is what allows you to not do things, and benzos crush your bodies natural production.)
Then, of course, there are drugs people need because without them they will die or become seriously ill.
As we go forward, all of these things will be subject to the possibility of supply shocks and shortages. I would say, indeed, that more drug and medicine shortages and supply shocks are inevitable.
It’s hard to say what to do about this, because you can’t build up a supply of your own: doctors can’t let you have a 6 months buffer, say, of benzos (which if you take them every day, is about what I’d guess you’d need to have enough to safely take yourself off them with small reductions over time.)
But be aware of this issue and see if you can figure out a way to protect yourself. And remember, even without shortages, there will be future “insulin situations” — where those who have a drug people must have jack the price up so high many people can’t afford it.
Plan ahead if you can, and be well.
Update: Someone who wants to remain anonymous offers the following suggestions:
If your on a script then it might be a good idea to see if you can start pushing a day or so early to get it refilled to try and see if it gets filled early, If it does then maybe you can slowly start to build up a very small reserve of even just a day, this can then over a small amount of time build up larger stocks which can give you a lifeline. If this is possible or even if it isn’t, look into other ways of meeting your stock and med needs. It might be even worth checking local triage procedures to see where in the totem pole you’d end up in a ration type situation. At the extreme ends it might even be necessary to procure stock through “other” means as safely as possible. Right now that’s all I can think of: my morphine for now has PRN/as needed dosing so I have some leeway of supply but SHTF situations are, as ever, dependent on a “see what happens” approach.