Jury holds pharmacies responsible for role in opioid crisis

[Marthe48]

18. It took me almost 2 weeks to get a different brand

I've been taking generic Ambien, Zolpidem Tartrate 5 mg, since about 1996. I have restless leg syndrome, was using it just to get to sleep. I got a refill 11/9 and started using it 11/11. I didn't open the bottle till I needed to start the refill and saw it was a different pill, still Zolpidem Tartrate 5 mg, made bu a different company. I realized the first dose it wasn't working. I waited till Mon. 11/ 15 to try to get the prescription refilled with the generic brand I have been taking for years. It is a controlled substance (read $$$$$$$) and it was like pulling teeth to get back to the medicine that worked. I just made a special trip into town to get a new refill that the ins. had to approve and the doctor didn't want to give me. I had to go to a different pharmacy because my regular pharmacy has the other brand and won't special order what they had been getting filling my prescription. The replacement refill is only 30 days, but I'll jump through hoops again next month. I am so tired, I can hardly see straight. But this headline certainly caught my eye.

There are so many stoppers in place, at least for me, that I don't understand how so many people got a prescription filled without running into the same stoppers.