Big change to make it harder for patients to get pain killers like Vicodin

[mwooldri]

148. As a user of a schedule II drug, there is a simple workaround.

My prescriber gets her prescription pad and writes up to six prescriptions at a time - this depends on when my next follow-up visit is. Each subsequent prescription is marked "Do Not Fill Before (date)." I then take this stash to my pharmacy (an independent one, not one of the chains) and they store them on file. It does mean that I (or someone with a driver's license) has to go to the pharmacy each month for the refill. Other doctor practices may want to keep them on file and a trip to the doctors office would be needed. Some pharmacies may not want to keep them on file so then the patient will have to keep them safe.

As such, I see this change as making more work for doctors, pharmacies, and patients in obtaining the medication they need.

It won't make the drug less accessible. To get hydrocodone you need picture ID anyway. You can't get it through a mail order pharmacy, so a monthly trip to the pharmacy has been required for some time now.

This arrangement means I don't have to see my prescriber every month and I can still call in a request for a refill for me to collect later.