Florida has become even worse for a chronic pain patient. So far removing our rights to privacy of our medical records, insisting on drug testing, telling us which pharmacies we can go to, primary care doctors no longer allowed to write controlled substances or treat pain, dose and time limits on pain management after surgeries (based not on condition of patient but dea guidelines), removing our constitutional rights regarding search and seizure (allowing police officers or federal agents the right to take our medical records without a warrant), requiring we only use one pharmacy at all times, and more is not enough for the government apparently. I've written before how chronic pain patients are losing their rights, especially in Florida. This is just one more thing in that direction.
Now pharmacies in Florida are actually refusing to fill legal prescriptions for pain medications! Some of the stories are simply the pharmacy refusing to fill the prescription outright, but others are much worse. One patient had a pharmacist demand to see her medical records and x-rays/cat scans/MRI films to prove she had a condition that required the medication. Other patients were lied to by the pharmacists. They were told by a pharmacy worker that the pharmacy was out of the medication and when they went back a couple hours later (on a hunch and because they are only allowed to use 1 pharmacy) they were told the pharmacy had plenty at the time and that the pharmacy's stock of the medication had been fine for weeks.
There is a petition, started by Donna Ratliff of the American Pain Foundation Florida can be found here:
http://www.change.org/petitions/florida-pharmacies-stop-florida-pharmacies-from-denying-pain-patients-vital-medicines
The goal of this petition is to get the pharmacies to stop refusing to fill legal prescriptions. Please take a few minutes to read the petition and the comments made by those who signed it, then sign the petition!
Chronic pain patients are NOT drug addicts and we should not be treated as such!
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Love Green!
7 years ago
Hello,i just got back from seeing my doctor and after 6 years of living with chronic back pain he called me an addict and cutt my meds drasticly.Wow......Let me tell you about myself,im 46 and I have rumitoyd arthritis wrapped around my spin,degenerate disc disease,and 3 back surgerys,i spent 2 years as a pro wrestler and I guess you can say ive been rode hard and put up wet to many times.Now all of this is my fault for leading the lifestyle that I have but I wouldnt change a thing.Oh and I have always been a power lifter.But now uncle sam says I cant have pain meds anymore cause of all that is going on.PLEASE! I see it like this people,uncle sam and our so called doctors have created this mess but they want to punish all of us.I dont think so! Now I think its time we fight back.......We all need to get together and make sure we are herd! Should the ones who need meds to live with pain be punished? No! I say this uncle sam,you broke it so now you fix it..But what youre doing to all of us is wrong and I for one wont stand by and be put in a classification as some scumbag drug addict! Who in the hell are you to tell me who I am! Stand up people,i am.....Lets unite as one and take it to them.We wont be punished for youre mistakes!
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