Why are benzo's still available on medical card?

kdowling

I work in a pharmacy where there is 98% medical cards.
Everyday we get guys in who get a months supply of diazepam and sleeping tablets and as soon as they get them they sell them on the street (in front of the pharmacy!!)
They get around €1 a tablet. Diazepam can be prescribed three times a day and sleeping tablets two at night so some of these guys get 90 + 60 = €150 a month!

That's a nice little top up on top of their dole money.

I wouldn't mine but you can buy a months supply of diazepam on prescription for a little over €5 so it's not like people with a medical card will not be able to afford them if needed if its taken off medical card.

CardBordWindow

kdowling wrote: »

I work in a pharmacy where there is 98% medical cards.
Everyday we get guys in who get a months supply of diazepam and sleeping tablets and as soon as they get them they sell them on the street (in front of the pharmacy!!)
They get around €1 a tablet. Diazepam can be prescribed three times a day and sleeping tablets two at night so some of these guys get 90 + 60 = €150 a month!

That's a nice little top up on top of their dole money.

I wouldn't mine but you can buy a months supply of diazepam on prescription for a little over €5 so it's not like people with a medical card will not be able to afford them if needed if its taken off medical card.

......and where is this pharmacy?

humbert

Please say you reported this and then posted about it online?

garv123

kdowling wrote: »

I work in a pharmacy where there is 98% medical cards.
Everyday we get guys in who get a months supply of diazepam and sleeping tablets and as soon as they get them they sell them on the street (in front of the pharmacy!!)
They get around €1 a tablet. Diazepam can be prescribed three times a day and sleeping tablets two at night so some of these guys get 90 + 60 = €150 a month!

That's a nice little top up on top of their dole money.

I wouldn't mine but you can buy a months supply of diazepam on prescription for a little over €5 so it's not like people with a medical card will not be able to afford them if needed if its taken off medical card.

you forgot to deduct the 1.50 charge for every item nowadays.. cuts a huge amount off the profit

kdowling

humbert wrote: »

Please say you reported this and then posted about it online?

Waste of time. The guards know about this. It happensall day, every day.
The only way to stop it is to stop giving it to them for free. (Edit not free €1.50!)

kdowling

garv123 wrote: »

you forgot to deduct the 1.50 charge for every item nowadays.. cuts a huge amount off the profit

Haha, sorry, profit for above example is €147 not €150 although not all pharmacies charge the €1.50 even though they should

up for anything

This thread has nearly everything.

Social welfare
Social welfare fraud
Scumbags
Drug addicts
Useless Gardaí

OP, is there any chance you could work in a few Nazis?

wonderfulname

kdowling wrote: »

Waste of time. The guards know about this. It happensall day, every day.
The only way to stop it is to stop giving it to them for free. (Edit not free €1.50!)

What about the people who need it? It's not a problem with the medical card, it's whatever dumb doctor prescribed the drugs, target your rage there.

kdowling

up for anything wrote: »

This thread has nearly everything.

Social welfare
Social welfare fraud
Scumbags
Drug addicts
Useless Gardaí

OP, is there any chance you could work in a few Nazis?

Had a German guy in a few weeks ago looking for benzo's on his EU card.
Didn't get his opinion on Jewish folk unfortunately!

Johnny Utah

kdowling wrote: »

Had a German guy in a few weeks ago looking for benzo's on his EU card.
Didn't get his opinion on Jewish folk unfortunately!

I did Nazi that one coming!

hyperborean

Well it could be Germans (company) distributing and Isrealis (generics)manufacturing these drugs,

Full house

Sauve

OP if you feel that the drugs you're dispensing are being abused, it's your pharmacists' responsibility to contact the prescriber and make them aware of the situation, as well as your local HSE.

Reports such as this are generally taken very seriously.

kdowling

wonderfulname wrote: »

What about the people who need it? It's not a problem with the medical card, it's whatever dumb doctor prescribed the drugs, target your rage there.

First of all, I'm hardly in a rage!!
I already mentioned in the op that they are not expensive. If people with a medical card need them they can buy them.

Sauve

kdowling wrote: »

First of all, I'm hardly in a rage!!
I already mentioned in the op that they are not expensive. If people with a medical card need them they can buy them.

You don't actually work in a pharmacy at all, do you?

kdowling

Sauve wrote: »

Reports such as this are generally taken very seriously.

I would have to report nearly every doctor in the country then.

Sauve

kdowling wrote: »

I would have to report nearly every doctor in the country then.

Ah now you're just being sensationalist.

wonderfulname

kdowling wrote: »

I would have to report nearly every doctor in the country then.

Ha, I'm sure you would, you work in nearly every pharmacy in the country too then?

kdowling

wonderfulname wrote: »

Ha, I'm sure you would, you work in nearly every pharmacy in the country too then?

No, but I have locumed in hundreds of them.

kdowling

Sauve wrote: »

Ah now you're just being sensationalist.

Not really. It's certainly a problem with nearly every doctor in socially deprived areas.
It's also becoming the housewives choice too in better areas.

Lenin Skynard

kdowling wrote: »

Not really. It's certainly a problem with nearly every doctor in socially deprived areas.
It's also becoming the housewives choice too in better areas.

Housewives in nice areas are selling benzos for €1 each that they got on the medical card

Sauve

kdowling wrote: »

No, but I have locumed in hundreds of them.

If this is the case, I'm surprised OP. For a pharmacist/staff member to be referring to patients the way you have been on here is nothing short of unprofessional.
If you have a problem with the way things are being done then go to the GPs, HSE, even the IPU.
The way you're going about it is just belittling your profession tbh.

IM0

kdowling wrote: »

Waste of time. The guards know about this. It happensall day, every day.
The only way to stop it is to stop giving it to them for free. (Edit not free €1.50!)

eh how about reporting it to someone who can actually do something about it. like the gp on the prescription they give you

*phone call from pharmacist*

"oh i see, they are selling them ok well I must stop prescribing them that then *trows new renewal prescription in bin*

problem solved

Boombastic

Surely the pharmacist has a responsibility here to report them and the doctors. If an off licence can be done for supplying directly/ indirectly alcohol, I can't understand how this has not actioned and a blind eye being turned.

anncoates

So basically stop medical card prescriptions for everybody because some people sell drugs?

Kinda like banning people from buying food in supermarkets because some people shoplift.

kdowling

IM0 wrote: »

eh how about reporting it to someone who can actually do something about it. like the gp on the prescription they give you

*phone call from pharmacist*

"oh i see, they are selling them ok well I must stop prescribing them that then *trows new renewal prescription in bin*

problem solved

Nice little example above but its not that simple I'm afraid!
The doctor is more likely to say thanks for bringing that to my attention and then prescribe the exact same thing again.
Did that initially as a newly qualified graduate, naively though reporting the problem to higher authorities would help too. It didn't and the practice continues every day.

Boombastic

kdowling wrote: »

Nice little example above but its not that simple I'm afraid!
The doctor is more likely to say thanks for bringing that to my attention and then prescribe the exact same thing again.
Did that initially as a newly qualified graduate, naively though reporting the problem to higher authorities would help too. It didn't and the practice continues every day.

You need to escalate the reporting higher than the doctors if they don't care

marketty

Terrible Joe, how do these people sleep at night?

anncoates

marketty wrote: »

Terrible Joe, how do these people sleep at night?

They take benzos.

Keep up.

Squiggle

Boombastic wrote: »

You need to escalate the reporting higher than the doctors if they don't care

The ultra efficient HSE will get it sorted. :pac:

Robbo

kdowling wrote: »

I work in a pharmacy where there is 98% medical cards.
Everyday we get guys in who get a months supply of diazepam and sleeping tablets and as soon as they get them they sell them on the street (in front of the pharmacy!!)
They get around €1 a tablet. Diazepam can be prescribed three times a day and sleeping tablets two at night so some of these guys get 90 + 60 = €150 a month!

That's a nice little top up on top of their dole money.

I wouldn't mine but you can buy a months supply of diazepam on prescription for a little over €5 so it's not like people with a medical card will not be able to afford them if needed if its taken off medical card.

Terrible Joe, the markup these Irish street dealers have on drugs Joe. I can fly to Barcelona and get me Benzos in a back alley off Las Ramblas for 50 cent, Joe. Granted the flights cost me a couple of hundred but my anecdote still stands as evidence.

So you think by charging someone €5 for them, it will stop them selling them? Sure if they're making such a huge amount of money then a fiver will be well worth spending - they're only reducing their profits by a tiny amount of cash

So basically the only people who will actually suffer are the people who need them. Fair enough.