Florida's pill mill crackdown laws harm legitimate pain patients

An Oct. 14 editorial in the Herald was so right on. Not only has our state and county pretty much put the pill mills out of business, but in the process also made it hard on legitimate chronic pain patients who can barely walk or drive a car.

The pain can be so severe, it sometimes is hard to even get out of bed to do your activities of daily living. It would be easy to sometimes want to just give up and lay in bed until the good Lord takes you back home.

Chronic pain hurts and it hurts bad. I know we have a few really good pain doctors in our area, but none I have known that is as compassionate and understanding as Dr. Lindsey Job at the Pain Medicine Institute. These doctors risk losing their license if they indiscriminately prescribe narcotic pain relievers, but they know that their patients are really in pain.

And then there is the matter of the drug store crowd. When you have the prescription, you have to wait in line and you can't stand long enough so you have to sit down for a little bit. Some people won't let you get back in line again, so you have to start over.

When you get to the pharmacist finally, some will say we're out of this medication or we just can't fill it for some reason or other. You have to go to another pharmacist only to go through the same thing at that drug store.

I have personally been up to five drug stores and had to go home because of the pain, only to go through the same thing the next day.

Something needs to change. If you have a legitimate prescription and are in obvious pain, these drug stores need to show compassion. At a chain drug store after waiting for close to 30 minutes, I have had to sit down and wait before leaving and seen someone else get the same prescription.

If you complain, they will tell you to speak to the manager, who comes up with some kind of excuse that doesn't make any sense.

You would be surprised about how many people have to go through this. People in obvious pain ... in wheelchairs or having to use a cane who you can tell they have serious pain issues.

You can't call ahead of time because they won't tell you if they have it or when they will get it because they say robbers use that information.

I know and I agree something needed to be done to cut down on the pill mills, but these large chain stores need to show compassion to their customers. I got lucky and found a small independent drug store to take care of my prescriptions, and though in some cases they might be more expensive at least they carry what I need and some of my prescriptions will even be delivered.

I will never again use a large drug store for my needs as the small independents not only can fill all my prescriptions but they do it with compassion and kindness and as long as they do that I will stay loyal to them.

Thank you, pharmacist Al at Family Discount Drugs; you are not only knowledgeable and observant but you care about your customers with a smile on your face and you have a wonderful staff.

Darrel E. Van Dyck

Bradenton

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Florida's pill mill crackdown laws harm legitimate pain patients ."