this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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This is a hard one. I think we can all agree that the people who need it should have it and the people who don’t…don’t…especially if their easy access to the drug pretty much guarantees a shortage of the drug for those who do need it.
I need it. And when there was a shortage just as we were forced to return to the office after Covid wfh, it was a nightmare. I don’t know for sure that this company was handing out prescriptions to whoever would pay or if they were mostly legitimate, but I imagine that it’s somewhere in between the two. And I do know that we will never be able to have a rational discussion about it between health professionals and the DEA/FDA, etc.
So, a lot of people who need it won’t get it either due to shortages or due to not being able to access a prescription for whatever reason.
Some people will continue to access it who don’t need it, but on a level that guarantees sporadic shortages for others.
No one wins other than those profiting either by selling prescriptions or by selling the drugs themselves at a much higher price than they paid for it using said prescriptions.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
It's not complicated to me, just make more. We should have a government funded drug producer for all the generics that the big companies don't think are profitable enough.
We shouldn't punish a population because a minority abuse something, that really only affects themselves.
I read this article a few months ago that I found quite interesting: Original link Unpaywalled link
The manufacturer in this blames the DEA, and whilst I don't trust a pharmaceutical company to do anything other than ruthlessly maximise profits, in this case I'm inclined to believe this depiction of the DEA as the overly persnickety bad guy (because I have even less reason to trust the DEA)