5 ms·

> first, their whole business model is about being a pill farm for controlled substances Before COVID, you couldn’t get a prescription for controlled substance

> first, their whole business model is about being a pill farm for controlled substances Before COVID, you couldn’t get a prescription for controlled substances without first meeting a provider in person. This law was enacted years ago because pill mills were popping up everywhere and dispensing controlled substances to people in exchange for $200+ phone calls. They’d do a minimal 5 minute call with anyone who signed up, speedrun through a prepared script, and then send the patient their controlled substance prescription of choice. You then made a follow-up appointment the next month for your refill, which was an even shorter phone call. They didn’t accept insurance because no sane insurance company would deal with them. Their target audience only wanted to pay their way to prescriptions and didn’t mind. And this is exactly what Cerebral is doing all over again. The COVID exceptions for in-person prescribing will theoretically expire at some point, but until they do there are several companies like Cerebral trying to cash in as much as possible with Instagram and TikTok ad campaigns to convince as many people as possible to sign up for literal Adderall pay-for-prescription subscriptions. Before anyone rushes off to sign up, keep in mind that these controlled substance prescriptions will be logged in your state’s prescribing database and doctors everywhere are catching on to these pill mills. If you show up to a real doctor later asking for a prescription, they might check your prescribing history and think twice after seeing that you were getting prescriptions from known pill mills nowhere near you. Pharmacies are also getting fed up with the sudden influx of prescriptions from remote doctors for scheduled substances. I really hope this business model gets crushed ASAP, because if it’s allowed to continue then we’re going to see a crackdown on ADHD diagnoses and prescribing in the same way that pain management has become exceedingly difficult to come by (for true pain patients) in the wake of the opioid pill mill epidemic.

beambot 5y ago
Is there any evidence to suggest adverse affects from all these excess scripts? Because if there's not... Then it sounds like the easiest & best solution would be to reschedule the drugs and make them (mostly) OTC. I can think of dozens of OTC drugs in Mexico that are a PITA to get in states due to unnecessary healthcare visits...
- adastra22 5y ago
  The most commonly prescribed medication for ADHD is pharmacologically essentially the same as meth. It affects us ADHD people differently than the rest of the population.
  - ryukoposting 5y ago
    ...and even for us, there are side effects. Concerta made me irritable and I wouldn't eat anything. I know someone who was on Focalin for a while and they suffered from awful mood swings and depression. I've been on the same dose of Vyvanse for 10 years and I still get occasional mood swings.
    - beambot 5y ago
      I'm not on anything, and I get occasional mood swings too. ;) My point: For many of these substances, I'm perfectly capable of managing my own dosing, side-effects, and knowledge resources without a government-mandated overseer. Maybe the solution is to deregulate & facilitate access to knowledge providers, but not enforce more regulation.
      - adastra22 5y ago
        I think we should get rid of the Controlled Substances Act and the DEA. Everything should be available over the counter from a pharmacist on request. (I'd still involve the pharmacist because they're a professional at identifying drug interactions and such, but you shouldn't require a scrip to get access to medication.) But in your original comment you asked if there is any evidence that there is adverse effects from excess prescriptions. And, well, there's plenty of adverse effects from meth use (source: every trailer park in small town America). And studies have shown that the amphetamines commonly prescribed for ADHD produce an indistinguishable high amongst recreational users. So if you made these drugs unscheduled and available over the counter, you'd basically just replace drug cartels and your local dealer with the Pharma industry and your local CVS. Which don't get me wrong, is a massive fucking improvement! I'm all for that. But you'd certainly also have a heck of a lot of meth-heads wrecking their lives with over-the-counter meds. Any such legalization and normalization would require active community support and intervention to help substance abusers too.

beambot 5y ago

Is there any evidence to suggest adverse affects from all these excess scripts? Because if there's not... Then it sounds like the easiest & best solution would be to reschedule the drugs and make them (mostly) OTC. I can think of dozens of OTC drugs in Mexico that are a PITA to get in states due to unnecessary healthcare visits...

adastra22 5y ago
The most commonly prescribed medication for ADHD is pharmacologically essentially the same as meth. It affects us ADHD people differently than the rest of the population.
- ryukoposting 5y ago
  ...and even for us, there are side effects. Concerta made me irritable and I wouldn't eat anything. I know someone who was on Focalin for a while and they suffered from awful mood swings and depression. I've been on the same dose of Vyvanse for 10 years and I still get occasional mood swings.
  - beambot 5y ago
    I'm not on anything, and I get occasional mood swings too. ;) My point: For many of these substances, I'm perfectly capable of managing my own dosing, side-effects, and knowledge resources without a government-mandated overseer. Maybe the solution is to deregulate & facilitate access to knowledge providers, but not enforce more regulation.
    - adastra22 5y ago
      I think we should get rid of the Controlled Substances Act and the DEA. Everything should be available over the counter from a pharmacist on request. (I'd still involve the pharmacist because they're a professional at identifying drug interactions and such, but you shouldn't require a scrip to get access to medication.) But in your original comment you asked if there is any evidence that there is adverse effects from excess prescriptions. And, well, there's plenty of adverse effects from meth use (source: every trailer park in small town America). And studies have shown that the amphetamines commonly prescribed for ADHD produce an indistinguishable high amongst recreational users. So if you made these drugs unscheduled and available over the counter, you'd basically just replace drug cartels and your local dealer with the Pharma industry and your local CVS. Which don't get me wrong, is a massive fucking improvement! I'm all for that. But you'd certainly also have a heck of a lot of meth-heads wrecking their lives with over-the-counter meds. Any such legalization and normalization would require active community support and intervention to help substance abusers too.