St. Mary’s County Pharmacies Dispensed Over 32 Million Opioids from 2006 to 2012

warneckutz

warneckutz

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https://smnewsnet.com/archives/4603...ed-over-32-million-opioids-from-2006-to-2012/

Good Lord...

For St. Mary’s County, the numbers are grim. From 2006 to 2012, a county with a population that averaged approximately 104,000 people received over 32 million doses of opioids.

The top 10 pharmacies distributing the drugs were as follows:

  1. CVS (3 DEA licenses) – combined total of 7,312,798 total dosage units (TDU)/81,850,946 MME
  2. Tidewater – 5,897,971 TDU/126,990,436 MME
  3. Rite Aid (2 DEA licenses) – combined total of 2,941,297 TDU/42,378,804 MME
  4. Target – 2,760,600 TDU/42,561,736 MME
  5. St. John’s Pharmacy – 2,501,176 TDU/40,512,469 MME
  6. Wal-Mart – 2,407,207 TDU/27,652,890 MME
  7. Thrift Drug (2 DEA licenses) – combined total 1,843,556 TDU/31,094,291 MME
  8. Giant Pharmacy – 1,460,690 TDU/24,084,282 MME
  9. McKay’s Pharmacy (3 DEA licenses) – combined 766,707 TDU/8,696,760 MME
  10. Reynolds Pharmacy – 603,292 TDU/11,248,898 MME

Tidewater Pharmacy was ranked as #9 in the report entitled, “Opioid Shipments to Top 20 Pharmacies in MD, by Dosage”.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

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Having never taken an opioid, I don't understand the attraction. I mean, sure, if you're in extreme pain, but if you're just normal what does an opioid do for you?
 
Auntie Biache'

Auntie Biache'

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vraiblonde said:
Having never taken an opioid, I don't understand the attraction. I mean, sure, if you're in extreme pain, but if you're just normal what does an opioid do for you?
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Like any other drug, you have to continue increasing the dose to keep getting the high. As someone who was prescribed opioids for seven years, I can attest to the fact that, if taken as prescribed, you stop getting high within a few weeks, then it just stops the pain. Sadly, because of the opioid abuse, and the powers that be going after the patience who are legally using prescription medication (do you see a pattern here ie; guns?), I can no longer get them, and have been treated like a junkie by medical professionals. This is what happens when you move, so be damn sure you don't need them if you're going to relocate, because chances are, you won't find a doctor who will take you.

My quality of life has gone to crap since I've lost my pain meds.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

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Auntie Biache' said:
My quality of life has gone to crap since I've lost my pain meds.
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Move back to St. Mary's County. Apparently you can get opioids with no problem, because I find it hard to believe there are that many people in the county who honestly suffer from chronic pain.
 
warneckutz

warneckutz

Well-Known Member
vraiblonde said:
Having never taken an opioid, I don't understand the attraction. I mean, sure, if you're in extreme pain, but if you're just normal what does an opioid do for you?
Click to expand...
The stuff scares me to death. I'd rather be in some pain and discomfort rather than dependent on a pill.
 
Auntie Biache'

Auntie Biache'

Well-Known Member
vraiblonde said:
Move back to St. Mary's County. Apparently you can get opioids with no problem, because I find it hard to believe there are that many people in the county who honestly suffer from chronic pain.
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Well, I'm sure there not all chronic. Some prescriptions are written for short periods, and they add up fast. Injuries, surgery, whatever. St Mary's doesn't have a small elderly population, either, at least from what I've seen at doc offices. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend the thugs. I've seen them in the doc offices. They stand out like a sore thumb. If you recall Doc Matthews in Calvert, he was my first pain management doc. Almost every one of his patience had "thug life" written all over them, and if you paid attention, you could hear how much they were paying for their "office visit". o_O When Matthews was arrested, all of his patience had to find new docs. I never saw any thugs in the new doctors office. So, yeah, it's most likely crooked doctors who have ruined it for people who really need the medication.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

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warneckutz said:
The stuff scares me to death. I'd rather be in some pain and discomfort rather than dependent on a pill.
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Any pain I've ever been in was temporary and no need for medication. I do understand tamping down chronic pain, but they lose me when they are healed or whatever and continue to take the drugs.
 
Auntie Biache'

Auntie Biache'

Well-Known Member
warneckutz said:
The stuff scares me to death. I'd rather be in some pain and discomfort rather than dependent on a pill.
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That attitude could change when you live with the pain day in, and day out. When you no longer sleep because of the pain, when you no longer keep your laundry done, cook, or are capable of doing pretty much of anything.
 
warneckutz

warneckutz

Well-Known Member
Auntie Biache' said:
That attitude could change when you live with the pain day in, and day out. When you no longer sleep because of the pain, when you no longer keep your laundry done, cook, or are capable of doing pretty much of anything.
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Then I'd exhaust all other options before relying on pain meds...
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
Auntie Biache' said:
Some prescriptions are written for short periods, and they add up fast.
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On more than one occasion, I've had either a surgery or tooth work, and the doc just hands me a script for an opioid, "just in case". In all cases, an OTC like ibuprofen works fine. Wound up taking advantage of the Sheriff's drug drop box.
 
Auntie Biache'

Auntie Biache'

Well-Known Member
GWguy said:
On more than one occasion, I've had either a surgery or tooth work, and the doc just hands me a script for an opioid, "just in case". In all cases, an OTC like ibuprofen works fine. Wound up taking advantage of the Sheriff's drug drop box.
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I'm glad that worked for you.
 
Auntie Biache'

Auntie Biache'

Well-Known Member
warneckutz said:
Plenty of avenues if you don't want to rely on pills.
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Well, I sure wish I knew what that was, because I've been without pain meds for 4 years now. If you have the magic physical therapy that I have not yet undergone, or the magic move, or the magic herb, I'd love to know about it.
 
warneckutz

warneckutz

Well-Known Member
Auntie Biache' said:
Well, I sure wish I knew what that was, because I've been without pain meds for 4 years now. If you have the magic physical therapy that I have not yet undergone, or the magic move, or the magic herb, I'd love to know about it.
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I'm no doctor but I've seen plenty of people overcome a lot and avoid pain meds through improving their physical fitness, eating habits, etc... Yoga, dieting, higher activity level.
 
luvmygdaughters

luvmygdaughters

Well-Known Member
Had a terrible impacted wisdom tooth, the dentist prescribed Tylenol with codiene, took it for 2 days, still have it in my medicine cabinet. My father broke his hip when he was in his late 20's. He had 4 hip replacements, the last one resulted in a serious staph infection and the hip had to be removed again, put back in six weeks later. The resulted in an open wound on his hip to allow drainage. He was always in pain, some days not to bad, other days it was 3 x worse. He would only take Tylenol 3 for pain, sometimes 4 at a time. When he passed away, my sisters and I were cleaning out his medicine cabinet, he had all kinds of opioids that the Dr. had prescribed for him. He never took any.
 
Goldenhawk

Goldenhawk

Well-Known Member
Doing a little math on 32 million doses over six years, and 104,000 county residents... 3% of the county's residents could take 4 doses a day every day. If we exclude the youth who are less likely to need such medicine, and given typical distribution of ages from the 2010 census, roughly 6% of the population over the age of 40 could take 4 daily doses.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that "Approximately 20 percent of U.S. adults had chronic pain and 8 percent had high-impact chronic pain"...

So while 32 million doses is a large number without any context, it doesn't look quite as outrageous in the broader context.

I'm not saying we don't have a problem. I am saying not to let big numbers be scary by themselves.
 
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