Sorry they screwed up. But I guess it all worked out for the best since you needed them and it saved you a trip to the PO & another night without meds.

I cannot believe the DEA or the VA doesn't make you sign for opiates & sends them regular mail without any tracking history

at all. I would've thought it was a federal law. Those pills are tracked from cradle to grave.

Even my husband can't pick up my narcotics from the pharmacy. I have to drop them off inside and show id. I can't go through the drive thru for drop off only pick up. I'm assuming to make sure I'm on camera. I have to show id again when I pick them up even if it was just 30min since I dropped them off & I'm dealing with the same person. Heck even my mail order meds, which are non-narcotic, require that someone over 18 be home to sign for them. They won't just leave them on the porch & my porch isn't visible to my neighbors or the street.

That really seems outrageous for opiates especially given the tighter restrictions in recent years. How would you even prove you never received them if they came up missing because some neighbor kid figured it out & started taking them? They can't even prove that they sent them. Please tell me there isn't a sticker on the box announcing they're meds or a controlled substance. Im all for decreased govt spending but that's taking it to a new level. In the scheme of things they can't be saving that much. They're opening themselves up to huge liability & lawsuits and they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Saving a penny to waste a dime.

Hope the meds are kicking in & you get some relief.
Emerald

Have you contacted your Pharmaceutical Dispensary and have them place a "must be signed for" label put on the packages of medication that they send you each month. When the Post Office puts that tag on at the Central Distribution Service, the Postal Carriers/Drivers are not allowed to hand that package off without a signature. If your not home when the mail comes then you just have to go pick it up, not much different than when we all go to the pharmacy to get ours.

It's illegal to leave the meds without a signature because a person, a child even could take the meds and over dose on them or distribute them for sale on the street.

Thats pretty much going to be your only choice other than going back to the good old days of picking them up at the Pharmacy.

Kat

I don't trust the postal service any longer with anything. A federal agency sent me papers certified, return receipt. I never signed the card, never saw it or the mail person, the envelope was left in the mailbox. When I called my local post office to complain, the manager told me that sometimes the cards you are suppose to sign fall off. I'm 60 and this is the first time I have heard anything about those green cards falling off.

Even with regular mail I don't always receive what was sent. I don't send paynents through the mail any longer and if I haven't received bills within 5 days of when I should, I look them up online. Last week I signed up for all of my bills to go paperless. But, I always get the junk mail.

What would happen if someone stole your pain meds ? Would you be able to get another rx or would you have to wait a month ?

Before I even finished reading your post-and I read about the form..I knew you're going to be expected to go to the post office to pick it up...shall we chuck this up to another reason to move soon :)

I had 5 percocets stolen by the drug store awhile ago. The drug store blamed me, even though I live alone and I couldn't have accidentally taken five extra percocets without noticing something was really wrong. So I can see why you are concerned.

Ok - so I am not the only one who thinks that this is absolutely nuts! Granted, we are talking about generic Vicadin - but it comes 180 tabs at a time. Last year I was on Oxycontin for a while, and yup, 180 tabs left in the mailbox!

The only thing that is going to keep me here is if the $60 an HOUR job hubby just applied to comes through and he gets it - as he has been out of work for two years and the two years before that he only worked a few months. Short of that - within the next few months I am gone from this state.

Yadlim and my Misha

hope new state and new home helps....

AnneY,

If your pharmacy "Stole" some of your narcotic meds there is a very easy way to prove this. Every single Narcotic and Scheduled Meds are entered into a Federally mandated Database after the Pharmacy Tech puts the Script in the computer, next the same Tech or the Pharmacist do a physical count of your pill and circle the # of pills on the outside of your bottle and initial that.

All you have to do is take that bottle back to the pharmacy and ask them to run this against their End of Day Data Counts. If they gave you a full script their numbers will be right. If they gave you 5 too few, their report will be 5 pills off, and those types of things need to be brought to attention.

I called,them and they said they did count, but my assumption was the filler put them in their pocket. I counted them about 14 hours after I picked them up. I was in pain went directly home, opened the bag in my kitchen, took the bottle in my bedroom. No one else was around. Like I said I didn't think it was possible to take five extra percocets and not realize something was serioiusly amiss. I use half tablets of codiene. I rarely use anything that strong.

They HAVE to account for EVERY pill at the end of the day... Kat said how it works. There is no way the person filling it can put it in their pocket because at the end of the day it all has to match up.

An analogy might be ... every teller at a bank ... every person that is assigned to a "till" must balance ( end of day) what went in and what went out.. if numbers don't balance out- there is a big problem. No one wants their till to be short of money --- same thing with the amount of pills. If short- someone there is diverting the medication-- IF too many left over-- VERY UNHAPPY patient most likely will walk through the door.