Drug shortages have worsened and may only increase in the future, experts say

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/resilient-drug-supply/drug-shortages-have-worsened-and-may-only-increase-future-experts-say

by orhmeh09 • 3 years ago

139 232 3 years ago

cidrap.umn.edu

hinkley3• 3 years ago

We need to stop offering tax deductions for advertising and offer tax deductions for maintaining inventory. We are squeezing all of the safety margins out of our entire economy because that's what the beancounters tell us to do.

StreetChief• 3 years ago

Because that's how the rich get richer

hinkley3• 3 years ago

Because the thing that makes them an extra 5% is what will be done. If we reward people 5% for cutting to the bone, they will, every time.

See also perverse incentives.

For medical supplies there should be a specific tax exemption for maintaining emergency supplies. Or a law, or both.

jws• 3 years ago

Maybe we should take a page from farm subsidies and have pharmaceutical subsidies where the government will buy some quantity of expired inventory of important medicines. Price it at kind of the low end of what insurance companies would pay the pharmaceutical company, so they'd rather sell it to a consumer, but they can still make money on the government planned over supply.

refurb2• 3 years ago

The drugs that have shortages are almost always generics. Those companies don't advertise, they run on razor thin margins - which is exactly why you have shortages because these companies will often just stop making a drug if it's not profitable.

stuaxo• 3 years ago

Someone going to start asking an LLM the right questions to work out how to DIY these ?

moonchrome• 3 years ago

If it's as accurate as it is for coding good luck with mustard gasing yourself.

orangepurple• 3 years ago

Total Synthesis by Strike

ftxbro• 3 years ago

It's illegal. Not that it would stop everyone, but a lot of people who DIY won't go there. They will do other projects. And if they are going to illegally DIY drugs to make money then they will make other ones instead.

bugglebeetle2• 3 years ago

Since most drugs are the product of public research that then gets gobbled up and privatized by the pharmaceutical industry, we should just build out state capacity for their manufacture. Taking this one step further, we could even had a national healthcare system that monitors utilization and adjusts production accordingly!

jbm• 3 years ago

Pre-Corona-destabilization, and pre-Trump, I wouldn't agree with you, but I do now; especially since we are in the middle of the Opioid crisis.

The government can and will seize patents at will. Only a handful of people need to be "convinced" to share their knowledge on production, and there are enough laws and spying that anyone can be "convinced".

If a hard left president of the US decided the US wanted to produce drugs, it would produce drugs and that would be the end of it. If children start dying because of drug shortages, this will happen.

mensetmanusman• 3 years ago

Coming from the materials technology arena, those solutions wouldn’t have been available day one if it came out of a government led lab. Government research has no means to pay for the extra effort and talent required to get things done quickly. Also, committee led research can float off into random areas with little applicability this century.

tstrimple5• 3 years ago

If a hard left president of the US

Well that’s never going to happen.

version_five3• 3 years ago

Taking this one step further, we could even had a national healthcare system that monitors utilization and adjusts production accordingly!

Yes I've heard that centrally planned economies are great at delivering goods.

bugglebeetle2• 3 years ago

It’s true!

https://www.versobooks.com/products/636-the-people-s-republi...

nradov• 3 years ago

Most drugs are the product of private pharmaceutical companies conducting extremely expensive phase 3 clinical trials. The government sponsored research is a relatively small component of the full cost of bringing a new drug to market.

whalesalad7• 3 years ago

It took me 6 months to get back to a decent baseline after quitting Adderall cold turkey but I am really glad I did. I hate being dependent on a drug with limited access for survival. In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict. Virtually every interaction you ever have with a psychiatrist or pharmacist surrounding these meds is fraught with bullshit. It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market.

Covid was a sobering event for me and it made me realize just how fragile our global economy / supply chain are. I want to be able to exist and survive even in a total collapse (which, tinfoil hat be damned is becoming a more and more realistic possibility). Step 1 was giving up the amphetamine salts.

soderfoo3• 3 years ago

I have been plagued by issue after issue with getting my prescription filled correctly (dosage, timing, and shortages). I would prefer to come off of it completely, but my doctor has even managed to make that difficult.

Any tips for just going cold turkey? I can't wait any longer for my psychiatrist to prescribe an alternative.

TechBro86153• 3 years ago

Not cold turkey, but if you can, taper off it. Then just be prepared to deal with groggy, slow, angry mood for three weeks.

whalesalad7• 3 years ago

Only tip is that it will be hard and you must persevere. No one in this life is coming to save you - you must do it yourself.

tstrimple5• 3 years ago

I went cold turkey after a couple years of consist medication because I missed an appointment due to being sick and wasn’t able to get it rescheduled until I was unmedicated again. By that point I was back in the rut of useless executive function. Surprisingly I had zero issues just stopping taking it. Obviously the executive dysfunction came back quickly but I had zero withdrawal symptoms dropping 30mg XR. Maybe I was just lucky.

011000112• 3 years ago

What about non-stimulant drugs? Are they as difficult to get? I'm bipolar, so stimulant drugs are not a great idea for me, but I'd still like to get some help. My experience has shown it's not something I can meditate/diet/exercise my way out of.

bsagdiyev• 3 years ago

Straterra is an option but I believe works like an anti-depressant. My experience wasn't great with it, but who knows? If it works for you that's great!

tepitoperrito• 3 years ago

Guanfacine is one non stimulant ADHD prescribed med that you might want to look into. For OTC supplements I don't think it hurts to consider N-Aceytl-cysteine (NAC) but it's not a cure all.

smittywerben• 3 years ago

It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market.

LOL I can only dream of ordering my meds to my door from a site that looks like Amazon.

LoganDark35• 3 years ago

Actually, the drug markets look more like eBay. But yes, that's literally how it goes. I've ordered LSD before and it's basically just crypto eBay.

whalesalad7• 3 years ago

RIP Silk Road :(

brigadier1323• 3 years ago

Im 7 months in to taking vyvanse and my life couldnt be better

Baeocystin5• 3 years ago

Are you coming across any habituation issues? I've been taking ritalin for a while (and it has made a huge difference in my life) but it does concern me that my dosage has been slowly increasing.

whalesalad7• 3 years ago

7 months is nothing. You’re in the honeymoon phase. Everyone with a recent adhd diagnosis thinks life is rainbows and butterflies but you’re on a stimulant drug. If you give someone cocaine daily they’ll tell you the same thing.

I’ve been on and off heavy stimulant meds since 2012. They only work for a short period of time. Dosage needs to go up. Consequences need to be managed. At some point you’ll hit a ceiling and they will no longer be effective. It’s just a matter of time.

joenot443• 3 years ago

Report back in 5 years.

version_five3• 3 years ago

It is easier, less stressful and arguably more dignified buy illegal drugs on the black market.

I'd say that's a pretty clear sign they "fragile" supply chains is not the root cause. Somehow you can easily buy something that's had to be smuggled into the country in who knows what way, but not a legally manufactured product.

AndrewKemendo2• 3 years ago

Any analysis of a Supply chain includes political and logistical constraints, of which regulations and corporate operating procedures are included.

jjeaff2• 3 years ago

Smuggled drugs don't have to go through the byzantine bureaucracy of the DEA and myriad of other organizations. But that also means they don't have to go through any of those controls that actually ensure quality. As poorly as some of those controls seem to function, they are better than nothing.

Fr0styMatt882• 3 years ago

Your dependency isn’t the problem if you have ADHD and the medication helps you. The actual problem is all the bullshit around getting the drug and the bullshit stigma around it.

The fact the system treats you like a ‘crack addict’ is the problem. Could you imagine how absurd it would be if say, type 1 diabetics got treated like addicts because they depended on insulin?

The system around ADHD drugs is just fucked and needs to change.

LoganDark35• 3 years ago

The problem is that ADHD medications actually work. They work so well that they are abused by people who don't actually have ADHD. Resulting in more restrictions, even for people who do have ADHD and actually need the drug.

Insulin can't be abused in this way, which probably explains why you can just go and buy it at walmart.

conductr• 3 years ago

I know plenty of people buying and selling adderall on the streets, and it’s for recreational purposes. I don’t think insulin quite has that going against it.

andersentobias2• 3 years ago

I don't think type 1 diabetes meds are considered overprescribed _anywhere_. ADHD meds definitely are. Even reputable doctors say they are overprescribed.

How large % of the ADHD population could be fixed environmentally, e.g. by just going to the damn gym? How much can be attributed to our modern lifestyles?

ADHD exists, but to say that there's something wrong with "the system" just because 100% of people in society don't take it as a serious diagnosis is a big stretch.

Another big stretch is comparing ADHD with type 1 diabetes. Come on...

_heimdall8• 3 years ago

I don't have any recent first hand experience with Adderall use, are we honestly at a point where those taking it are treated as crack addicts?

My understanding has always been that plenty of people use it, and if anything that is over prescribed. What exactly have you seen that's so bad it's being treated similar to a schedule 2 narcotic?

dumpsterlid• 3 years ago

In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict.

This is an awful thing to casually throw out there in the faces of people who rely on ADHD medication to manage their ADHD.

whalesalad7• 3 years ago

No it’s not. It’s the truth. If you can’t exist without a substance that is being controlled by an elaborate chain of pharmaceutical companies, federal drug enforcement regulations and highly expensive doctors that is being up shit creek without a paddle.

What would you do if something like WWIII started and all non-vital drug manufacturing stopped? Or any conceivable scenario where suddenly these meds are not available. Everything is more fragile than you realize. Look at baby formula or other products that are produced by literally one single supplier. The system works until it doesn’t.

So let’s pretend adhd meds cease to exist. What will you do? Give up on life and cry about it? You need to be prepared for any circumstance.

Don’t get me wrong I’m struggling and I miss it constantly but I’ve also had to reset my mindset and expectations. People tend to adopt adhd as an identity but it’s not something that should be done. We all struggle to varying degrees with executive dysfunction and it’s silly to hide behind this crutch. Outside this high paced world people with adhd are just fine. But in this environment they are “disabled”

SeanAnderson4• 3 years ago

I quit taking non-prescrip Adderall at the start of the year after having taken it for ~7 months and am so happy I did!

I'm friendlier, my thought process is more clear and less scattered, I don't surprise people with chatty behavior some of the day and then ghost them other times of the day, and I'm more aware of my overall health and energy levels. If I stop running, lifting weights, eating a really clean diet, sleeping restfully, or start smoking/drinking - I feel it now and there's no hiding from it. While on Adderall, all of my bad health habits were just a slight adjustment to a dosage away from being a non-issue for another month, but the downward health spiral from ignoring all the extra care I could be doing for myself really started adding up.

Looking back at that time, I really thought I was being hyper productive while on it, but I think it was more like I was spinning my wheels really fast, not going very far, and feeling unreasonably good about the progress I was making because all my brain's reward centers were constantly firing. I could do an endless amount of simple work, and actively sought out that type of work, but the real deep critical thinking stuff I started to balk at and look for ways to justify avoiding - usually by doing double or triple the amount of simple stuff. It's odd that it made me feel so dang confident in my abilities.

No hate to those who have ADHD and take it, but, for me who was taking it illicitly at low dosages (1mg-5mg), all the negative side-effects drastically outweighed the benefits and I only really saw that once I found it inside me to stop.

Definitely sucks having to re-train my willpower though. It was just so damn easy to delegate all of that to the drug. It took a few months before I felt I could really convince my brain to work hard on its own, but now I'm back!

Good luck and best wishes to all those out there that see a bit of themselves in this post :)

akiselev• 3 years ago

One of the worst parts of the experience is no one can quite put a finger on what's changed. With Ritalin and several other psychiatric drug, people can tell when someone is turning into a zombie and their feedback can help auto correct. With adderall, that doesn't really happen until one is downright manic.

sph5• 3 years ago

I'm friendlier, my thought process is more clear and less scattered

What the actual fuck.

If you are friendlier off amphetamine, either you don't have ADHD or you're taking way too much, dude.

If you have scattered thoughts on amphetamine, either you don't have ADHD or you're taking way too much, dude.

Comments like this makes me furious. Because of misdiagnosis, or inept psychiatrists, y'all keep making the life of actual people with correctly dosed ADHD medication hell with your abuse or repeating the same story that it makes you robotic and makes you jump of the wall.

I have been 35 years unmedicated, I am on the same dosage for a year, with routine 2 or 3 days long breaks. On days off, I am perhaps a little more lazy, but as scatter brained, as slow, as tired and as unmotivated as I have been my entire life.

When I am medicated, on the least effective dose, because that is how titration should work, my mind is silent. I am more attentive to people, more patient, there is space to think and to plan. When I am medicated, I go to bed proud of what I have accomplished today. This small thing has turned my bloody life and mental health the right side up.

Jesus, every time there is an ADHD post on this forum the misinformation and ignorance around a very well researched medication abounds. It has taken me 35 years to know there was a solution to the mismatch between what I thought I could do and what I did, because of posts like this, saying ADHD meds makes you scatter brained, it is very addictive, it is hard to quit, it is ineffective, etc.

vasco• 3 years ago

I've never taken it but from what I read about recommended doses, 1-5mg per day for an adult is basically placebo effect. I'm not saying you didn't feel all those things, but this seems too low for it to cause you any effects such as these, moreover after months of usage.

TeMPOraL6• 3 years ago

If I stop running, lifting weights, eating a really clean diet, sleeping restfully, or start smoking/drinking - I feel it now and there's no hiding from it.

No offense, but alternative read of this is: you're probably spending a huge part of your life on coping mechanisms for a problem that can be better corrected with a pill.

It's either that, or you're one of those legendary superhumans I keep hearing about on the Internet, who can simultaneously run, hike, hit the gym every other day, home-cook meals or otherwise obsess about "healthy eating" and fitness, and then also hold a full-time job, have a spouse and children, run a side hustle, volunteer in the community, drive kids to soccer matches and still sleep 8 hours a day.

heavyset_go4• 3 years ago

In all honesty it is truly no different than being an alcoholic or a crack addict.

It's different because you aren't going to end up incarcerated and made a felon with drug convictions on your record for taking your medicine. Your dose is theoretically metered so that you can't exactly abuse it to the point where you're shooting it or taking absurd psychosis triggering doses. Theoretically, your doctor will prevent you from taking higher doses just to get high as your tolerance to it builds up over time. It has the potential to be a much less life ruining/ending situation.

Paul-Craft6• 3 years ago

Exactly.

My dosage is 25mg of Adderall XR per day. Not only can you not shoot up with it, the fact that it's extended release really puts a damper on how high you can get on it. I honestly doubt an addict would get much out of taking my entire month's prescription all at once.

If it was the instant release pills instead of extended release capsules, then, maybe they could get a couple good highs out of it. But the point is that you're right: I'm not prescribed enough to even get addicted, much less sustain an addiction.

motohagiography• 3 years ago

Drug manufacturing is a solved problem. There are no drug shortages, only pharma FUD.

alistairSH2• 3 years ago

Care to elaborate? Supply problems don’t strike me as FUD, but market failures. They might be correctable, with the correct incentives, but they’re still a problem.

oatmeal1• 3 years ago

US healthcare is about as far away from a free market as there is.

renewiltord• 3 years ago

Cut the FDA requirement and drug patents and I will get you higher quality drugs manufactured with full supply chain provenance for cheaper. The biggest secret is that getting on the good side of the FDA is about knowing people and all that usual shit.

Americans choose shortages because they think bureaucracy gets them quality. Instead what it gets them is a lack of baby formula and military planes importing it from Europe (presumably only the few cans that would cause children to not instantaneously drop dead like they do in Europe where they don't put FDA labels on them).

herbst• 3 years ago

My small pharmacy here in Switzerland is cooking their own dextroamphetamine and it's cheaper than street prices.

There is no shortage, just weird regulation issues

breput• 3 years ago

FDA drug approval should include a clause that requires a certain production rate per quarter along with an ongoing adjustment based on the number of prescriptions.

If the applicant misses the production rate for one quarter, they agree to work with a second source drug producer to prepare for production. If they miss the next quarter's quota, the second source is allowed to sell the drug for no less than three years.

refurb2• 3 years ago

It takes a long time to move production facilities.

Even if the original company decides to move production to another facility, it can take 6-12 months to run test batches, tests and submit it all to the FDA for approval.

I’m not sure drug companies need much incentive to not have supply issues. That’s lost sales.

If you dig into the actual causes it’s usually because of DEA limits (Adderal) or massive off-label use (Wegovy) or the fact that the drug is generic and the margins as so small nobody is all that interested in selling it.

Scoundreller• 3 years ago

Drug shortages and the quality problems that often cause them aren't limited to generic products, as evidenced by ongoing shortages of Adderall, Wegovy, Pluvicto, and others.

These aren't very good examples.

2 of those are relatively new drugs, 1 with runaway demand (Wegovy has the same ingredient as Ozempic) and the other, Pluvicto is a radiopharmaceutical with a short shelf life (so any manufacturing problems have immediate effects).

DEA regulations regulate how much amphetamine can be manufactured for production of Adderall, along with 30 day script limits, so there's not going to be a lot of slack in the distribution system, nor in patient's pill bottles.

Waterluvian• 3 years ago

30 day script limits

Oh so it’s not just Canada that does silly stuff like this. My doctor has to remember to write “300 pills dispensed 60 at a time” rather than “5 repeats” or else I have to go waste his time for refills.

AuryGlenz2• 3 years ago

At least in Minnesota, my doctor can’t even do that. I need to contact him every time. I take three different controlled substances, one needs to be refilled monthly and the others are somewhere between 1-3 months each. It’s a mess and I feel like I’m bugging him every time. They’re busy enough without BS like that bogging them down.

monksy• 3 years ago

So the short end of the stick is that leaders that are in charge of the cateogries are asleep at the wheel and no one wants to point them out?

chroma• 3 years ago

The adderall shortage is because the DEA sets quotas on how much can be made per year. Despite increased prescriptions, the amounts produced have remained the same.[1][2]

The Wegovy shortage is because it was recently approved to treat obesity. The number of new prescriptions was larger than Novo Nordisk predicted, so they're still ramping up production.

1. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/02/2021-26...

2. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/12/02/2022-26...

kileywm• 3 years ago

Very interesting document; however, the text seems to disagree with your adderall explanation.

https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-26351/p-16

According to DEA's data, manufacturers have not fully utilized the APQ for amphetamine in support of domestic manufacturing, reserve stocks, and export requirements for the past three calendar years 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Based on this trend, DEA has not implemented an increase to the APQ for amphetamine at this time.

Which suggests that the DEA's quota for adderall is not (yet) to blame.

heyoni4• 3 years ago

The majority of the manufacturers contacted by DEA and/or FDA have responded that they currently have sufficient quota to meet their contracted production quantities for legitimate patient medical needs.

“The majority” “legitimate patient medical needs” sounds like a bunch of trippy legalese. If it’s the majority of the manufacturers they contacted, doesn’t that mean that there’s at least one that has exhausted their production? Could that one perhaps be the largest one, like Teva?

If that’s the case, then yes, there could be a shortage. And they’re not increasing it because there’s been a surge of “illegitimate” shops that have popped up and prescribed remotely since Covid that the DEA is investigating and/or shutting down.

And that may not even be the real reason. Could be the understaffing issues quoted in august. Either way, that answer from the register is a non-answer.

93po• 3 years ago

The problem isn't restrictions on manufacturers, it's DEA restrictions on the pharmacies themselves:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-03/adderall-...

previous discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35430957

eimrine• 3 years ago

the DEA sets quotas on how much can be made per year

I don't know anything about politics nor medicine but this reminds me a plan economy of my native Soviet Union.

_heimdall8• 3 years ago

For adderall, you need to include the other end of supply and demand. The DEA set quotas that seem to be lower than the rate that is being prescribed.

Whether the problem is how much is prescribed or how little is produced is up for debate.

jjk1663• 3 years ago

The DEA is not supposed to be restricting prescriptions, it is supposed to be restricting production to what is necessary for prescriptions so there isn't a bunch of controlled substances being sold without prescriptions. If there is a mismatch, it is always a failure on the DEA's part to keep up.

euroderf• 3 years ago

"sole-source suppliers, a concentrated market"

Congratulations, America. You have re-created the Soviet economy. All of the problems of centralized planning & production, and with none of the benefits.

xyzzy_plugh2• 3 years ago

The comments in this thread regarding illegal or casual use of adderall or other amphetamines without an underlying condition are really disheartening. In the USA it is already excessively difficult for those suffering from ADHD to get a diagnosis, find medication that works and maintain a ready supply without a buffer. Abusers are contributing to the environment worsening for those who need these drugs.

These drugs can literally save lives from chaos and tragic ends. If these drugs help you live a more normal life, you are not an addict or an abuser.

The cosmic tragedy here is that this type of medication is practically impossible to become dependent on if you have ADHD. If anything the problem is usually remembering to even take the medication. I fear that abuse will hamstring any efforts to lift production limits.

Dma54rhs• 3 years ago

It's very easy to get a prescription for ADHD meds in the USA, that is why Americans often struggle when they go abroad to Europe or other places to find doctors willing to prescribe them.

peyton2• 3 years ago

The comment was talking about production limits. It is very hard to get a prescription filled.

SeanAnderson4• 3 years ago

Hey. I'd love to talk to you more about this if you're willing? I have to assume your comment is in reference to my post. I apologize for saying something that upset you - it certainly was not my intent.

My perspective on this is:

- The process for getting prescribed Adderall is not objective. One is allowed to see multiple specialists and continue searching until one's perspective is seen and respected. Yes, there are objective differences in the brain, but brain scans aren't being used as the basis for issuing prescriptions.

- Adderall, like all drugs, comes with a set of benefits and drawbacks. It's up to the user to decide if those are resulting in a net positive and they are allowed to change their mind at any time. So, it's reasonable to believe that someone who is undiagnosed may still either be, or believe they are, benefiting from the drug - and then change their mind later. Changing their mind does not mean that they retroactively become an abuser.

- I would like a source for "practically impossible to become dependent if you have ADHD." There are plenty of studies that show addiction does not occur with statistical significance in those with ADHD + monitoring, but addiction is not the same as dependence. Dependence is implicit after continuous use, but, depending on baseline brain chemistry, different people revert to different baselines after discontinuation.

- I feel your concern is more with the U.S. war on drugs in general - not specific users. I believe you want everyone who may benefit from stimulants to be able to find out if they benefit from them as easily as possible. The path to this is legalization - not stricter enforcement.

On a more personal note, I have several friends who, by all external appearances, were doing just fine mentally, but did not make their physical health a priority. They got masters degrees, bought houses, held down solid white collar jobs. As we aged, continually ignoring their physical fitness and diet resulted in their bodies operating less efficiently, which began impacting their work, and so they sought legal help - and got it. Their personalities have now shifted to ones where they are always talking about their stimulants and how life is harder for them due to their diagnosis, but they still do not care for their bodies. They constantly search for the right dosage to make them magically better and become defensive when it's suggested that best results are achieved with both medical support and prioritization of personal health. It's really challenging for me to be supportive of this sort of behavior because I do not feel they are giving their bodies a fighting chance. I am now able to empathize with this mindset more fully having taken stimulants for a period of time. I felt firsthand how easy it was to ignore my health when there was a guaranteed window of time each day where I was able to live life fully attentive and stimulated.

I feel that it is entirely possible that I have ADHD. I have some neurodivergent tendencies, but I see myself as strong, independent, successful, and not the sort of person who is interested in convincing a medical professional to greenlight my behavior. So, I researched and explored for myself, thought that stimulant use was potentially beneficial for a period of time, and then changed my mind when I reflected on the actual results. Was it illegal? Yes. Does that make it implicitly morally unjust? I don't feel that way. I felt morally worse convincing a doctor to prescribe me medical marijuana when California was still in the process of legalizing it recreationally even though the symptoms I stated, such as trouble falling asleep, were valid and "prescription worthy." Of course, you're fully entitled to see things differently, but it was important to me to fully share my perspective since I felt what I said prior was upsetting.

Would love to hear your take on things. Cheers.

xyzzy_plugh2• 3 years ago

Instead of telling all this to a stranger on the internet, tell this to your doctor. Look this may sound weird but if your doctor can prescribe you medicine for an underlying medical condition without determining if you have that underlying medical condition then there is a good chance they can assist in determining whether or not you have an underlying medical condition.

LoganDark35• 3 years ago

The cosmic tragedy here is that this type of medication is practically impossible to become dependent on if you have ADHD. If anything the problem is usually remembering to even take the medication.

Not necessarily... in fact, the hope of knowing it could solve everything made it possible for me to work through the stupid medical system in the first place. And now that I have it, and know it definitely works for me, I don't think I could ever forget to take it.

bick_nyers• 3 years ago

I had to get caps with timers on them to let me know if I took it that morning or not. In addition, I forget to renew & pickup my prescription almost every month.

If I'm an addict, I'm very bad at it.

fallingfrog• 3 years ago

People like to argue about what the proximate cause is of drug shortages. Or for that matter why we can’t build affordable housing or provide healthcare for everyone, or keep people from shooting up shopping malls.

Honestly, I don’t care about the details of each individual problem, which are complicated and ultimately unenlightening. The big picture answer is this: America is becoming a failed state.

Generally that happens because a small group of economic and political elites get too much power, and their interests begin to conflict with the interests of the general population. That’s the big picture. It’s just not in the narrow short term interests of the ruling class to actually solve these problems. And as long as that remains true, they will continue to get worse.

Drug shortages have worsened and may only increase in the future, experts say

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