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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   5353 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 24, 2023

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So what's up with the amphetamine shortage? I can't tell if this is a shortage shortage, or if you just have to call up your psychiatrist in a panicked tone and mention the fact that you are literally out and won't be able to work tomorrow, and then they'll point you towards the secret stash.

Asking for a friend obviously.

Basically this is a long standing issue stemming from restrictions on production that pops up periodically. Not a new problem but it affects different people at different times depending on where the meds end up getting distributed.

One example: https://old.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/16dur21/stimulant_shortage_im_giving_up_yall/?rdt=65353

"Listened to a great podcast recently with an ADHD expert, who noted that in a recent meeting with the DEA and FDA all the reps of manufacturers said they were having no problems with demand and production, as has been noted in several comments. The distributors were the problem. The wholesale distributors got hit hard in the Perdue Pharma settlements. For things like supplying 450,000 opioid tablets to a single pharmacy in West Virginia, in one year, et cetera. So they just decided, extralegally, that they were going to limit distribution of ANY Schedule II drugs to pharmacies. Pharmacies cannot supply what they cannot get because of the distributors decisions."

This seems like the missing piece of the puzzle to me. The shortage has been going on for over a year at this point. If FDA/DEA quotas were the issue then the FDA/DEA could simply raise the quotas. But if manufacturers and distributors are afraid to ship out drugs in a way that might look suspicious because they're afraid of being sued, that is a much harder problem to solve.

Reminds me of the Covid vaccine rollout hiccups, but slightly less stupid because bad things can in fact happen if crates full of amphetamine end up distributed but unaccounted for.

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