This morning I had breakfast with my daughter at IHOP.
I blame the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) for this monthly breakfast ritual. My darling daughter, Natasha, take 2 pills for her ADHD every day.
These 2 pills are Schedule II drugs. It is a little confusing, but both pills are the same medication. She takes Concerta and Methylphenidate (meh thill FEH nih date).
Ritalin is produced by Novartis and is the brand name for Methylphenidate. Concerta is produced by Alza and is another brand name for Methylphenidate.
Or flip it…. Methylphenidate is the generic drug name. It is a central nervous system stimulant and no one knows why it helps with Executive Control for ADHD. Here is a picture of it.
She takes her medication every morning before breakfast.
The Methylphenidate is fast acting and kicks in immediately to help Natasha with morning activities.
Concerta’s claim-to-fame is that it slowly delivers the medication over a 12-hour period. The largest dose is delivered in the afternoon.
I find myself at International House of Pancakes (IHOP) for breakfast once a month because it is next to a 24-hour pharmacy. I get Natasha’s prescriptions filled, we eat breakfast and I take her to school.
There are federal and state restrictions based on Schedule II drugs. And I have discovered the following restrictions the hard way.
- Prescription must be written and signed by doctor. It cannot be called into the pharmacy.
- Prescription cannot be refilled.
- Prescription expires five days after issue date
- Prescription will not be filled before the issue date
- Doctor’s drug number must be on the prescription
- Pharmacy cannot partly fill a prescription. If they have 20 pills and your prescription is for 30, they cannot just give you 20 pills.
- I can only get a 30 day supply of medication.
- Person filling prescription must be over 18 years of age and have identification.
The CSA doesn’t require that a Schedule II prescription’s expire. My state law requires that.
This is a biggest pain. My daughter’s doctor has to write up the prescription. (He wants 48 hours advance notice to write the prescription.) I have to go pick it up from the office. I cannot risk him mailing it to me.
With the wrong set of circumstances (slow mail and a 3 day holiday), the prescription could expire before it arrived at my mail box.
When I pick up the prescription, I have learned to carefully read it before leaving the doctor’s office. Once I picked up a prescription that had an “issue date” that was 2 days in the future. The pharmacy pointed out this problem and refused to fill the prescription.
And I also learned the hard way that not every pharmacy carries Schedule II drugs. Or they carry a limited supply. The 24-hour pharmacy tends to have Natasha’s medication more often or not.
But I have chased around town (via phone) for 30 minutes looking for her medication more then once.
One nice thing…. Because I must present identification, the pharmacist spotted that my driver’s license was going to expire soon.