Party Vibe

@Shakyamuni 979723 wrote:

Like always on PV, if someone reads all the posts they’ll get the whole story. I was trying to say the weird salts that sound like sugar are there to give it a candy taste if/when you crush the pill with your teeth. I swear I’m not lying.

I did wonder if that might be a factor but my lack of pharm knowledge plus having never sampled the stuff myself was not sure. This could also be another big factor in why they are not on UK formulary.

European health services (since early 1980s) strongly discourage “sweet tasting medicines” in preparations that are prescribed to children; for obvious safety concerns. I did notice in the patient information that one method of administration is that the capsules are sometimes opened and added to some kind of dessert to encourage the patient to take the meds – however in my country and most of EU this would be classed as covert administration which might not be legal even for kids without consent unless the condition is immediately life threatening.

At my work we cannot force those seniors who are still able to just about talk and move to take their medications (although refusals are uncommon and when they do happen often means whatever they had been prescribed is making them feel worse, and eventually the GP will try a different substance). It is only those at age 90+ who are bedridden who get put on automatic syringe drivers (filled up with any amount of strong opiates including fentanyl etc) but those patients are at the stage where they will not to be leaving the place alive…

Today I managed to talk a nurse into letting me check a more modern copy of the British National Formulary (these now get locked away in the secure trolley) by telling her “a friend in a foreign country was unwell and wanted to know more about his treatment” (which means I have a minor Sin to confess as Illiesse gets more advanced healthcare than mainland EU, not surprising with the amount of pharm companies in CH)

I noticed several more preparations of methylphenidate indicated for juvenile ADHD, lisdexamfetamine is now also available (but shown “unlicensed” for adult treatment) but no Adderall whatsoever – TBH I suspect the MHRA (UK medicine safety regulators) do not allow it in our country as by the manufacturers own admission confirm it is a “rough mixture of all sorts” and safer and cheaper treatments are available.

TBH the reason our copies are now stored like that is a consequence of NHS budget cuts (although I work for a private company about 30% of me is technically “NHS resources” due to the way senior care is funded in England) – previously the NHS would supply all local healthcare organisations with free/lower cost copies but now we have to buy our own.

Controlled drugs are or should be locked away and the store cupboards now use a particularly bulky key and have always had alarms on the doors so diversion isn’t trivial even with access to info on what “could be of interest”

unfortunately some healthcare staff do/did think they were 1970s era coppers; one of my uncles who lives in Essex was the first non white quality assurance manager in Southern England and specialises in identifying and putting a stop to this kind of behaviour (which can often be caused by lack of communication skills, language barriers and workloads as much as malicious intent).