£7.65 now for a prescription?!

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by budwieser

How about lets stop giving the registered drug addicts their fix for free.
Why should they get Methodone for nothing when others who need life saving drugs like Ventolin or Cancer treatment drugs have to pay for them.?

I'd hazard a guess so they don't go out breaking and entering or mugging little old ladies to buy smack with and properly used can get people of drugs + it's pretty cheap IIRC.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

I'd hazard a guess so they don't go out breaking and entering or mugging little old ladies to buy smack with and properly used can get people of drugs + it's pretty cheap IIRC.

Balls. The whole Methadone program is a scam that does sod all in reducing drug use. All it does is sets up a free fix that can be sold on by users with people dumped on the system for years with no exit strategy.

If it was used as part of a plan to reduce the dosage over several months with the aim of getting clean then it might have a place but right now it is just a huge money spinner for pharmacys.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Derek

Balls. The whole Methadone program is a scam that does sod all in reducing drug use. All it does is sets up a free fix that can be sold on by users with people dumped on the system for years with no exit strategy.

If it was used as part of a plan to reduce the dosage over several months with the aim of getting clean then it might have a place but right now it is just a huge money spinner for pharmacys.

That's why I said used properly, it wasn't being used properly 10 years ago when I worked in drug rehab, things are bound to be worse now.

[budwieser]

Originally Posted by Derek

Balls. The whole Methadone program is a scam that does sod all in reducing drug use. All it does is sets up a free fix that can be sold on by users with people dumped on the system for years with no exit strategy.

If it was used as part of a plan to reduce the dosage over several months with the aim of getting clean then it might have a place but right now it is just a huge money spinner for pharmacys.

I worked with a Guy whose Brother in law was a registered addict and he used to sell his methodone to buy heroin!
When he stayed with my wokmate he went through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and necked all the pills that the family dog had been prescribed!! Just no helping some people i guess!

[AdamD]

It's either to highly priced, or free, neither work in the long term

I often wonder how many people don't bother to pickup their prescriptions because they simply can't afford it.

Of course, a fairer system would base the price of a prescription on a persons annual wage, verifiable via their national insurance number, in some ways, similiar to the income tax system.

Out of work, on benefits or retired - Free
Upto 10k a year - £1.50 per item.
10k to 20k a year - £3.00 per item
20k to 30k a year - £4.00 per item

And so on and so forth, with discounts available if the medication is for children, disabled or the elderly etc.

Plus a cap/maximum of £5 per item.

Fairer still would be the pharmaceutical companies not charging £10 for something that costs 20p to manufacture. Then perhaps prescriptions would be affordable for all.

[djfunkdup]

[QUOTE=budwieser;35421485]


''' went through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and necked all the pills that the family dog had been prescribed!! ''


Please tell me you are having a Giraffe

[TheDaddy]

[QUOTE=djfunkdup;35421555]

Originally Posted by budwieser

''' went through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and necked all the pills that the family dog had been prescribed!! ''


Please tell me you are having a Giraffe

Doubt it, Ketamine is quite popular and that's meant for horses...

[AdamD]

Originally Posted by jempalmer

Fairer still would be the pharmaceutical companies not charging £10 for something that costs 20p to manufacture. Then perhaps prescriptions would be affordable for all.

That to.

Also makes me wonder just how many cures they've found for common diseases/issues, which they haven't released a drug for, just so they can profit from "treatments" instead.

I know, sounds like a grand conspiracy, but I wouldn't put it past the big companies to do just that.

How would they keep it quiet?

I somehow doubt that there is a conspiracy within drug companies to withhold details of cures found. There are simply too many people involved to make that viable. However, they have been accused of profiteering from treatments available and also selling drugs to overseas markets to the detriment of sufferers in the UK.

[budwieser]

[QUOTE=djfunkdup;35421555]

Originally Posted by budwieser

''' went through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and necked all the pills that the family dog had been prescribed!! ''


Please tell me you are having a Giraffe

Nope. True mate.

---------- Post added at 19:46 ---------- Previous post was at 19:45 ----------

[QUOTE=TheDaddy;35421567]

Originally Posted by djfunkdup

Doubt it, Ketamine is quite popular and that's meant for horses...

A friend of mines mate took Ketamine on a night out and next morning he discovered he was missing a finger and had no idea of how! True again.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Doubt it, Ketamine is quite popular and that's meant for horses...

It's also an excellent painkiller for humans with the slight side effect of making you think the curtain round the bed is trying to eat you.

Originally Posted by jempalmer

Fairer still would be the pharmaceutical companies not charging £10 for something that costs 20p to manufacture. Then perhaps prescriptions would be affordable for all.

It might cost 20p to manufacture but the development and testing costs are astronomical.

I understand that drug companies spend huge sums on research, development, trials and initial production costs. However it does irk me that as unit costs decrease, the cost of the drug does not. They have manufactured certain products for decades and the cost of those must surely have been be amortised by now.

Actually, drug patents only last 20 years from the patenting date (at the beginning of the development process), so the commercial life averages out at around 10 years, due to development, testing, and approval time taking between 8 to 12 years (for example, the side-effect that became Viagra was first noticed in 1991 came to market in 1998, but the drug it was based on had begun development in 1987).

Also, only about 1 in 20 developments actually get to market (my bro-in-law was a Research Director at Pfizer).