LEXINGTON, KY (Lex 18) – Prescription pain medication regulations have put an evacuee waiting out the storm in Lexington in a painful predicament.
At the Leestown Road VFW, Jeremy Braithwaite was a long way from his home in North Carolina Thursday afternoon.
Though he’s trying to make the best of his hurricane-related evacuation, one inconvenience has led to another.
Braithwaite says he’s been prescribed pain medication following a major back surgery this summer. He was set to fill his prescription today, but Hurricane Florence had different plans.
“When I came here to go to the Walgreens pharmacy, they couldn’t get in contact because the pharmacy there in my hometown is closed due to the hurricane,” Braithwaite said.
Without his pharmacist’s approval, Braithwaite couldn’t fill the prescription for Oxycodone, because it’s considered a controlled substance.
His next option was to try to get a new one.
“My pain management doctor can prescribe me medication in North Carolina, he can’t prescribe it here,” He said. “And the UK doctor I saw today, he can only prescribe, because it’s a controlled substance, he can only supply enough medication for immediate pain right there and then.”
A Walgreens representative told Lex 18 News that Braithwaite did what the company would recommend, because “per DEA regulations, pharmacies are not permitted to dispense any controlled substance without a prescription.”
Braithewaite says he can’t go through days of excruciating pain.
“In a national emergency, I think it should be across the board that any medication should be available to people that need it,” He said.
Tomorrow, he plans get back in his car, and head back to North Carolina, where his doctor can legally help him.
He says he will stay on the western side of the state.
“No one can help me right now. so, I don’t have an option but to drive back in a hurricane to get my medication.”
