I just discovered a (now ex) friend stole my medication

[Mama_Tiger]

Sorry I’ve been missing from the thread, guys; Cindy knocked my power out. Only the good offices of my next door neighbor, who works for the power company dispatching offices, got us up and running as quickly as we were; the rest of our neighborhood is still dark.

Phish head, I left this friend alone in my house because, first, it was only for a little while – less than half an hour; second, I’ve known her for some time, and she’s never been anything but honest with me before (that I could tell); third, I don’t really have all that many valuables in my house, and my medication is well hidden away so that no casual visitor would ever run across it – I don’t keep it anywhere obvious like a medicine cabinet, but hidden in a desk drawer, just on principle, because I don’t want to tempt people; and fourth, it takes a while to earn my trust but when you do, I tend to be quite open with it.

This is the first time I have ever been burned like this, so I’m chalking it up to experience and making sure I hide my Vicodin better, and also I will admit that I went and checked my jewelry after I found the missing pills to see if she’d been lightfingered there, too. I really hated even having to think like that about someone.

Today, she’s emailing me like nothing ever happened. Does she really think I’m just going to pick up where we left off? I point blank told her I had no choice but to believe she took the pills, and I’m certainly not going to change my views now; it may take you a long time to earn my trust, but it only takes a few minutes to lose it, and her few minutes are up. Sheesh.

[Anaamika]

@Elza B

No, no, I’m sorry - I didn’t mean that to sound so harsh to you! I am really, really sorry - that’s not what I meant. I’m more frustrated with the addicts, including myself, you know? Because I’ve done this before.

Seriously - my ire was at the woman who stole her pills, not you - I promise! And I’m really sorry it came across that way!

And I shouldn’t have spoken without any knowledge of it. So…truce.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

Sucks to have a friend do that to you, Mama. And I congratulate you for calling her out on it. Confrontation, not enabling, is what an addict needs. Nothing wrong with a little “wake-up” arrest either, if the evidence/circumstance warrants.

But I can assure you it sucks even more to be the addict who’s so hopelessly hooked thru the gonads that they do this to friends, family and loved ones.

[Eva_Luna]

@Phish Head

[Maybe it’s just me, because I’ve been “burned” by quite a few people in my life, people, who, I thought I could trust, but I would never let anyone outside of my immediate family stay in my house alone, for any period of time. And I mean no one. Not even our church friends.

Sometimes you can’t even trust your immediate family.

Post-leg surgery, I was prescribed Vicodin. I hate the stuff with a passion - hate not being in control of my brain - and so I only took it to make the pain bearable for the first couple of days post-surgery. I knew I was going to have long and painful rehab, though, so I held onto it in the medicine cabinet. I probably had 25 pills left of the original 30.

Imagine my surprise when, after a visit from my sister, the bottle turned up nearly empty, after she had been complaining that her doc and insurance company would not keep supplying her with painkillers for an ongoing knee problem (one which is typically treated with anti-inflammatories, not narcotics, but I digress).

Imagine my further surprise when I got a call from the pharmacy where I’d filled the original prescription on the way home from the hospital, with my sister driving me - a pharmacy which I don’t normally patronize, as it is nowhere near my house. They were calling to tell me they were out of Vicodin, so they wouldn’t be able to fill my refill prescription.

Refill? What refill? I’d never even taken most of the first batch, much less requested a refill, much less from them. Oh, and did I mention that my sister at the time worked as an office manager for an oral surgery practice and therefore knew the ropes as far as calling pharmacies?

I drove to the pharmacy in person, even as gimpy as I still was, and expressed my concerns to the pharmacist (who didn’t seem to care and said there was nothing they could do). Then I called my primary doc and my ortho and told them never to call in a prescription for me unless they spoke to me personally.

Of course, she denied everything, though there was nobody else who’d had the opportunity to take the drugs. This is why my sister does not have my apartment keys, nor is she allowed at my place unsupervised (and very rarely supervised, for that matter).

Aaaargh - why do some people have no control over their impulses?