I am curious, if I have left over prescribed medication, would I be risking my job for using them? No, I wouldn’t fly a plane, or drive a bus under the influence.
Example, had all my wisdom teeth removed & I did not use all of the prescribed pain reducers. I work for a bank that randomly screens its employees. Occasionally (once every 6 months or so) I have a terrible headache, which over the counter medicines don’t seem to relieve.
I would think the prescription would only be authorizing the use of such medice during the recovery of that specific surgery, and if found in my system (by the drug screening) later would be grounds for termination. So is the only “right” thing for me to do is visit the Emergency room(when such headaches occur), wait for countless hours, to have some intern decide what I need? Then pay through the nose when I have a perfect cure at home in my cabinet? :dubious:
If you were prescribed such medication, your possession of the medication is legal. In Canada, however, it would be considered trafficking for you to give narcotic medications you have been prescribed to someone else. Whether you would be risking your job would depend on your work and their policies; in Canada drug testing at work is not permitted (even for, say, police officers on the narc squad) and this would not likely be a big issue.
In the US, if you have a legitimate prescription for a medication which is tested for, the resulting drug test should be reported back to your employer as “negative”.
When an official Urine Drug screen (such as the government mandates for pilots and truck drivers) test turns positive for a substance, a physician who is also a certified Medical Review Officer reviews it. Said MRO is expected to contact you to inquire if you have a legitimate reason to have said substance in your system. If you provide him with the prescription info, including the prescribing physician, said MRO should verify these facts, and report the test as negative.
So if your prescription is written so that you take this drug as needed for headaches, your test report should not be a problem. That is, IF your employer uses the standards used by the government.
If you test positive for heroin, you’re SOL, as there is no legitimate use for heroin in the US.
If you claim to be positive for marijuana because you were sitting next to a pot smoker, you’re also SOL.
QtM, MD (and former MRO)
And to better address the OP’s question (read for comprehension, damn it), the scenario described of taking painkillers meant for post-surgical pain for another purpose, would lead to a report of a “positive” test.
IMHO, you should consult your doc to see if a prescription of a small supply of painkillers to be used specifically for your headaches is right for you.
It is your job on the line, after all.
Also, I’m not sure about the federal laws, but state laws vary on this sort of thing. In Nevada, according to the nurses at the methadone clinic where I do my interviews, you are supposed to throw out any remaining narcotic medications after 30 days and obtain a new prescription or refill. Taking them six months later does not constitute having a valid prescription, even if the medication was legally prescribed to you.
I’m not sure they’re correct, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all, given how insane the law regarding this sort of thing can be. And I’ve seen them revoke privileges for methadone patients for taking hydrocodone that was more than 30 days old, and in one case they called police and had somebody arrested when they found a 9-month-old prescription bottle of Lorcet 10/650 in his pocket. (Personally, I’ve never understood why people on methadone maintenance would take other opioid drugs, but that’s another topic.) I think one of the nurses mentioned that the reason for the law was that otherwise people could obtain one prescription and then refill it with illicitly-obtained pills over and over and, when they were busted for it, they could whip out their tattered old pill bottle and yell
“Hey, I have a VALID PRESCRIPTION from 1973!”
If your state laws, or if federal laws, are anything like this, then you might still be in big trouble if your drug test shows positive for opioids. I’d bet that the MRO that Qadgop mentions wouldn’t be very lenient if he or she found out your prescription was months old.
Depends. If I, as an MRO, contacted the prescribing doc, and he told me, “yeah, the patient has a migraine 4 or 5 times a year, so every year I give him a prescription for 10 tabs of oxycodone, and that lasts them”, I’d consider it a valid prescription, even if the Rx was not that fresh.
So is the only “right” thing for me to do is visit the Emergency room(when such headaches occur), wait for countless hours, to have some intern decide what I need?
Dunno about your neck of the woods, but the ERs and EMTs here have a special medical term for people who come in with migraines:
“Drug Seeking”
(I’ve heard a couple of EMTs claim that they have NEVER had a legit migraine claim; the patients were always druggies.)
Why they pick on migraine sufferers, I dunno. Maybe they’re hard to prove or disprove and so a drug addict would be most likely to fake a migraine for drugs rather than something else?
So anyhow you might wanna be careful if you ever do go to the hospital.
Yeah, that’s a good point. It might not be technically legal, but it’s obviously not illicit. However, if the doctor said “What? Who? Oh, okay, I see here in my records that I gave him a prescription for hydrocodone nine months ago for post-surgical pain,” and the tested individual told you that he was taking it for the occasional headache, would you consider that a valid prescription?
Wow, that’s an astonishing claim for the EMTs to make. Hardly surprising, though, given the current climate.
If the doctors in one’s area are like this, one could always do what a growing number of chronic pain patients are doing, and go to a methadone clinic for medication instead of a doctor. (One study said that 10% of patients at methadone clinics are chronic pain patients who are either too poor to pay for medical help, or who can’t get doctors to medicate them properly. My own interviews indicate that this statistic is correct, at least in my area.) Of course, you have to say you’re an addict, and you may be exposed to some people you’d rather not be around, but hey, new experiences are good!
Of course, this is really only good for people who need a daily dose of pain medication, not just the occasional dose like the original poster needs. It’s probably easier to get a hospital to give you a shot of Stadol every six months or so than get them to give you one daily … but maybe not easier enough.
AC-the answer is to have a Family doctor Rx and treat you for the condition.
As a worker in the medical profession- going to the ER for treatment of a condition that is recurrent and semi-predictible is poor self-care. We hope that patients have a FP or General Practioner to go to for care of non-urgent problems, i.e. diabetes, colds, high blood pressure, tummy aches, and migraines. Migraines are fairly predictable if you are prone to them (as you know). If you have a chronic problem you seek treatment and care with someone you delevope a history.
Going to the ER for a mind-numbing, nauseaing, light sensitive, “sound will kill me more than a hangover” migraine make no sense. For that you seek help to solve the problem for good by tracking down a cause and the most effective treatment. This can only be accomplished by seeing the doctor multiple times and working together.
Going to the ER is for broken limbs, accident injuries, gun shot injuries and EMERGANCIES of that level. Or to attempt to cadge powerful painkillers for a chronic addiction as opposed to chronic condition.
As to cost-seeing a doctor who knows and cares for you on a regular basis costs less than the ER unless you want to pay the “conventience store markup” rate of those visits.
But when it’s past business hours and you have a migraine (or any other type of headache) that’s so bad you’re considering suicide, you don’t have time to wait for a visit to your regular doctor. The ER, or some other 24-hour medical care facility, is your only option.
Of course it’s better to get treated by your family doctor, but that’s not always possible.
Ever had a migraine? I haven’t ever had to go the emergency room for one (I get them maybe twice a year) but a bad migraine is truly debilitating. And sometimes they can happen even if you’re avoiding your known triggers (I have no idea what mine are, unfortunately, except stress seems to contribute) and while you might well BE being followed by a regular doc for them, right then and there the meds said doc gave you aren’t doing a damn thing and you just want to DIE. At that point, I’d call it an emegency and go to an emergency room.
Yes I have had migraines. And lucky me— they were very limited. I had three I remember back when I was 17yo and at the time the pain made me think that death was an option however, I just stayed in bed with the room dark and avoided everything. However, if they had continued I would have done what I do now when I have an urgent yet non-emergancy problem–get with an urgent care or family practice doctor as soon as they open or I can be seen, which ever happens first.
And the scariest migraine I have ever had was a “optical migraine”–there was no to little pain but there was a flashing neon squiggle in my field of vision that was there when the eyes were open or closed. It lasted 45mins and when it started I was very concerned that I was having a stroke or losing my mind. I called my ophthamolgist’s office and descriped what I was experiencing and that is what I was told it was. I have had two since.
Since a migraine has to be “taken on faith” b/c there is no bloody mess, broken skin, or bones to point to in an ER enviroment the care givers are going to be less than willing to dispense pain killers. The meds in that enviroment are for blocking the pain of broken bones, gunshots, and that like. It would be like using a bazooka to squish an ant. Yeah, the migraine really feels that GODAWFUL but it techincally is not in the same league. And those pain killers in the ER can be highly dependancy prone. If you treat a bump with a drug that should treat a limb detagment it is bad medicine. It would artificially lower the pain threshold setting up the patient to be less likely to achieve relief. Bad for the patient, bad of the doctor, and just the wrong approach.
If you are having a stroke or an aneurysm it will be detectable and they of course will treat the pain but also the underlying cause of the pain will be addressed.
Pain is pain, and ultimately it’s all in the same league. “Technically” not in the same league? Come on! Just because you can’t see a blood vessel throbbing like you can see a broken bone doesn’t mean it isn’t happening and that it isn’t causing pain of the same type. Of course, it’s easier to fake, but that’s a whole other story.
I’m not even sure what you’re talking about here – artificially lower the pain threshold, making it less likely to achieve relief? What?
Obviously different pain medications are indicated for different levels of pain. But just because a mangling hasn’t occurred doesn’t mean powerful pain medication isn’t indicated. When used for treating actual pain and not for recreation, the painkillers used in an ER setting (opioids) are almost never addictive. The rate is something like one patient in 10,000.
I said “terrible headaches”. And they don’t happen very often. Not a reoccurring migraines. Good answers, I value your responses. Thanks. 
Ah, but many addicts somatize their mental anguish into physical pain.
It’s a complex topic.
QtM, MD
Yes, and then there’s also the fact that withdrawal from opioids can create physical pain from the withdrawal symptoms. Add to that that one of the symptoms of withdrawal is hyperalgesia, basically large amplification of small pains or even normal sensations, and you get a very complex topic. And a very unpleasant topic, at that (drug withdrawal, that is).
But the point I was trying to make was that, when used to treat pain on people who aren’t already addicted, opioids virtually never cause addiction.
Based on my own experience, I would have to agree with this. I’ve had kidney stone pain treated with narcotics for almost 30 years now, and have never had a dependency problem. Last year, I had a post-op blood infection that kept me on morphine for nearly a week, and no dependency issues. But I’ve caught a glimpse of why these dependencies develop. Last time I was in the hospital, I had a non-surgical but nonetheless invasive procedure. The doc had left me a scrip for 4mg of morphine for pain. Well, the pain was too serious for Tylenol, but it certainly could have been handled with Percocet or some such. But since the doc wrote for morphine, that’s what I got. Since the pain was not terrible (probably a 5 on the classic 1-10 scale the hospitals use), I got a really great high from the morphine; had hallucinogenic dreams that were pretty cool, etc. If I weren’t terrified of addiction (due to the astronomical level of alcoholism on both sides of my family), I could have played the post-procedure pain card for a couple of days, and had some really nice highs. That’s not my schtick, though, and by the next day I was down to just Tylenol.
I apologize to the OP for the hijack, but this is a topic of great personal interest to me.