Did you deduce that from this?: Did I mention I was pretty popular at parties back then???
Of course not, that would be frowned upon. I was popular because I told funny jokes, and I played poker, badly. However, I did know more than a few classmates who worked at pharmacies, or had parents who owned pharmacies who sampled the wares, and it got the better of some of them.
I figured you didn’t sample the wares, or you wouldn’t have been able to become a physician later on due to impairment and licensing issues.
Anyway, regarding the 4 colors on their records: In my retail days, I was criticized more than once for being nice to Medicaid customers. Why not? They’re our CUSTOMERS, aren’t they?
To be fair, that was my conclusion as well. “I’ll bet you were”. You mentioned USP grade Cocaine just prior to that being stored incorrectly. It just didn’t translate well into what you intended is all.
for the rest of their lives!!!
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I cant believe this retro remedy has not been discussed in more depth:
Sears, Roebock sold it, or so I read
on a more serious Q. what would it have been prescribed for?
Malaise.
As a college student, I foolishly experimented with inebriates more than I should have. Luckily, I never took it too far, to the point of harming myself, or anyone else. But, I did witness multiple lives ruined in both pharmacy and medical school resulting from the easy access to drugs. I remember a few classmates crashing and dropping out, 2 suicides, and 1 murder (my friend and roommate for 2 years).
Regarding “being nice to Medicaid customers”, In medicine if you routinely try to be nice by waiving patient’s Medicare or Medicaid co-payments and deductibles, the OIG considers you in violation of the False Claims Act. You risk fines, repayments, and prosecution (including prison). The feds play hardball.
Their reasoning: If you charge, say, $200 for a procedure, but waive the patient’s 20% co-pay (because you’re a nice doc and don’t want to burden your patient with a bill they may have trouble paying), the government figures you only deserve $160 and they adjust your payment profile downward to that figure.
But, the real reason they don’t want you to waive co-pays is because they figure if you provide treatment and don’t charge co-pays, patients are likely to re-appoint more often than they need to (why not, it’s free), then they (the gov) gets stuck paying more in the long run. You also run the risk of liability under the Anti-Kickback Statute. Make a habit of being “nice” and you will be sorry you did. If you get red-flag triggered by their powerful computers, you’ll be deep audited, then the FBI will come knocking at your door, and they’re not coming to sell cookies.
Is this not the same in pharmacy? I haven’t worked as a pharmacist for >40+ years, so I don’t know.
That’s hardly the only way one can be nice to customers. I took it as meaning politeness during transactions, patience with explanations, offering information, maybe offering a chair to someone who appears to be having trouble standing, and so on.
Well sure, it’s not illegal to be nice to people in general (being polite, offering them a chair and what not), but that post was specifically referring to charging customers different amounts, based on an arbitrary color code. And that’s all fine and well when the customer is footing the bill. By all means charge people in need lower amounts. It’s the compassionate thing to do.
But, when the government is footing the bill, you’ve got to play by their rules (whether those rules make sense to you or not), or risk paying the (usually severe) consequences.
Understandable. They can be annoying.
Dr. Ticheners.
Boy them old guys loved that stuff.
By being nice to Medicaid customers, it meant things like not making them wait an hour regardless of how busy it was, greeting them in a friendly manner like I would with the “other” customers, making eye contact and not shoving their meds at them, etc.
One of my classmates died from ODing on stolen drugs, and looking back, based on comments I remember him making, I have a feeling that he became a pharmacist so he could have access to drugs (and believe me, there are easier ways to do it).
Certainly, Medicaid patients should be treated the same as everyone else (though I know in many cases they aren’t. And it can be difficult for many patients to even find a physician who accepts Medicaid).
I always treated my patients with respect—all of them, all the time. I also treated some for free (no law against that), if they were indigent with little or no insurance. And, in some cases, I waived their co-pays (so long as they signed the proper federal form). You just can’t routinely waive co-payments or deductibles (especially without a signed form) for patients on Medicare, Medicaid, or even private insurance. That is considered fraud, and you risk federal prosecution if you’re caught (and you will get caught if you do it enough). These articles explain it in more detail. They only address physicians, but a brief search reveals pharmacists are bound by the same laws.
I’ll reply to myself to add skin care to Grandma’s medicine shelf.
I use Jergen’s All Purpose Face Cream once or twice a week. It looks like this and makes me feel like a 1950’s movie star. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/spp/AICo9yyMoAR9id-He6SkbARPCsshB5v31Q2vfGd4M2hsudEzJTK4hbN94fsjoarepUqW00bM-L8d9CunqYM5g6kwEmgjzCnmVdHXaaYIO4kFnTFArfCh7lQCIkeRtWrKkiQ-eBylRKrVSySsXG1uXSX5BLkv_ckB7A6QWFC1fwa4HcFhav2USmlKzqMy82lxUof_4l-4uLSEhA=s512-rw-pd-pc0x00ffffff
I also love the original Oil of Olay beauty fluid.
Oooh. I’m getting that. I wanna feel like a movie 
star!!
Google “More doctors smoke Camels” for quite a eyeful.
Powdered mummy was sold as a medicine as late as 1924 by Merck
Let me know how you like it! It costs about four dollars for a big tub. Check the ingredients list before you buy it. There is a new formulation that looks like this and contains synthetic beeswax (what is that?) instead of the actual beeswax in the older tubs. Robot or human?
I ordered it. I will definitely let you know what happens.
See you on the Silver Screen…
Have we covered Blue Star ointment.
It cures everything, so they say.
When I was a in my early teens, I first noticed an old bottle of Percy Medicine in the medicine cabinet of the downstairs half bath. The label was yellowed with age and was he suspension had separated into distinct layers. It kinda freaked me out that Mom hung onto it. Several years later, while I was contending with a bout of diarrhea, Mom grabbed that bottle, gave it a vigorous shaking, and poured me out a spoonful.
It didn’t taste nasty at all, and it cleared me right up.
I DO still discard medicines that have been sitting around long enough for stratification to set in, though.