This may be a really dumb question, and it's really stemming out of curiosity, but how do pharmacists recognize whether or not a prescription is real or fake? One of my friends got into a car accident and broke his nose and got some pain pills, but he was wondering what would happen if he had photocopied his prescription and tried to use it again. It really got me to start thinking.... I mean, how the hell to they really know other than the date?
There is no computer system to tell pharmacists if a script is legit or not. Pharmacists look at prescriptions all day long, though. It is fairly easy to catch a photocopied script, or an otherwise altered script. Chances are, you could pass off a photocopy or altered script occasionally and not get caught. If you do get caught, though, it is a felony charge. It will be on both your permanent criminal record and medical records for the rest of your life. Doctors will be VERY hesitant to prescribe anything to you anymore, and pharmacists will be very hesitant to fill anything for you. Most counties have an entire police task force devoted to drug diversion, and they really LOVE to hear from pharmacist. Many pharmacists also really get off on busting people. It is pretty risky. One other problem, if you let a fradulent prescription be billed to your insurance company, you have also commited insurance fraud, which is another felony charge. Individuals caught defrauding their health insurance risk being denied health coverage for THE REST OF THEIR LIVES!
well, i guess that would probably be true for CVS, but what about a ma and pop "apothecary" store and so on? and if there is a computer involved, what makes a photocopy void then?
I don't know how they do it exactly, but my dad is a doctor and he just calls in a prescription for a patient. Each doctor has some id numver and they just tell the pharmacist their number and what the patient needs.
Actually, a mom and pop store risks a lot more when they fill a script than a chain pharmacist does. They risk their entire store. Either way, pharmacists are VERY protective of their license, for good reason. If they loose it, they will be flipping burgers. There is a difference between a photocopied script and a computer generated script. Any control drug must have the prescribers signature, for one. Also, may scripts, when photocopied, will say "VOID VOID VOID VOID" all over the face of it. Many other script pads have heat sensitive spots, that change color, so a pharmacist can make sure it is legit. I don't really know how to explain it, though. I have been filling prescriptions for 10 years. You get to know doctors, and their scripts, and you just know when something isn't right. Also, when someone is trying to pull something over on you, you usually can tell something isn't right. I have also worked with pharmacists that call the doctor to verify every control drug Rx.
Oh shit! Sorry if I sounded like an asshole with that "Well, that's probably true for CVS..." bit there. I think you and I were replying at the same time, but I think you won the race, PhotoGra1. I'd be really protective of my pharmacist license too if I risked everything like that... It would be a crying shame to see the nice old people running this apothecary shop down the way go outta business b/c some shithead wanted a few extra pain pills. I've been going there for three years now, and I know the people pretty well and they usually give me a discount since I'm a college kid and my dad is a broke-ass minister. I told showed my friend this post just so he'd see what all could happen if he was to mess around like that. It seemed WAAAAY too easy to actually be possible seeing as there's photoshop and all that kinda shit out there that people could mess around with, but we all know the feds are gonna be a step ahead of the avg person, and a step behind the pros. I just enjoy contemplating hypothetical scenarios where the boundaries of the law can be hyperextended with little to no effort... basically I spend a lot of time analyzing mundane situations where there is a huge opportunity to get away with crime easily. There's tons of situations where people simply allow their own laziness or their trust in others to put themselves in extremely vulnerable situations. I'm not really one to take advantage of any of those... and some of them really make me wonder if I should even think like that, but this was just another "thought experiment" that I thought would turn out to be worthwhile rather than see a friend get busted, or the nice old people "flippin' burgers." It does kinda make me wonder about prescriptions that are printed out of a laser printer like some of mine are... I guess that paper kinda can't have heat sensitive chems in it since it's printed in that way, but I'm not about to go test that anytime soon! My doc takes good care of me as it is, and I'm not about to risk my insurance plan for anything! The Presbyterian Church (USA) pays for most of my shit, and I still have it for two more years! It's kinda funny seeing as I would not identify myself as a Christian, but I don't hold anything against them at all. Oh well, cest la vie....
