GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — Kentuckians are feeling the impact of drug shortages, which are impacting supplies across the country.
Justin Bell, the pharmacist at Georgetown Pharmacy, said it is a growing problem. Pain and ADHD drugs are among those in the shortest supply.
They get calls every day from people looking for medicine they can’t give them,
“There’s medications we could get last month that we can’t get this month,” he said. “I really can’t say if there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
The cause of the shortages isn't clear, he said.
He says as an independent pharmacy, they have been able to compensate better than the big chains because they can order from secondary suppliers.
They keep stockpiles of certain drugs that are in especially short supply, like 10 mg of hydrocodone. Those drugs, along with ADHD medications, are kept in a safe.
Peggy Carpenter, who lives in Nicholasville, has been looking for the drug for some time.
She’s taken it for a decade and this is the first time she’s had trouble getting it. She described what it’s like without the medication,
“It’s hard to get out of the bed in the morning, it's hard to stand out on this concrete in the cold, the cold will make you stiff, it makes your bones ache all over,” Carpenter said,
She fears that without the pain medication she needs, some people will turn to alcohol, heroin, or other illicit substances.
