CLAUSE AND EFFECT

Opioid Settlement Has Made It Harder to Get Adderall and Xanax: Report

Pharmacists have had trouble filling prescriptions ever since the 2021 settling of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit with the nation’s three largest drug distributors.

Pharmacists are struggling to fill prescriptions for Adderall and Xanax in the wake of a clandestine provision tucked into a multibillion-dollar settlement related to the opioid crisis, leaving patients scrambling for their medication, according to a report from Bloomberg News. In 2021, the nation’s three largest pharmaceutical manufacturers—AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson—agreed to pay a collective $19.5 billion to 46 states for their part in proliferating the crisis. As a part of that settlement, according to Bloomberg, a cap was placed on the number of controlled substances that pharmacies are allowed to dispense, with their orders being flagged and even blocked if they exceed a certain unknown threshold, which is deliberately kept secret. “I understand the intention of this policy is to have control of controlled substances so they don’t get abused, but it’s not working,” an independent pharmacist told Bloomberg. “There’s no reason I should be cut off from ordering these products to dispense to my legitimate patients that need it.”