Walgreens uses law as excuse to leave customers in misery if they do not fill prescriptions there. I just wrote the following letter to my state's governor:
Dear Governor Haslam,
Walgreens pharmacy has warped your well intentioned "I hate meth" law to attempt to add to their profit margin. The law states in section 2 (d) "The pharmacist or pharmacy intern shall counsel with the person seeking to purchase the product as to the reasons for needing the product and may decline the sale if the pharmacist or pharmacy intern believes the sale is not for a legitimate medical purpose." Walgreens has just told me they cannot sell me Pseudoephedrine because I do not currently fill prescriptions at Walgreens, and that is Walgreens policy which they must enforce to be compliant with the new law. My not filling prescriptions at Walgreens does not prove that I am purchasing the drug for illicit purposes. I was at their location on South Willow Ave.in Cookeville and spoke with the pharmasist on duty, Beth Branstetter. I explained that my wife was in bed in tears with pain up the side of her neck and in her ear from allergy congestion. She said that because I did not fill my prescriptions at Walgreens, she could not sell me the medicine I know I needed for my wife, she could only make recommendations. She recommended a Phenylephrine product or Mucinex. I already know, and all the pharmacists and doctors I have asked about it agree, that Phenylephrine is a useless product that has almost no effect on serious sinus congestion. There is even an independent study that seems to support this: http://www.clinicaltrials. Gov/ct2/show/results/NCT00276016? Sect=X53761#part. Everyone who bought this "replacement" for Pseudoephedrine was hoodwinked. Their hard earned money was spent on a product that no one even tried to prove worked until and the study finally at least lends some modicum of proof that this is true. I know I threw away 2 club store sized bottles of this product after several attempts to use it for sinus congestion symptoms for my family of 5 yielded no results whatsoever. As for Musinex, this recommendation for severe sinus congestion is just silly and frighteningly uneducated. Musinex is an expectorant, not indicated for sinus congestion. As a matter of fact, the manufacturer has a website that recommends Mucinex D for sinus congestion. Guess what? THAT product contains psudoephederine, and is also behind the counter, unavailable to us who do not fill prescriptions with Walgreens. I do understand that Walgreens is a private business and presumably has a right to not sell a product, but that is not the case here. They have it and simply refuse to sell it to anyone who does not fill prescriptions there. Why not just go some where else? Walgreens is the only pharmacy open late Sunday night in Cookeville. My wife is the love of my life and I would die for her. I had to come home failing her, failing to bring home the only medicine that will give her relief from her symptoms, because Walgreens has created this policy, and told me that their hands were tied because of this new law, and that if I did not like it, I should write my Senator. They really said those words to me. Meanwhile my wife lies in her bed in misery, unable to get relief from her symptoms until a pharmacy less concerned with making money than the welfare of their customers opens in the morning.
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