During finals week last semester, Rozzie Eppsteiner ran out of her ADD medicine and could not refill her prescription. She has had the same prescription since high school, but here in College Park, she has struggled to obtain her medicine.
“Finals week was horrible; my mom ended up shipping it up here,” the sophomore education major said. “I think I was a couple days behind, but you just drink a lot of coffee and hope for the best.”
The CVS on Route 1 has not been able to supply legal narcotics and other controlled substances, including medications for ADD, ADHD and anxiety, since November. The store lost its power to order them when its pharmacy manager quit unexpectedly, said Sophia Wang, a senior biology major and pharmacy technician.
Mike DeAngelis, CVS public relations director, wrote in an email that the problem has been resolved, and he expects product availability to return today.
“The legally required power of attorney paperwork that allows a pharmacist to order controlled substances was delayed by a technical issue,” DeAngelis wrote. “We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused our customers.”
Staff members at the pharmacy said they were uncertain of when the medications would be back in stock.
For Eppsteiner, a sophomore education major, filling prescriptions has been an issue since she came to the university.
“I have never been able to fill a prescription there,” she said. “I either go to Kensington, where my aunt lives, and fill it there, or my mom fills it at home and sends it here.”
Home for Eppsteiner is not right off the Capital Beltway or simply across state lines — she’s from Atlanta.
“It’s really frustrating because I’ll go when I have 10 left, and I’ll try and fill it and they won’t have any. I’ll call back a lot and they never have any,” she said. “I don’t understand. This is a college town. Having ADD is a pretty big deal; a lot of people have it. You should have enough.”
Sophomore Theresa Brecker ran into the same problem in November.
“I went to CVS after getting my prescription for Vyvanse, which is an ADHD medicine,” said Brecker, a Spanish major. “It was the beginning of the month, and that’s when most pharmacies usually have stuff.”
But CVS pharmacists told her they didn’t have it in stock and wouldn’t have it for a while, Brecker said.
“He was also like, ‘We would not have 20 milligrams’ — which is a completely normal dose,” she said. “I think you can get up to 40 milligrams a day, and it was for only 30 days. It wasn’t even a big prescription, and they were just like, ‘Absolutely not.’”
She went to the University Health Center pharmacy, where pharmacists filled a prescription for her in “literally five minutes,” she said. Health center pharmacists were unavailable for comment.
Brecker and Eppsteiner have been able to fill other prescriptions easily at CVS, but Brecker said she has continued going to the health center for Vyvanse. It’s worked for her, but she is worried for students who might not be able to obtain their prescribed medicines so easily.
“When you can’t get your medicine, that’s going to hurt your studies and concentration and how you act in classes and around your friends,” Brecker said.