There's going to be a horror story in the first New York Times of 2012. Dozens of patients with ADD and ADHD are finding it hard to get the meds they need.
The shortages are a result of a troubled partnership between drug manufacturers and the Drug Enforcement Administration, with companies trying to maximize their profits and drug enforcement agents trying to minimize abuse by people, many of them college students, who use the medications to get high or to stay up all night.
Caught in between are millions of children and adults who rely on the pills to help them stay focused and calm. Shortages, particularly of cheaper generics, have become so endemic that some patients say they worry almost constantly about availability.
The DEA sets a quota for the number of ADHD drugs that can be made each year, and divides portions of the expected demand to manufacturers. However, the DEA has apparently set the quota so low that dozens of manufacturers now say they're in short supply. To be fair, the manufacturers aren't innocent here either--some companies have opted to make sure the name-brand supply is adequate while shortchanging the supply of generics.
Now here's where it gets surreal. While the FDA and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists have both put ADHD drugs on their shortages list, the DEA claims there isn't a problem.
Special Agent Gary Boggs of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of Diversion Control, said in an interview, “We believe there is plenty of supply.”
Tell that to Lynn Whitton, who had to go to a dozen pharmacies before she could get Ritalin for herself and her son. Tell that to Sheryl Greenfield, who had to plunk down $200 for Adderall after being unable to find a generic.
The DEA's incredible claim that there isn't a shortage because the high-priced name-brand drugs are apparently well-stocked. That doesn't do people on a budget much good. Nor does it help those whose systems simply can't handle a different drug when their preferred one isn't available.
Boggs claims the DEA doesn't want to let up on the quotas because of an uptick in abuse. That may be a valid concern, but it doesn't mean that those who really need it should get screwed.