This morning I went to refill my Adderall prescriptions at my University Health Care Center. I figured while I was there I’d “consult” with the pharmacist about the differences between pink and orange Adderall. Before I could talk to an actual pharmacist, I had to convince two of her minions that my query was in fact worthy the pharmacist’s time. (Why is it that wherever we go these days we have to wade through several layers of clueless assistants before earning the right to consult with someone who knows what they’re talking about?)
“Is the pharmacist here?” I asked the teeny-bopper undergrad employee, whose job duties aren’t supposed to exceed pushing cash register buttons and confirming that my face somewhat resembles the one on my Student ID Card.
“Uh…”
He did that thing people do when they’re clueless about what they’re supposed to do. In this case, that entailed swinging his head in the direction of the second least qualified individual in the room, a twenty-something guy in a dress shirt counting pills in the corner. He popped his head up and asked in a salesman’s voice, “Can I help you?”
“Are you the pharmacist?” I asked, though I knew he wasn’t.
“She’s in the back right now, sir. How can I help you?”
What is it about folks who aren’t allowed to wear white lab coats? What are they attempting to prove? They’re like high school rent-a-cops who wave around their pepper spray as if it were a flamethrower.
The Salesman was in no hurry to fetch the pharmacist, even when I made clear my extreme skepticism that he could answer it. I’m convinced this system is designed to protect the people who actually know what they’re talking about from having to interact with customers trying to find out whether or not we’re getting screwed.
When the pharmacist finally emerged, I told her about my dilemma with the 20mg Adderall: that I much prefer the generic orange Adderall (Barr Laboratories, inscribed ‘b 973’) to the generic pink Adderall (CorePharma LLC, inscribed ‘cor 135’).
She seemed astonished, as did her little helpers. They all acted as if it never before had occurred to them that different drug companies’ drugs, and their varying ingredients, might chemically affect one’s brain chemistry in different ways.
When the pharmacist realized the brand I was saying sucked (the pink Adderall) was the only one they carried, the campaign to vouch for the integrity of pink Adderall immediately got under way. Out came the dubious misinformation.
“Well, the two brands are technically identical in terms of their compositions.”
I kind of froze, knowing her assumption was false, but realizing my seven years of anecdotal evidence would do little to refute whatever empirical journal articles she had read and believed. All I could manage was, “Really?”
“Yessir, it’s mandated by law that all generic brands of a medicine be the same as the original. They’re basically equivalent.”
I thought I saw the wannabe Salesman smirking from behind the medicine cabinet.
“To be perfectly honest,” the pharmacist added, “you’re the first customer who’s ever noticed a difference.”
“Ever? Really?”
“Yessir.”
You should read my blog, I felt like telling them. If these drugs are so similar, then why do I have over 90 comments from random strangers agreeing that they’re distinctly different? Instead I just stood there, rather unprepared, not confident enough to put what I knew about my own body up against whatever some lady who had never taken and compared the drugs herself had read in some book or been told by some drug company rep.
I felt embarrassed, even though I knew these pricks were dead wrong. The dickhead Salesman looked at me victoriously, like he’d just fucked my girlfriend. The frat guy cashier dude wasn’t even paying attention anymore.
Other students in line behind me looked annoyed. I felt like I had to salvage something, some inch of dignity. So I walked out, rather than let then fill my prescription there and spend another month with that jittery pink garbage. Hell with that place.
Later on I’ll stop at Walgreens on my way home from campus and try to have that conversation again. Stay tuned!
I thought I was going crazy until I came across your site…thank you. On Friday I spent almost 2 hours going to different pharmacys trying to find out the difference between generic and brand name adderall. It seems like every time I get my rx filld I get a different generic and they all effect me differently. I have been very curious about the brand name adderall and why it is so expensive? Another thing, why are the different generics so different in price also? Sometimes I pay $20 for my generic 20mg and I have also paid up to $80.00 for generic. If they are technically the same why are they so different in price? So Friday I broke down and bought the so called brand name and paid $208.00 at Walgreens. That is the most unknowledgable and expensive pharmacy I have ever been to. Next month I will be sure to go somewhere different. My brand name adderall that I bought at Walgreens say barr labratories on the bottle….hmmm? My boyfriends father is a doctor and convinced me that it would be worth it to pay for the brand name to see the difference. Well I don’t think it is worth $208.00 (i don’t have insurance) but it sure as hell is better than some of the generics. I am getting confused on which on of the generics is best, i’ve tried so many. Could you give me advice on a good generic 20mg lab to try? Also, did I get the real brand name (barr labratories)? Thanks for your time.