Reports have surfaced that pop superstar Michael Jackson was spending as much as $48,000 per month on prescription drugs, including Demerol and Diprivan.
A sidelight of this story is the pharmacy that news reports say filled and delivered many of those orders: Mickey Fine Pharmacy & Grill in Beverly Hills.
Mickey Fine is a pretty snazzy-looking place. It was originally one of those legendary Schwab Pharmacies where starlets were discovered while drinking milkshakes. As recently as March, it was a featured location in the Starz comedy series “Head Case.”
It’s not the kind of place you would normally associate with supplying a prescription drug habit.
Let me be clear: there is absolutely no evidence that Mickey Fine has done anything wrong here. But I hope its involvement in the Michael Jackson case will help us to think twice about preconceptions and stereotypes when it comes to prescription drug abuse.
Opponents of American citizens buying drugs from Canada have worked hard to associate online and mail-order pharmacies with the increase in prescription drug abuse — although there is absolutely not one shred of statistical evidence to support this claim.
The fact is, while it’s certainly possible to use online pharmacies to feed a drug habit, it’s just as easy to borrow medications from friends, sneak them out of your parents’ medicine cabinet — or to get prescriptions from multiple doctors and fill them at a place like Mickey Fine.
The always amusing Pharmacy Chick, a retail pharmacist, is not shy about pointing out when customers get on her nerves.
She recented posted her “top 10 ways you can tell you are no longer welcome at a pharmacy.”
Here they are:
10. You tell them your name is John Smith and they ask you to spell your name…twice.
9. Your pharmacy is out of everything you order, every month.
8. You find your child resistant bottles glued shut
7. The pharmacy staff seems all to happy to give you a 3 or 6 months supply of medication
6. Nobody says hello but everybody enthusiastically waves goodbye when you leave
5. If you special order something and ask when it will arrive, they respond “when Hell freezes over”.
4. When you call the pharmacy they always put you on hold, and never come back.
3. You’ve been coming to the pharmacy for 20 years and while you recognize everybody, they dont recognize you.
2. You call the pharmacy to ask when they close and they ask you, when are you coming in?! and they always “close” the hour before you want.
And the number one reason you can tell you are no longer welcome at your pharmacy
1. When you come to the counter, all the pharmacy staff huddles to draw straws and the one with the short straw has to wait on you.
I bet you never knew pharmacists had such thoughts — did you?
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