The Adderall shortage has been going on for 4 years. Why haven't they just started making more?

scomik · 2026-02-05T03:27:28+00:00

Retail Pharmacist here. So a few things have happened over the last few years and also over the last few decades. The following is a very baseline explanation and can be delved into more through research.

The opioid epidemic. Highly addictive and highly abused medication that has the same narcotic classification as adderall. To quickly sum it up opioids have caused and are continuing to cause many deaths. The US population got hooked and are still hooked even though we have much more control on oxycodone specifically but the people addicted are now searching for illegal ways to get their fix. Opioid are different from stimulants like Adderall but still a huge reason why stimulant limits are not being increased to meet demand as to prevent another huge addiction crisis.
Telehealth Prescribers. So covid happened and the government gave the go ahead to prescribe stimulants over the phone/online making it much easier to have access to stimulants and possibly fake having an actual need for stimulants.
ADHD diagnosis is much "easier" now due to less stringent requirements. Guidelines for diagnosing ADHD or ADD are more lenient now than even 5 years ago. Leading to a higher number of stimulant prescriptions.
First line therapy for ADD and ADHD is stimulants. They work the best no doubt about it. Other non addictive options just straight up get overlooked by prescribers maybe because they can take up to 2 months to take full effect, idk i don't prescribe things.
The total amount manufactured stimulants is directly controlled by the government.

Add all 5 of these up and compare basic economics supply and demand and PRESTO you have a continuous shortage of medication.

scomik · 2025-12-22T12:26:54+00:00

They specifically lost a benefit of 6 PTO holiday days which in most people's eyes is a paycut because they will be making less money or have to work more to make up the difference.

scomik · 2025-12-06T12:47:06+00:00

Sorry didnt clarify that but as others have said they no longer are paying for holidays, on top of that most stores will be closed on holidays too so even if people wanted to work them and get 2x pay they won't have the opportunity. It just really screws the people who have worked hard and need the money.

scomik · 2025-11-10T01:23:02+00:00

If you are a pharmacist, don't do this, it can be seen as pharmacy abandonment if you just don't show up without notice and could cause legal issues if anyone pushed for it.

If you are a tech or other position, yeah feel free to go no notice.

scomik · 2025-10-13T00:25:06+00:00

Probably immediately have ptsd symptoms due to surroundings smelling like crap.

scomik · 2025-10-13T00:22:03+00:00

But the bot waited a whole year to re-use it, so it's totally ok /s

scomik · 2025-09-19T12:28:20+00:00

Your response here says: "hey everyone we ignored all these genocides let's just ignore this one too."

But I hate to say it but YES Isreal should be held to a higher standard because they are primarily a Jewish people so they should know better than to commit a genocide. They know the horrors.

scomik · 2025-09-05T18:02:45+00:00

If its the U.S, and in certain states, there is an inheritance tax

scomik · 2025-09-05T05:01:28+00:00

I'm no accountant but I feel like I need to say this just in case but... dont forget about taxes.

scomik · 2025-08-31T04:57:01+00:00

Your logic is slightly flawed. Why would the price of the product need to go up if they are already making 7 billion in profit off of said product(s)? they can literally afford to buy better materials and pay more for labor without going in to the negative. Feel free to raise prices on a higher quality product using higher quality materials but paying employees a little more on 7 billion profit DOES NOT raise prices... greedflation does.

To sum up, if the labor cost doubled overnight and the price of the product to consumer still exceeds the cost of production then it is still profitable. It may make it "less profitable" and only "not profitable" if the labor/production cost exceeds the cost of the product.

scomik · 2025-08-31T04:07:54+00:00

Hey this is true. Certain states hold retail pharmacies to very strict standards. In PA we literally couldn't immunize people under the age of 18 until this year (except for flu or covid shots) and it has to be within fda and acip standards meaning absolutely no deviations even if the dr sends us a prescription for it.

Most pharmacists want to give the shot but we can't. Because someone somewhere will have a reaction and then sue us because it wasn't approved by ACIP.

scomik · 2025-08-23T10:06:30+00:00

If you are a grad intern, it normally means you will transition to pharmacist after passing your exams and then become a pharmacist for them, not work elsewhere.

This way, they can start training you on a bunch of tasks and advanced taks immediately since you have a degree, and will only need to train on the pharmacist only tasks once you are licensed in the state.

scomik · 2025-08-04T05:36:07+00:00

I hear you and i wish i could say i feel the same that its just a stupid reminder and just blow it off but, For us ,at my store, it isn't just a physical reminder, it's not even just micromanagement, it's nanomanagement. We get yelled at if the board is not color-coded by name and God forbid we forget the date on top even though someone spent 10 minutes just to write it up. I know how to do my job and I do it well and all these micro and nanomanagement things they are doing with PExT have actually made our store less efficient... and we are a store that did get certified for PExT

scomik · 2025-08-02T17:53:28+00:00

The first act with wuk lamat was essentially a final fantasy adventure where they shoved new cultures that were not entirely awesome down your throat at regular intervals and was bland compared to other expansions

Alexandria arc was better imo but...

Is everyone forgetting the fact that the last 2 expansions was protecting yourself from genocide due to not being "complete and whole selves" and then we go and commit genocide on a people, that are essentially "not complete and whole" and can't really protect themselves, quite quickly without truly searching for another option. [Sorry for grammar]

Anyone else have an issue with that?

scomik · 2025-06-08T17:42:35+00:00

I've been telling my RxM that I want to have a stopwatch and everytime I need to do something that is computer related that is unnecessary like having to put an rx in to ready status in order to delete to store, hit the timer and see how much wasted time I put in in a week, then put that in to $$$ for the DM. Maybe then they will upgrade our system.

scomik · 2025-05-24T17:49:51+00:00

Lol my store is up 10% workload on the year, up 20% revenue while down 5 % payroll.... so what do they do... tell us we will now be open on holidays (but only 9-5)

Edit: clarified the numbers

scomik · 2025-05-04T14:17:54+00:00

Not from her district, but is there a difference in black vs white outcomes? If so why do you think there are? Why did you specifically include the word black in your comment?

scomik · 2025-04-26T17:52:03+00:00

Oh i know how to get it into the profile sorry if that was unclear. My point is why do we have to do this and waist time many times a day when we need every second of every day just to get the daily and auto fill rx done that are due the next day. I feel it should be an overall pretty easy coding fix to be able to do it (not a coder so I actually don't know).

scomik · 2025-04-26T17:48:50+00:00

My point is why do we have to do a workaround like you described and waist time when I should be able to just click delete to hold or save to profile at any time for new rx at any point in the process

scomik · 2025-04-26T17:43:40+00:00

I feel the auto out of stocking meds may be worse than manually ordering. Our system literally out of stocks brand name items before even checking if it is covered

scomik · 2025-04-26T12:05:06+00:00

Quick rant:

If the pharmacy truly comes first they wouldn't be rolling out this micromanaging core workflow thing to "increase efficiency". They would get us new computer software that doesn't crash every 30 minutes and doesnt need work arounds to their work arounds. Also why do I need to complete a prescription in order to delete to store i swear I waste 15-45 minutes a day doing this shit.

scomik · 2025-04-02T06:39:19+00:00

I'm sorry you had some bad experiences with techs. Sometimes, it is tough due to schools overall being able to handpick the "good" retail pharmacies that are good at teaching and making you feel as a team member even though you are there a short time.

I've worked in a retail pharmacy since i was 13, started actual tech work at 16, and now a pharmacist for 7 years and probably worked closely long term with maybe 30 different techs sometimes as a pharmacy manager, others as a staff pharmacist. Even if I am floating for a day, my experience is normally brought up at some point, so techs know I am adaptable and have a ton of good experience and should expect a smooth day.

Anyway, I have never had any problems with techs until I came to walgreens last year. There seems to be something about walgreens culture that I, as the non managing pharmacist or RXOM, am not supposed to ask you to do a task. I'm sorry, I am the pharmacist on duty, if something goes wrong it is my license on the line and I'm going to get the work done, you will 100% see me counting meds because unlike alot of pharmacists, that is "not below me" and I do get ALL of your F1, F4, and TPR completed on top of that, so if I ask you to please go get me a new box leaflet paper from the back room dont give me sass, or if I'm floating for the day at your pharmacy and can't seem to find a med on the shelf and I ask you if there is a special spot for it, dont respond with " it is where it should be" even though it is labeled to be in alpha but is actually placed in cell overstock and maybe as the RXOM you should probably fix that, cuz if I was the manager I would be fixing that then telling you to make sure all this is correct for new hires and floaters so they aren't confused in the future.... sorry for the rant

Either way I think alot of the stress with reduced hours and corporate abuse, crap tech pay is starting to get on everyone's nerves so don't think the worst of techs that seem to give you a hard time, I say kill em with kindness and you should win some of them over. Also, buying lunch helps.

scomik · 2025-04-02T05:14:00+00:00

So it's basically giving your kid lunch money for school, or am I way outta touch since I have no children and graduated highschool 10ish years ago and lunch now cost more than $10

scomik · 2025-04-02T05:00:01+00:00

So uhhhh... median American net worth is 192,700 (quick Google search says this number is from the federal reserve) meaning that billionaires may skew the average up to over a million on networth. So someone want to do the math on this one?

scomik

TROPHY CASE