Watson Is Now Actavis - Norco (Page 2)

My pharmacist that I have known for years due to chronic pain from cancer/severe spinal injuries and a totaled knee, told me last week that it is the DEA that has created the change in ALL pain meds. I have been on Watson Norco for 10 years and now I am in severe withdrawal with actavis buying out Watson. It is unbearable and my pharmacist said that people will DIE because of not being forewarned or informed ahead of time. This is all due to the people that use the drugs recreationally; and whatever else they do has ruined it for us real patients. We all know the DEA is like God and they don't even care about us real patients that have medical records, etc. I have been suffering for over a month now and my pain doc is on an extended vacation. Thank goodness for my pharmacist at least being honest about what is going on. If you Wikipedia Watson you will see Actavis and they are putting the Watson name on a pill that according to my pharmacist is now a regulated/time released pill with binders so it may not be abused. I personally have never felt "euphoria" on these after 10 years but DO have serious/severe pain and now have nerve pain like crazy. Does anyone know if this is part of withdrawing? Watson always worked best for me. My pharmacist also said that the binders can prevent the drug from being absorbed into the gut if you have any issues there. That is where my cancer is and they are not being absorbed. You cannot even bite them barely as they are very hard. They really think we are stupid sheeple. Why does one associate illness and/or pain with being non intelligent? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am also going through a horrible divorce after 28 years with a narcissistic/psychopath. The pain wears the body down even more. Hope everyone that is a real patient is okay and I hope this info clears things up because Walgreens and CVS won't tell you what is going on....

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Anyone with nerve damage would love to just wish it away. Some people know nothing of pain.

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Why is it that the Norco 5/325 made originally by Watson Pharmaceuticals who merged with Actavis no longer makes the same drug Norco, which was a white oblong tablet with pink speckles? This was the drug that I had been taking for over 2 years. Then, the company stopped making this particular type of Norco. Why, I have no clue. Now, if you have a prescription for Norco 5/325 it is completely different and trust me, it does not work... Now being a patient and having taken this same drug for over 2 years, how can I be cut off from this medicine that worked so well for me? I have sciatica stenosis of my spine, a small herniated disc, plus arthritis and bursitis. This does not seem like the American way to me. It is something far sinister. Do you have any advice on how I can get my same drug that I have taken for years restored? I do not want to hear, it is the exact same ingredients. If so, then it does not metabolize in the blood stream the same way, or at least not mine. I have to take the name brand of another drug I take also. I have talked to managers in two different pharmacies about this issue. They both agreed, that there is a slight difference. Plus my doctor who has to prescribe my other brand name medicine informed me- clearly I need to take the brand name. Over a period of time, companies change insurances and I had to go back to the generic. Both times with a few years apart, I still had the same problem with the generic. My Dr. now writes medically necessary brand name, and I get the drug directly from the Co. which is Lilly Pharmaceuticals. This is not a game to play. This is the well being of a patient that is being misused by the big Pharmaceutical companies due to greed. Does a patient have any rights at all?

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Re: Diane (# 2)

Well, opiates for nerve pain is just as silly. If u really have nerve pain, u need a nerve blocker. Gabapentin may work for you.

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Re: Tracy (# 4)

I have been onhydrocodone/acetaminophen 7.5/325 for more than 5 years for many spine/joint deterioration and bulging disks and spurs etc they have been effective and had Watson imprinted on. For this refill pharmacy said nationwide outage of them. None in our area. (All within a months time. My Dr changed me to 5/325 4x day opposed to 3 on the 7.5. I noticed these are produced bybActivis! Have heard Atticus is not as effective. I wonder if they se trying to do away with all hydrocone?

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Re: Theresa (# 14)

They already KNOW who the drug addicts are, their computer system cross-references nationwide. This is a WITCH hunt brought about by the Obama admin. I could care less about presidents, but obviously he felt a need to terrorize disabled people as well. I am hoping that this admin backs the DEA off. If not, this will go on, EVERYONE needs to write to TRUMP about this issue. He is a different president, so hopefully not willing to attack the disabled.

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What are red pain pills with specks but no imprint

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Re: Dottie (# 24)

Every Walgreens in my city is saying they are out as well . They have not got any in and have no idea if or when they will . Very scary for those of us that have been on this for years and depend on it . I don’t understand why we are being penalized when we follow doctors orders .

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Thank you for sharing this info!! I knew something was different but didn’t know what. I hope all these people that have been abusing pain meds are happy! They have made the lives of people who REALLY need these meds Horrible!

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Re: Deb G (# 5)

CVS changed to a different brand here in Michigan. Lupin is the manufacturer from India and they have 134 violations. Goldberg has written articles about the company. I do not like the Norco they make. CVS has them and I will change to a different pharmacy. I wish I would've looked at them before I left. The government is trying to control our life or Lupin just makes bad Norcos.

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I understand your frustration and pain. I just went to get my hydrocodone 10/325 from wallgreens and bc Actavis was back ordered I ended up with some other manufacturer Amneal and like Mallinckrodt it doesn’t work at all. I am very sensitive and the change in manufacturers has caused me to be in pain for several days. I too have nerve pain which radiates Into my arm and hand and is unbearable. To the person who minimized your use of medication stating it’s ‘a band aid’ obviously hasn’t experienced nerve pain. We know it’s not a cure as often there is no cure for nerve pain. This is a quality of life point. How are we to prepare food, eat, dress and groom ourselves and work a job if we are in constant pain which severely limits our functioning, depresses our mood and interrupts our sleep? We take these medicines so we can do just that and ‘live a somewhat normal life’.

I’ve used pain medicines off and on for over 25 years. I do not misuse nor abuse them. I am very concerned that folks without legitimate pain who use these medicines recreationally without medical supervision are impeding our ability to access these quality-of-life saving medicines and are impacting the way they are made. Take care!

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Re: Comments Submitted (# 23)


Nerve medications do not work for everyone. I tried them and it slowed down my ability to think and had no impact on reducing my nerve pain.

Nerve medications slow down all transmissions everywhere in the body and are not specific to only the signals related to pain information.

It seems many people are uneducated about how medications work and then give unhelpful advice to those who are suffering.

It is difficult to be in pain and then read information or suggestions which are not based in reality or in science.

Pain is an often hidden disability and it is insulting when it is trivialized or when people make ignorant suggestions.

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I have the same issue and with other generic brands I still suffer some detox symptoms like diarrhea, cramps, etc and need more to even tolerate the pain. The norcos are still there but they dont accept ins and im on a fixed income w/ medicare and cash only price for my script is 1006.00 mo. Are u kidding. I always knew they were expensive for name brand but thats insane. I'm researching from watson to actavis to now allergan owns them. Actavis said they arent making generic as of now. Stronger meds have almost done me in just tryin and im scared of them. Norco or generic which were watson 853 were working just fine even after 10 yrs. Have had no adverse or long term side effects that any specialist has seen. There are makers that help with discounts and did when oxycontin almost killed me. Price outrageous too. But the walg brand I believe are er. But some others aren't. I'll keep researching because of wrong people misusing something some of us really need. One said no longer making generic. Not sure cause ive called several not in this but no longer making generic. This is ridiculous with no warning other than opioid problem but mainly east coast and stronger meds. I will keep researching cause I certainly cant afford name brand. Sad day for chronic pain patients. I'm 64 too. Not like out on street. Am crippled. Just afraid of stronger meds. Like for yrs marijuana was a gateway drug, I grew up with rock n roll and just never took such drugs. It's a choice. Like dwi and pulling a trigger. *****s. And people making money on a 50 aver cent pill. God help us. Watson is the only one whether it was fillers or way they compounded em. They worked. Only thing prior is I went from yellow to white. Same med though. I pray can find some discount coupon but it's not easy and it's not norco causing all the deaths unless taking massive doses and massive doses of some over the counter meds can take you away. It's the patient/dr that should be in control of generic norco. Or get a manufacturer to reduce the outrageous price. The diff in price is insane compared to other meds.

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Re: Pharmacist (# 12)

I doubt you are a pharmacist. you would have had to go to college,etc. and yet you can't even spell "Dye" correctly. And you would not use "u" and "Ur" either. you appear to be a fraud. what is your motivation joining this discussion? you need attention? go somewhere else.

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Re: cd (# 25)

Trump doesn’t care about anyone and now he has repealed the bill Obama signed to back off of states who have medicinal or recreational marijuana.

The US Government has patents on marijuana proving their effectiveness but Big Pharma wants us dependent on them for prescription pills and they do not want us to be able to grow our own safe plant based pain relievers.

It’s all about dollars, not about sense!

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You said everything I felt perfectly thank you for the Post

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I tried Amneal pharmaceutical & they worked ok, it hard to find the one that work for you. I like qualitest parm. The yellow ones but can't find them anymore.

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Re: Lucy (# 20)

I have undergone 3 spine surgeries, along with other types of surgical procedures and treatment plans to help relieve the overwhelming nerve pain that is the result of a work related accident. I honestly believe if the large utility company I was working for had properly taken care of my injuries, instead of trying to figure a way out of their responsibilities towards their employees, I might never had a need to go through a surgery! It took me many years to learn how to walk again! And while I've been able to fight and accomplish learning to walk all over again, the specialists were never able to help take the pain away! I was told, "Learn to live with your situation, you'll never walk again!" Yet, against all the odds, I not only learned to walk again but I was able to run on the treadmill... loosing over 120 lbs! My husband and I decided to move to a newer home, to accommodate our younger daughter, her husband and beautiful grandson... in hopes that they would be able to save enough money to purchase their own home! Unfortunately, we hired a well known moving company that we paid thousands of dollars to bring all the packing materials and perform all of the heavy work! They didn't do much of what was agreed upon! We were under the gun because our house sold within 5 days on the market! And part of the agreement was, we had to move out before a particular day and time.

The moving company ran off with 1/3 of our valuables! We were forced into performing most of the work! I was suddenly attacked by one of the workers! My back was turned. There was no one inside the house. I was told to go in and quickly get something to clean up an area where they made a mess. My back was turned, I was bending over to grab the cleaning supplies, when the guy jumped on me, with all of his weight, pinned me down, grabbed me so hard in a way that I am sure those pole/lap dancing women would never be grabbed and hurt... He left bruising all over my private parts! I tried desperately to defend myself, that I tore my rotator cuff in two places and ripped my bicep! I was bedridden since! The weight pushed my vertebrae forward, where its nearly severing my spinal cord! I am in such severe pain, at times, it feels so overwhelming bad, I can barely sleep! Its caused my blood pressure to skyrocket! Since they took Vicodin off the market and replaced it with Norco... then removed the brand name of that, to only generic brands... I've not been able to get much help to relieve the pain! I've never been the sort of person who likes any type of drugs!!! But the amount of pain I experience, leaves me with no choice! I've never been a drinker... I never smoked! I've suffered from severe allergic reactions to so many medications!

I think that is the main reason why I've never been the kind of person who willingly takes any type of medications! I am super disciplined when it comes to medicines! Most of the time, my husband and family members are always scolding me, making sure I took the yucky stuff!! It's really unfair to allow government agencies and insurance companies to dictate how our physicians medically prescribe treatments for patients who have a long history and miles of documentation to back up why they are prescribing what they do! I've done a lot of research and found a lot of unsettling things going on... not just with the government agencies and insurance companies but between the pharmaceutical companies themselves!! Where they have invented problems and built tools of propaganda, in order to run their competition out of business!!! As the old saying says... A few bad apples doesn't spoil the whole bunch! I honestly believe someone is responsible for creating a media frenzy over the Opioid epidemic!! Opioids have existed for centuries!!! There's always been some idiots who attempt to abuse and exploit anything for the love of money!! It really isn't news! I think all of this really is a matter of politics and pharmaceutical companies themselves trying to do away with their competitors! After living around high profile politicians my entire life, I know for a fact, they pull all kinds of nonsense to get their way! I wished I were healthier... I wouldn't hesitate to fight for those who have trouble fighting for themselves! Like when I came up with the bright idea of how to get the Disabilities Act passed!!! But unfortunately, I am not strong enough to take on this issue alone!

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I totally agree with your message. Withdrawal 4 real this brand donot word I believe they are fake tablets I have spinal issues

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Thanks for informing everyone on here about what is really going on. It is a shame & a disgrace that people like us that really do take pain meds because we have a medical condition that warrants us to take them, can’t get any relief from the pain because of the drug addicts out there that abuse pain meds! It’s just not fair!! And I really do feel your pain about being with a Narcissist for 29 yrs!!! I too was with a Narcissist for 11 yrs (can’t even imagine 29 yrs!) & it is a Horrible thing to have to go through!!!

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See if your pain doctor will prescribe the fetanyl patch. It’s absorbed by your skin and doesn’t need to go through your gut. Shame on the DEA for messing up people’s lives by doing these unspeakable things to our medications and threatening doctors and legitimate pain patients who need these substances to have some semblance of a meaningful life
Advocate until you get what you need in order to be okay and are able to manage your pain. This burden is increasing your stress which increase your pain. Best to you and keep on keeping on!

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