Prescription Meds????

The catcher is your doctor might say it's okay because he really is not familiar with DOT regulations. But you won't make it past a company paid DOT physical even with a note. Twice I have been shut down by different companies after a dentist visit. One time the tooth was abscessed and they made me sit for five days at the Iowa 80. If your employer catches wind of it and they will shut you down. Let a drunk run up under your trailer and the lawyers will have a hay day with you.

Someone mentioned Tylenol 3, which has Codeine in it and it is a schedule 1 narcotic.

Most of us know this regulation:

It's in three parts...

a) Don't show up for work under the influence
b) If the doc says okay, you are okay.... but as an owner operator with your own medical card would be the only circumstance one could get away with it because (c) cancels out (b).
c) If your employer knows about it, shut them down, period!

 

It's not a schedule I. In fact, any drug with accepted medical usage is not a schedule I. For instance, heroin is a schedule I; percocet is not. That's where the differentiation is. While some company medical examiners may not allow it, such decision is based on company policy. Where DOT is concerned, it is allowed when guidelines are met. I'm not saying it's safe, or OK, just that there are indeed instances where drivers of CMV's are allowed to take (narcotic) pain management medication while employed as a driver. Usually the physician stipulates that the employee take the meds at the beginning of the break period but every case is different.

Yes, it leaves the driver and company vulnerable to litigation regardless of what the doctor says.

 

I get what you are saying. You're right, it's schedule II, but there are codeine derivatives that are schedule I. http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/1308/1308_11.htm I don't know all them technical names.

I've been on pain management before. It isn't the type drug you take here and there like aspirin. You have to keep a steady prescribed amount in your blood stream. Coming off them things are worse than the pain you started with.I wouldn't drive on them. I worked with a driver that was involved in a head on. The man killed was a former cop and just got his Hydrocodone refilled. Evidently he took more than his share.

 

Yes it's interesting how some opiates are schedule II while others of comparable abuse profile are schedule I under the dichotomy of the scheduling system. Much of it is predicated on corporate pharmaceutical profitability. If they can patent it in a pill to make billions on, they label it "medicine" and put it into schedule II or lower in order to market it.

Without a doubt, especially when abused, drugs (and alcohol) can be the main actor in high risk & fatal accidents. Regarding the blood content of the drug, a drug half-life doesn't always correspond to the drug effect ramp to baseline where the patient has returned to a cognitive state equal to before they took the drug. So a patient who dosed after a meal and then went to bed for 8 (+/-) hours will, depending on the drug, be "back to normal" when they wake up, despite having a detectable level of drug still in their blood.

The folks I have known in the past whom took pain meds and were drivers did so successfully (except one whom left the industry after a 3rd knee operation failure. The other fellow was home almost every night and if he ever felt like he needed to stay home, he could call in and slip seat that next load. Being OTR especially under JIT freight, having a need for pain meds might indeed be a conflict with their carreer path.

 

I would have to say, Kratom used in moderate dosage and not abused, is a miracle herb. It is one of the best substitutes for opiates. Plus its legal and easy to find, even along your route....

 

This is not allowed right?

 

There's nothing interesting about it. Hydrocodone and Oxycodone were moved to a schedule ii substance in 2014 over the BITTER objections of the pharmacy industry. This move started with a 1999 petition by a Physician to the DEA the DEA got the HHS involved and then issued that final rule.

DEA final rule on HCPs

I'm not able to find the exact final rule on Oxy, but it basically came out of this process. Again big pharma fought against this. I don't have any information on the Physician that made that petition to the DEA, but I would imagine this person is one of maybe thousands of medical types growing tired of all the deaths they were watching. In fact, the drug company Prudue Pharma recently settled with the state of Ky. More such lawsuits are in the pipeline! I for one applaud the DEA for moving these narcotics to the schedule ii list. They are still available and when used according to their labeled use are fantastic.