Jump to comment:
- Page navigation anchor for RE: From methadone to MethadoseRE: From methadone to Methadose
As a pharmacist who has been dispensing methadone for more than twenty years to patients in and out of Ontario provincial jails, I read this article with interest (and gratitude to one of the MDs on our team, who thoughtfully clipped this article out of his paper copy of your journal and provided it to me). When we transitioned from methadone to Methadose in Ontario, I braced myself for patients' reactions and prepared from some sort of backlash. What I found after the transition was that many of our patients started hearing about the complaints from people receiving methadone in British Columbia. But here in Ontario, my patients did not have this same experience.
The article doesn't really address in detail the main change that occurred with this transition, and issues that may arise from it: that all pharmacists in the country were compelled to stop making stock solutions from methadone powder and use the commercial product instead. I suggest the possibility that the issue with the transition to Methadose arises from the precision with which doses of methadone were formerly being prepared. The reason that provincial regulators decided to enforce Health Canada’s Policy on Manufacturing and Compounding Drug Products in Canada (2009), and compel pharmacists to stop preparing methadone solution in the back of our pharmacies was that, regardless of our level of skill, precision, and professionalism, we do not have the same degree of quality control in our pha...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.