Stop stockpiling! Pharmacy tech launches petition to put zopiclone on narcotic monitoring system

An Ontario pharmacy technician concerned that some patients are stockpiling and potentially abusing a sedative-hypnotic drug has launched a petition urging Ontario’s Ministry of Health to add the prescription medication to the province’s narcotic monitoring system. Michelle Manolal, who works at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Sudbury, set up a petition this week on Change.org as part of a campaign to get the drug zopiclone—which goes by the brand name Imovane—in the Ontario Narcotic Monitoring System. “I also wrote a letter to the (Health) Ministry trying to get some clinical dialogue to support my petition,” said Manolal. “I really feel that this is an important safety issue for patients.” Earlier this year Manolal was alerted by a pharmacist at another store that a patient was going to multiple pharmacies with prescriptions from zopiclone obtained from various walk-in clinics. The patient stopped coming in after he was questioned about these multiple, concurrent prescriptions, but his father subsequently started coming in with his own prescriptions for zopiclone. Read: The hit list: five drug products we should be using less often Manolal said she and others in the pharmacy community have noticed a number of other patients making the rounds with multiple prescriptions for zopiclone. They typically paid with cash. “One patient was actually a woman I had served when I was working with another pharmacy,” Manolal recalled. “I just started here in November and when I saw her come in, I remembered that she had recently picked up a prescription for zopiclone at the other pharmacy where I used to work and I was thinking ‘what is she doing?’” With zopiclone added to the narcotic monitoring system, pharmacists and prescribing doctors would be alerted when patients try to fill multiple prescriptions for the drug, said Manolal. This would help ensure the proper interventions and reduce the risk of harm for patients. “With the pandemic going on right now, a lot of people are dealing with mental health issues so they may be taking more medications to help them deal with everything that’s going on,” she said. “But the problem with this drug is that it has the characteristics for potential abuse, diversion or misuse and if not used properly it can have harmful effects on the body, including renal failure. And yet there are no controls in place to help prevent this from happening.” If zopiclone isn’t added to the narcotic monitoring system, the onus will be on pharmacists and doctors to keep watch on how much and how often patients are filling prescriptions for the drug, said Manolal. “Sure, if they’re paying through a drug plan then the insurance company will flag them, but that’s not usually the case,” she said. “So how do we stop them from going to other pharmacies and other doctors? The answer is the narcotics monitoring system.” Read: Study aims to encourage non-pharmacological treatment for insomnia in seniors

Stop stockpiling! Pharmacy tech launches petition to put zopiclone on narcotic monitoring system

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