The thread about food supplies prompted the thought about medicine.
I have read that 90% of medicine or ingredients to make medicine come from China. So if we are cut off from China for any reason an awful lot of people will be without medicine.
But how do you stock up a supply of medicine for such a scenario?

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
...
But how do you stock up a supply of medicine for such a scenario?

You can't.

The primary medicines you'll need are anesthetics and antibiotics. Other meds for chronic conditions (e.g., insulin) don't have the shelf life necessary. All require prescriptions, and even with them, there isn't a good way to build up a large stockpile due to cost.

And eventually, you'll run out no matter what you do.

I understand that you can't stock medicine.
Maybe I could have worded it better but I was just putting the thought out there for people to think about.

That alarm bell was sounded in 2020 amid cries to start production in the U.S. and that cry was ignored.

On prescriptions, the best I've been able to do is refill my 90-day prescriptions as soon as insurance allows. Doing it repeatedly means building up a few months reserve for a limited duration supply chain problem. The extra I have isn't too much for the bogus expiration dates listed (a thread in itself).

The biggest risk I take is my doctor changing my prescription.

As an fyi, the expiry listed is generally half that tested and the tested date is as soon as any potency is lost. In most cases your medicine will have some potency long after the listed expiry.

Heres a book on some medicinal remedies. I plan on getting it. The Lost Ways

There are several services now offering medication “survival kits”. Not perfect, but better than the alternative (not having anything or relying on fish meds).

We’ve settled on Jase Medical for our stockpile needs.

-Rob

This concern is one of the reasons I seek to avoid prescription meds for chronic conditions.

Surviving if it all goes to hell would be difficult enough--just maintaining a roof over your head, food, and personal/family security. Don't need to add to that pharmaceuticals.

Get to know your local veterinarian personally

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
...
But how do you stock up a supply of medicine for such a scenario?

You can't.

The primary medicines you'll need are anesthetics and antibiotics. Other meds for chronic conditions (e.g., insulin) don't have the shelf life necessary. All require prescriptions, and even with them, there isn't a good way to build up a large stockpile due to cost.

And eventually, you'll run out no matter what you do.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7040264/

I get over prescribed some meds to build a stash. I fill through insurance and outside of insurance for other meds. If I run out and there’s no way to get more I die. Blaze of glory.

Oddly enough, the manufacturer of my particular BP med is an Israeli-based pharma company...TEVA.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Oddly enough, the manufacturer of my particular BP med is an Israeli-based pharma company...TEVA.

Israeli headquartered. Some production in Israel, some elsewhere like everyone else.

Just because Apple is based in California doesn’t mean they produce iPhones there.

JASE medical,

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
...
But how do you stock up a supply of medicine for such a scenario?

You can't.

The primary medicines you'll need are anesthetics and antibiotics. Other meds for chronic conditions (e.g., insulin) don't have the shelf life necessary. All require prescriptions, and even with them, there isn't a good way to build up a large stockpile due to cost.

And eventually, you'll run out no matter what you do.

One of my clients had the means and clout to hire a certain highly specialized type of person to do cyber prevention work at a very high level from years of doing the same for a government agency before he retired.

One day the two of us were talking about scenarios where a country managed to sneak in a catastrophic attack or set off something that effectively made us a 3rd world country for a period of time. I asked what he thought would happen. He replied that government plans on restoring partial normalcy within 3-7 days but that's not always possible so there will be riots, looting if some normalcy isn't back in 3 days. 72 hours is what most people can tolerate before they start to panic and do crazy shit.

He thought that people who buy land or a container to live in off the grid were kind of delusional and somewhat funny. That's because you can't prep your way into forever living off the grid while society comes back and eventually, sooner than later, you will come out off the mountain or out of your hiding hole.

You will need TP. You will need meds. You will need food, soap, cooking supplies and other things you used every day before the world went sideways. You aren't going to give those up for forever and he thought most preppers didn't have this fully figured out.

His advice was to stay at home, keep 30 days of stuff on hand and if forced, shoot people who came in from outside your neighborhood to steal from you or your neighbors. He was also concerned about decay and rot from dead bodies that eventually, would have to be buried. Water runoff from the decay would pollute water sources.

This is why, he said, government works pretty hard to make sure nothing bad happens but if it does, to restore functioning within 3 days.

Prescriptions. I have prescription coverage through my medical plan and have used that for years and years for my 30 and 90 day supply.

A few years I kind of figured it might get bad so I asked my doc if he could send my scripts over to Costco. He agreed and did so. This was in addition to my regular drug benefit coverage at Walgreens and Walmart.

I do not give Costco my insurance info, I pay cash and walk out the door. This way I have built up a close to 12 month supply. The cash price at Costco for 90 day supplies was usually 15-30 bucks or so.

I used my regular walgreens and walmart pharmacy for my normal typical prescription coverage using my drug coverage insurance as the drugs came due.

To be fair, most of my prescriptions were probably pretty typical and popular, nothing super fancy and expensive.

I probably spent out of pocket maybe $300-ish bucks.

In fact, I asked the Costco pharmacist if I could buy 6 months at a time instead of 90 days worth. NO problem said the Costco Pharmacist since I was paying out of my own pocket.

This worked for me, YMMV so to speak.

If you are on a fancy or new drug then you will have a problem.

This will not include antibiotics and other things that are not on a continual script that you take every day.

Just do the best you can.

Best wishes to all y'all.
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I lived my whole life avoiding being dependent on any kind of medication. Then 2 years ago I got type 1 diabetes. My body no longer makes insulin, and you can't live long without that. You can lessen your dependence through diet and exercise, but without supplemental insulin you're either going to starve to death or your organs will fail from excessive blood sugar. To make matters worse, most of the cheap dietary shelf-stable staples that I'd always hoped to use if TSHTF, like rice and beans, are loaded with carbs. I can't eat those now...it would be even worse if my insulin supply was cut off.

I try to never get below a month's supply on-hand at any one time. But if something were to happen to eliminate access to insulin long-term, me and a lot of others like me will be dead in a couple of months.

Couple of months? I've pretty much have everything I need for survival. Guns, ammo, food, water, toilet paper regular paper towels, whole house generator etc. But the one thing I can't purchase in large quantities for long term storage is insulin for my Type One diabetic wife. We figure she would last only as long as her normal supply lasts and that would be absolutely no longer than one month in theory and actually closer to a few weeks in reality.