While everyone was celebrating lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and billions of dollars were changing hands, acute/chronic pain patients were left for dead. Seriously ill patients are struggling to fill legitimate prescriptions because pharmacies are afraid to stock or dispense opioid pain medication. If you cannot get your legitimately prescribed pain medication, speak up. Report the shortage to FDA, but also contact your state representative, state senator, US representative and both US senators. Tell them exactly what is happening. Give them the name and strength of the medication, how long you’ve been unable to fill it, how many pharmacies you’ve contacted and what the pharmacies are telling you. Ask their office to investigate why patients with legitimate prescriptions cannot access their medication. Is this a DEA production-quota problem? Is the manufacturer unable to produce enough? Is the distributor limiting what pharmacies can order? Or are pharmacies afraid to stock and dispense these medications because of regulatory and enforcement pressure? We cannot fix a problem nobody is documenting. Create a paper trail. Report it to FDA. fda.gov/drugs/drug-shortages… Contact your elected officials and Save every response you receive.