Prognosis
Drug Prices Drive Many Americans to Black Market for Medicines
- Uninsured patients find riskier alternatives to prescriptions
- Diabetics trade insulin on Facebook; trying fish antibiotics
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During graduate school, Lacy Mason got insulin from elderly friends who had extra. When a friend’s mother died and left behind a stockpile, she took that, too. Her mother-in-law, a nurse, salvaged samples and half-used vials from her hospital.
Mason used expired doses and stretched them longer than intended. Sometimes, she bought insulin from strangers online, in secretive Facebook groups where people sell or give away spare supplies.