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traveler76 wrote:

I was in a restaurant (Charlotte NC) this morning and speaking with the waitress from Quito and the discussion about meds came up because I'm retired and considering going to Cuenca. She told me that you can buy oxycodone across the counter. The government is thinking about decriminalizing the sell of pain medications etc. Is this true?

Hope it is not true.  Cannot imagine the pain caused, not cured, by selling oxycodone over the counter.  Based on the USA and required scripts, it is a real nightmare waiting to happen..

This seems like false info. The US is reporting huge amount of problens relating to prescription use and one thinks Ecuador might make it easier to get? I ain't buying that story

Many drugs that are available in the US by prescription only, are available in Ecuador and Colombia freely over-the-counter at many farmacias.  This can and does create problems but not to the extent like in the US.  They do have a word to describe the problem, it's one of autodosis, or self-medication and as you may imagine without professional medical knowledge people can take the wrong medications, or too much and make their conditions worse instead of better.

This article in Cuenca High Life talks about some of this and why in the author's opinion it's not a problem:



Here's a 2018 article in Spanish that talks about the arrival of opiods into Latin America and how it may cause problems:

I am steal weak on my Spanish, does the article say if you can get opoids over the counter?

Unfortunately the article in Spanish does not say if oxicodona is legally for sale over-the-counter.

If you are in Manta now, just go to a pharmacy and ask - they should be up-to-date on what opioids are legal without a prescription, and those which are not.  The article in Cuenca High Life I linked to above just mentions opioids without mentioning which specific ones are legal over-the-counter.

The English article is full of inaccuracies. It says synthetic opoids are allowed. Codiene likely is but fentanyl is synthetic but about 100 times more potent than heroin and car fentanyl, an elephant tranquilizer is also synthetic and a 1000 times more potent than heroin. Likely, differences in what drugs not requiring a prescription are based on potency and severity of abuse. Codiene is weak, car fentanyl is elephant strength. I will check on oxycodone but I am pretty sure the person in the us was reffering to the wimpier ones. And the English article suggested that highest rates was due to ignorance of the Drs? No, it is most likely due to a culture that likes medication and not pain.

Maybe things have changed, but to the best of my knowledge you cannot get opiods over the counter. Even with a prescription they are extremely limited and next to impossible to get.

The only one generally available for pain is tramadol.

This info is a couple of years old now, when had some serious, crippling pain issues in my back

Ecuador's national assembly approves medicinal cannabis, 17 Sep 2019

> Ecuador's national assembly approves medicinal cannabis

This will be California style medical, as in go complain about anything, come out with a script for legal weed.

Or actual Dr prescribed for certain issues where the benefits are inarguable?

I know I could read the link, but, well it's the internet and who reads links

Those of us that have to have pain meds and already on, if me bring all my medical info with me that justifies my need, is their pain clinics that can provide teh prescription for teh medication and is teh medication available in teh country. Be impossible to move their and not have treatment available. Thanks

traveler76 wrote:

is their pain clinics that can provide teh prescription for teh medication and is teh medication available in teh country?

Some medications can be prescribed only by specialists, who may charge over fifty percent more for an office visit than does a general practitioner.

However, certain pain medications may be available over the counter without a prescription.

I have not personally come across information about dedicated pain clinics, per se.  That does not mean that the meds are not available in Ecuador's major cities' clinics, hospitals and consultorios.

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A common article preceding English nouns is spelled the.

cccmedia

yeah, at 76 and retired from the aviation industry, I will make the trip to Quito and work with an apartment finder, to spend three months in the warm sunshine. On the trip, I can find out for myself if in fact I can be prescribed my medication needs. I certainly would not want to fly back to CLT to fill the prescription. Thank you for your response.

>  I will make the trip to Quito .... to spend three months in the warm sunshine

errr, you may want to rethink that.  Quito and warm sunshine doesn't really go together.


As for pain clinics, it depends what you mean. If you mean some of the less scrupulous US style high throughput clinics, where it is in and out with a bag of extremely potent opiates. Those do not exist. 

Ecuador just doesn't prescribe hardcore opiates as freely as the US. I've spoke with all extended family here and no one has ever heard of any one having them. Countered against the US, where practically everyone knows someone who had a script at some point.

> bring all my medical info with me that justifies my need
I doubt your American info will be much good - definitely bring it. But the Dr you see will examine you and make a decision on what *they* think is best for you, irrespective of your previous history