Each state is vastly different in how they handle this issue.

I worked in inner city locations, and HMO clinics. I saw no problems based on minority issues for pain control. But in Florida, they are having major problems with drug diversion, and dispensing controls.

It is sad that the abusers make problems for the legitimate pain patients. But this is basically a multipronged social problem.
In fact I have had to field DOCTORS unethically obtaining medications for themselves(sometimes in great quantities), which in my state is in violation of
the Health laws we have. I have REPORTED them as well and discussed issues with state drug inspectors over the years.

Diversion in my state is huge. In fact I thwarted a Vicodin robbery one night, by a guy posing as an electrician who somehow got the manager to give him access to the pharmacy.
It took 3 hrs and 2 police cars, and my rising blood pressure trying to keep some elderly shoppers in the store safe, while I arranged for the police to save us. (a male customer helped with this task-so we did not spook this guy into violence). Turns out this guy had done this twice before at other locations, but he didn't get anything from ME! There had just been a huge arrest of a drug mill and that location (in Detroit)was raided and dried up the street Vicodin. It began with a simple traffic stop, finding 500 ct bottles of Vicodin in the truck of the car. This guy was aiming for stock bottles kept behind the counter in
community settings to supply what was lost during the raid. He even had all the tools to test electrical sockets, and a real toolbox.

On a daily basis, the stresses on pharmacists are huge. As this problem with diversion escalates, efforts will be concentrated on the diversion. There are only so many minutes in a hour, and hours in a day, and when you have over 300 Rxs to fill there is not time to be perfect and satisfy EVERYONE.

One is going to run into problems with everything these days.
Doctors don't want to give opiates. The new laws coming out of Washington will restrict this further. Vicodin and other mixtures with acetaminophen may be taken off the market, etc etc. The problems just keep coming.

What is really needed is for Big Pharma to stop making me-too drugs like ANOTHER bladder control drug, another toxic fluoroquinolone antibiotic, another antidepressant, etc and focus on REAL PAIN relief without the added baggage of opiates (which may increase pain over time, that is showing more and more in studies). When safe effective pain interventions appear, the problems associated with opiates --their prescription ordering by the physician and dispensing at the store level will diminish the problems that exist now. Creating drugs that provide pain relief without euphoria, that will be the solution IMO.

The other issue, in dispensing is trained opinion. Some of the doses used in chronic pain are enormous. This alone can alarm a contingent pharmacist in a outpatient setting. In fact I have seen doses of drugs far in excess of what I see in long term care settings! In long term care, you also have the nursing staff which are eyes and ears for drug reactions. Not all overdosing is caught by nurses either, but they do afford a sort of insurance because of their presence and experience. A person alone at home can stop breathing on high dose Methadone or their heart can stop and that is IT. The fourth leading cause of death in the US is medication mismanagement (overdoses, interactions). And the growing rate of prescription drug abuse is not going down, but up. So in the end there will be caution in pharmacies, because the truth of the matter is that it is the last stop before someone goes home with a medication. ANY error by the doctor, any omission, any irregularity etc has to be caught then.

This original post is rather vague in specifics. And I assume that is for privacy reasons and respect that. But without details, other responses here can get off the track.
Was this Rx for 120 Vicodin ES every week or month ? or for 120 Oxycontin 80mg every month? To determine real bias, fairly,
more facts are really needed. Did the insurance stop the sale?
Things like that.

I've had Rxs filled for myself by others --- filled with errors. I understand when people get angry...I get angry with the mail away system too which I have to use with my husband's insurance. I just chalk it up to the complex life we all seem to lead now in every area, not just the medical one!