Cutters

I know people suffer from terrible maladies. Cutting is a serious disorder that needs immediate attention.  After all, cutting is a true cry for attention.
Pharmacy is being overrun by cutters. With the new prescriptions being issued on full sheets of paper, people find them too bulky and cumbersome to simply fold. They feel an urge to cut.
The problem is prescribers prefer to put multiple prescriptions on one sheet. This is acceptable, as long as each has its own heading and signature.
But patients like to cut them.
And never at the obvious separation of the two; below the signature. The always cut the page directly in half. Why?
When the law requires for a prescription to be valid, the address and phone number of the prescriber on each prescription, lopping it off renders in invalid. Simple.
Despite repeated warnings to patients to not tamper with a legal document, we have habitual offenders. We need to stop coddling these patients. I know many out there will say something like "You're supposed to care for your patients", or "why can't you just call the prescriber", or "You're just a bitch!".

Right. How about the simpler alternative: The patient doesn't cut their prescriptions? Simple. It is the mollycoddling of patients and doing everything for them that brought our profession down to the dregs of healthcare. I understand no one likes to hear "no". Too bad.
When I explain to them, like a naughty puppy that they did something bad, they stare down. They stare at the counter with the look of shame of a child who got in trouble.
"Why did you cut your sister's hair?"
"I don't know."
"She made me do it."
"Nuh-uh!"

Yet they continue to do it. Why? Because we allow it. Just like everything else. No one can take advantage of you unless you allow it to happen. Is this petty? No.