If you go to the store for some Imodium A-D and find the shelves bare, you can blame the opioid addicts in your town. Strange as it may sound, addicts who are addicted to painkillers are turning to anti-diarrhea medicine as opioids become harder and harder to get.

Apparently, Loperamide, the main ingredients in Imodium A-D, is an opioid agent. When taken in sufficiently high quantities it can produce the same effects as pain killers.

It’s a cheap alternative for addicts. A box of 400 pills only costs about $10.00. Addicts have been known to take anywhere from 100 to 300 pills a day.

Taking this many pills is, of course, unhealthy and can lead to kidney and liver failure as well as heart problems.