Posted on 04/21/2007 2:24:32 PM PDT by BlazingArizona
I've always been interested in the topic of prescription drug laws because -- even more than laws which prohibit adults from using recreational drugs -- it seems absolutely unjustifiable for the government to prevent adult citizens from deciding for themselves which pharmaceutical products they want to use. Put another way, it seems unfathomable that competent adults are first required to obtain the "permission" of a doctor before being "allowed" to obtain and consume the medications they think they need -- and that they are committing crimes if they do not first obtain that permission (or, worse, if they try to obtain that permission and are unable to do so)... (Follow link for rest of article)
So, what happens if the drug you “think” you need kills you?
I think adults should be able to put any medicine in their bodies that they want to.
So, anyone should be able to walk in and buy Oxycontin?
BTTT
Why not?
|
So, what happens if the drug you “think” you need kills you?>>>>>
He’s dead, Jim.
I partly agreed. I think that prescription drugs are dangerous enough that you should be required to sign a statement indicating you understand the stupidity of prescribing your own medication before you obtain a small amount of the medication (2-3 days maybe).
If you survive, you can come back, sign again, and get a little more.
Sure, it’s a little bit nanny-state, but it DOES allow you do to what you want, and makes certain you understand the consequences.
I do think it’s a little silly that there are some medications you can get in other countries that you can’t get here because FDA isn’t finished testing, and we let people DIE of their illnesses because we are afraid we don’t know the side effects of the drugs.
I’m not sure I understand the complaint. Self-diagnosis and self-medicating is dangerous...we have enough trouble with people not taking medicine the right way when it’s clearly indicated on the label.
The lawsuits that would fly would compound the situation.
Talk about your Nanny State! I know what a tumor looks like. My MIL has one in her lung. Who is the state to tell me I can’t remove it?
When doctors prescribe drugs, it is an educated guess on their part, changing dosages or medications partly by trial and error, and partly by the doctor's informed judgment.
And that, dear children, is why the doctor spent years in medical training. Still, self-medication is a fool's pursuit, and no sensible doctor would rely on only personal judgment to prescribe for himself (or herself).
RIGHT! What YOU said....it’s hard enough for doctors to prescribe appropriately....but, then to have any joe blow on the street decide he needs the prescription? Ha. The pharmaceuticals would LOVE IT! (They’re half way there now what with all the advertising on TV telling people to go ask their doctor for some miracle drug).
Hey, everyone, the big secret:
Medical Doctors are not pharmacists!
Tens of thousands of Americans get very sick every year because their doctor prescribed them the wrong drugs. Doctors can hardly be blamed for this because they are to a great extent reliant on trial and error, and drug advertisements, to know if a drug works.
Pharmacists, on the other hand, are experts at drugs. This is all they do, and they continually check their references and bulletins anyway, just to make sure that there are no interactions, no contraindications, and to give you good advice on what drugs to take.
I like to think that I am very informed about pharmaceuticals in general, compared to the average intelligent person. However, I always, always, ask my pharmacist about any drugs I am taking. I give him as detailed a description of prescription, non-prescription, and all alternative medicines I take as I can.
And for his part, he never ceases to amaze me with sound advice about all of it.
And I have never even needed his services for compounding drugs for just the “cocktail” I need. That is both a science and an art form that no untrained person should ever attempt.
Should prescription drugs be available to the public without a prescription? HECK NO! Unless you want to see a lot fewer members of the public.
Soon, the US is going to be up to our eyebrows in baby boomers who are going to have a hard enough time self medicating even when it has been explained to them. Granted, if we let them have any drugs they wanted, it would solve our Social Security crisis pretty darn quick.
In the olds days all opiates were available. Heroin was a brand name by Bayer for diacetyl morephine.
Then the influx of Chinese and the knee jerk reactions banning all opiates and the Harrison Act and you know the rest...
Of course, so does heroin.
As someone who works in the drug field making everything OTC is not a problem with me. Most drugs would not be of interest to people and eliminating prescriptions would save people a lot of money. The average Staff Pharmacist in our area make 95K/yr. As it is now a lot of Docs will tell people to take the OTC version of prescription drugs to save money.
In England the reason heroin was made prescription the docs were upset that the chemists were making all the money. It is the same today. Oxycodone mentioned by one poster is pushed by more pain clinics than any other drug except methadone. Most of these clinics are drug mills without the doc even seeing the patient.
The great majority of pts will still go to their doc and get his recommendation the others were already buying the same drugs on the street. I am in favor of eliminating as many middle men as possible. Most regulations in this area are because of the unions, AMA, pharmacy boards, etc.
I think that 25 years after all drugs were legalized (as if that would happen in our life time), society would be flooded with crap medicine, requiring an inordinate amount of time to investigate real treatments from snake oil. Siphoning off a large percentage of sales from legitimate companies doing leading edge drug research wouldn’t be without a price. I suspect even the familiar manufacturers would be tempted to get into the fashionable drug of the day game.
Sure, we’d live without the expert oversight and the $75 doctor visit for codeine, but the drug and medical industry would deteriorate and more people die (even many who weren’t a pestilence to the gene pool). Then we better know who sells quality codeine, and everything else (as if we have nothing better to study up on), could be almost anything in it…
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.