I had already touched upon what this entry will cover in a previous blog, but let me recap basically what is going to be discussed. Before any medication can be released to the public it must go through numerous tests before the Food and Drug Administration can give the drug it's official approval. One of the things that is studied during these tests is the addictive factor on patients. If the FDA feels that the drug has a rather high addictive factor, the drug will be labeled as a controlled substance. Drugs that are classified as controlled substances are closely monitored by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and in the wake of rising number of prescription drug abuse cases, we have seen the DEA, doctors, and pharmacists trying to put a tighter grip on these controlled substances. This is a good thing that most of us like to hear, but monitoring controlled substances is not enough. An overdose of an antibiotic or cough medicine can be just as harmful as overdosing on Vicodin.
Unless you count the laws pertaining to the purchase of pseudophedrine, the average person is generally uninformed about the potential dangers of non-controlled medications. A few months back there was some widespread panic among people, when it was revealed that taking a high dosage of Tylenol may cause liver problems. For years, the effects of acetaminophen, the key ingredient in Tylenol has been known to potentially cause liver damage. Therefore I've decided to take it upon myself to make the public aware of the over-prescribing and overdosing of non-controlled medications that often go under the radar. I did a little research of my own and found some pretty interesting things, which I will gladly link for you at the end.
For the first part of segment, we will be taking a closer look at the overuse of Over-The-Counter (OTC) drugs. We will look at the major plot hole in the "Combat Meth Act", which put pseudophedrine behind the counter.
The most commonly abused OTC drug is Tylenol, which kills roughly 500 people a year. However, some people don't always realize that they might be overdosing especially if they're taking a medication that they don't realize has Tylenol in it. In fact, Tylenol is found in Percocet,Vicodin (and all of it's variants), Darvocet, Excedrin, and Sudafed. Tylenol PM is the result of mixing Benadryl and Tylenol, which is a potentially deadly mix in itself. So if a person gets his tooth pulled and takes a Tylenol and a Vicodin to ease the pain then they're most likely taking double the maximum daily strength. So does this mean we need to make it a controlled substance, absolutely not. However, I think there should be a much greater effort to make people aware of it's effects on the liver. When a person goes to the local pharmacy to pick up Tylenol, they should be told about the effects of the drug on your body.
In 2006, the Combat Meth Act was passed, which put all medications that contained pseudophedrine behind the counter and puts a limit on how much of it a person can purchase. Unfortunately, there's a loophole in the system. There's only a limit on how much pseudophedrine ONE person can purchase, which means that a person can send someone else in to buy pseudophedrine for them. There has been a lot of talk about making pseudophedrine drugs prescription only and I'm in full support of it. Making customers show Id and sign for the medication is not enough and there are still plenty instances of pseudophedrine abuse cases. Let's say that pseudophedrine laws were perfect and people weren't able to scheme of ways to get an overabundance of it. There's no heavy limitation on products containing Dextromethorphan (DM), which teenagers have also found uses to get high from. This leaves me with a puzzling question. Why is it so much of a hassle for a patient to buy pseudophedrine products when Robitussin DM, features a tiny warning label? If Tylenol Severe Cold and Sinus and Robitussin DM can be used in potentially harmful way, both of them should be placed behind the counter. Dextromethorphan doesn't have any limits on how much a person can purchase and even if a person gets the max amount of pseudophedrine, a person can have a field day with the no limits on how much Robitussin DM they can purchase. I'm not suggesting to make Robitussin a prescription only medication, but the laws have to be tighter because prescription and OTC drug abuse is pretty high compared to other illegal substances.
Tylenol, Pseudophedrine products and Dextromethorphan products are just a number of OTC products that can be deadly if used improperly. It's important to always ask questions about the medications that you put in your mouth. If you would like to find out more information on OTC drugs and other statistics check out the links below.
For information on all medication check out medline plus.
http://medlineplus.gov/
SAMHSA - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association.
NSDUH - National Survey on Drug Use & Health
This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.
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