Just A Teaser

Before the FDA releases any medication to the general public it must pass through the DEA in order to determine, whether it's effects are strong enough to warrant a controlled substances. If the DEA classifies a drug as a controlled substance, than it must go through a certain process of being labeled and monitored. This puts a limit on how much medication a patient can receive, how much of a certain drug can the physician prescribe and how much pharmacies can dispense of a given medication. The DEA does this to keep everyone in check and most of the time it works. Since controls and narcotics are what they are, doctors, pharmacists, and the DEA, in general, try to keep a closer eye on these medications and luckily the problems have slowly subsided over the past year.

However, I wish I could say the same thing for non-controlled medications. Since non-controlled medications are what they are as well, the DEA specifically does not put enough regulation on these medications and that's a problem. A simple, improper dosage of an antibiotic or a cough medication can do just as much damage as an over-prescribing of Vicodin. The over-prescribing of antibiotics and OTC's has been bugging me a lot lately. I think this calls for another trip into the vault and see what happens when your body takes too much of that bubblegum flavored Amoxil. While we're in there, we'll take a look at medications, like Tramadol, that for some reason the DEA won't classify them as a controlled substances. Remember, there's no "C" in killer, so sometimes what society prefers us to take may not always be the safest choice.

Until tomorrow, this has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.