I was just thinking about the movie Drugstore Cowboy the other day. It’s one of my favorites, and I think it was a little ahead of its time. It was made in 1989, and while pharmacy robberies have been going on since the first pharmacy opened its doors, they probably weren’t as commonplace as they are these days. After all, there are even more drugs to choose from in 2008.
When I was a reporter for a local newspaper in Northern Virginia, I was of course on the mailing list for all of the police press releases. Pharmacy robberies were among the most common crimes committed in the area. I remember one thief even dressed up as Spiderman to steal Oxycontin from a CVS. In fact, if one does a Google search of “oxycontin robberies,” over 100,000 results pop up.
In any event, “Drugstore Cowboy” did an excellent job of portraying the subculture of prescription drug addicts, and it’s interesting to see that not much has changed since 1989.
So, just to keep up with my occasional updates on FDA drug approvals, I feel compelled to point out that May was a bumper month for new drugs - 166 approvals in total!
The list is way too long to go over in detail, but, wow. 166 new approvals in one month? If that is the norm (which, judging by the approvals listed out for the last few months, it seems to be), that’s almost 2,000 new drug approvals a year. Seems like a lot, doesn’t it?
On the one hand, I suppose we should be thankful that the FDA is there to review all of these drugs for potential safety hazards… but the sheer number of drugs going through the system certainly explains why the screening process is imperfect, and why some drugs slip through the FDA cracks, so to speak. So what is the solution to this? Do we cut down on the number of drugs seeking approval? Do we give the FDA more manpower and more money?
Anyone who is curious about the process for drug approval can learn more here.
Dr. Phil Astin, 52, is facing a total of 175 charges linked to the distribution of prescription drugs to more than 17 patients. Astin was doctor to pro wrestler Chris Benoit. Last year, Benoit killed his wife and child and then took his own life - a tragedy that shocked those who knew the wrestler.
Although no one really knows what caused Benoit to kill his family and commit suicide, there are those who theorize that his brain was addled by the bevy of prescription drugs he was taking. Astin has been accused of prescribing anabolic steroids to the wrestler.
Prior to these most recent charges, Astin had already been indicted a year ago on seven counts of over-prescribing to two different people.
Clearly, there is no shortage of doctors who are willing to bend the law and prescribe drugs to patients who want them. My guess is that for many doctors, it simply boils down to finances - if you’ve got the cash to pay, then the medicine cabinet is at your disposal. And of course, that is why celebrities have easy access to prescription meds. But I always wonder, how does one go about asking their doctor for these drugs? Do you just waltz in on the first appointment and say, “Hey doc, I’m dying for some Vicodin, can you hook me up?” And what is the motivation for doctors that aren’t getting paid to write prescriptions? Do they just want to shut patients up, take their consultation appointment fee, and get them out of their office?
A recent post on the blog DestinationRX draws attention to the fact that students as young as middle school are trading their prescription drugs for alcohol, or other prescription drugs. The post references an eFlux Media article that details how 15 students at a Boulder, Colorado middle school were busted for a trading scam that involved the ADHD drugs Strattera and Concerta, and alcohol.
As the author of the post points out, middle school kids used to trade baseball cards. How is that we have arrived at prescription drugs instead of baseball cards? When I was in middle school (1987-1989), I didn’t know anyone taking any sort of prescription medicine whatsoever. In fact, I remember finding out that my little cousin was taking Ritalin for ADHD and feeling horrified that “it had come to such drastic measures.” I think at that time, the concept of feeding kids strong prescription meds was still relatively foreign. Today, it’s as regular as signing your kids up for soccer. I guess that’s why kids have no problem trading their drugs like baseball cards.
According to a recent CNN.com article, you shouldn’t be too quick to assume that your aging loved ones are experiencing symptoms of Alzheimer’s or dementia… it could just be a bad case of over-medication.
“Every year, 38 million older Americans suffer drug complications, 180,000 of which are life-threatening, according to research by Dr. Jerry Gurwitz, chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
The risk for drug errors is seven times greater in seniors than in people under age 65, according to Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefits manager.”
A list of drugs that could potentially be inappropriate for seniors, or that could cause potential complications for seniors can be found online.
I think the over-medication of seniors is probably a much bigger problem than people realize. While it is great that there are so many medications available to help senior citizens enjoy better health, it’s pretty easy to imagine the plethora of pills that could get prescribed to one person, and how quickly those numerous prescriptions could become a jumble of side effects. With the way society is today, I think we all need to be more diligent about keeping track of prescriptions - particularly those that have been prescribed to the elderly.
A state appeals court in Texas overturned a $26 million jury verdict against the company in a lawsuit brought by Carol Ernst, whose husband, Robert, died in 2001 after taking Vioxx. In reversing the verdict, the appeals court found that plaintiffs had not proved that Vioxx caused Mr. Ernst’s death.
In addition, an appeals court in New Jersey reduced a verdict in another Vioxx case. The court ruled that the jury should not have been allowed to award punitive damages against Merck or to find that Merck had committed consumer fraud. Only compensatory damages of $4.5 million were permitted, the court said.
There have been 20 Vioxx cases that have been tried, and thus far, only three have been won by plaintiffs.
Some interesting comments from people involved in the Texas and New Jersey trials can be found on Ashby Jones’ Wall Street Journal blog.
Of course, this raises the question, did Vioxx settle too soon with earlier cases? And should patients be allowed to sue drug-makers in the first place?
An interesting side note… when you Google “Vioxx,” the following things come up:
The three top searches on WorstPills.org are the asthma and allergy drug Singulair, the birth control pill Yasmin, and the herbal supplement glucosamine and chondroitin.
Singulair is listed as a “do not use” pill because it is less effective than other drugs and can cause blood vessel inflammation, liver disease, lupus and recurrences of ulcerative colitis.
Yasmin is listed as a “do not use” pill because it can cause increased blood levels of potassium and is no more effective than other oral contraceptives in preventing pregnancy.
Glucosamine and Chondroitin are listed as “do not take” pills because there is no evidence that it is effective.
It’s interesting that these three drugs are the top searched pills. Yasmin has certainly come under a lot of attention lately. It’s ad campaigns are interesting - they feature young, attractive girls talking about how the pill decreases PMS symptoms… and what young, attractive girl doesn’t want that? As for Singulair, it seems to me that asthma drugs are a hot commodity these days since a huge percentage of kids today have the condition. And what’s up with glucosamine and chondroitin? All of a sudden everyone has joint problems? I don’t get it. My mom takes glucosamine for her bum knee, but I’m not sure if it does her much good. I noticed that Minute Maid now makes orange juice with glucosamine in it as well. I would venture to say that these three drugs are the top searched drugs on WorstPills.org because, currently, they are some of the most heavily marketed pills out there.
The Food and Drug Administration has proposed a mandate that would require prescription medicines to have more detailed warning labels than they currently do. In a May 28 USA Today Article, Deputy Director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs Sandra Kweder said pregnant women in particular need much better guidance.
“Women take an average of three to five medications during pregnancy. More than 90 percent of nursing mothers take medication during the first week after delivery.
Because half of the nation’s 6 million annual pregnancies are unplanned, many women take medications before they realize they’re pregnant, Kweder says. Current drug labels offer little help in assessing the risks to a baby who already has been exposed.”
The current FDA drug classification system is 30 years old, and does not do a very good job at warning women and doctors about dangers that may occur during breastfeeding and pregnancy.
Let’s hope the FDA proposal gets pushed through easily and quickly. I often think that many of the health problems that children face today are a result of the way our society consumes medicine like candy. Who knows? I could be wrong, but it would still be good for pregnant women to be better informed about the chemicals they are putting into their bodies, and how those chemicals might interact with one another.
So just out of curiosity, I decided to peruse the contents of my spam folder in both of my e-mail accounts. I wanted to get an idea of how many prescription drug ads get sent to me everyday.
Here are some examples of the tantalizing subject lines I see as I scroll through my spam messages:
“Pills for Your Everyday Needs”
“CIA-LIS: From a Pharmacy that Believes in Providing Excellent Services and the Cheapest Prices”
“Get Your Doctor’s Prescription Online”
“Buy Now and You Will Get for Free Blue Pill”
“Medical Shopping: Medicines for Health Sensitive Conditions”
Who is sending these e-mails? Why is so much spam prescription drug focused? What happens if you actually try and order from these sites? Why are so many of these ads for erectile dysfunction? And how many people are getting duped by these sites daily?
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