Which approach makes more sense to you? Should drug companies make drugs that are highly toxic if abused (shot up, ect) to discourage their abuse, or should they make drugs that are safer even if abused, not since you want them to be abused but since you believe in harm reduction? If making the pills more toxic turns out to not dissuade everyone from abusing these drugs, it is ethical to be increasing the harm these people experience when that harm could be reduced?

Many binders and time release formulations are treacherous to people who shoot up. They shouldnt be shooting up anyway, but if we are further endangering their lives are we responsibility the right thing?

Another thing is additives like tylenol in Vocodin and Percocet. Despite what they tell you, the tyenol does not add much to the pain relief. Tylenol is excellent for minor aches and pains and it worthless for moderate to severe pain. It doesnt make enough of a difference. Its place in there but to make people sick if they take too much of the opiate. Too much tylenol will ruin your liver and is more toxic than the hydrocodone. Hydrocodone is treacherous if you take more than you have a tolerance for but is comparably non toxic if you use the right dosage. If you boost your dose of hydrocodone to tolerance, you will eventually ruin your liver with the tylenol rather than from the opiates. Many doctors are now switching to norco instead of vicodin since it contains less of the harmful tylenol which should never ever be shot…but it happens and people die.

So, should we err on the side of preventing drug abuse by making it scary by adding stuff that can kill you, or should we err on the side of compassion and harm reduction even when these people are breaking the law by abusing their medication?
"How about we manufacture drugs that do the optimum excellent for the patient and let the docs do what they do best"

That would be nice. But , the DEA breaths down the neck of doctors and drug companies in the name of trying to prevent drug abuse, and since of this many doctors are worried to do their job and end up letter legitimate pain patients suffer. Drug companies are also pressured to cater to the DEAs wishes rather than just focus on making the best medications for pain they can make.

Tags: atherosclerosis, miracle dust, pixie dust, pulmonary, heart disease

Tags: Additives, Binders, Breaking The Law, Breaths, Dea, Doing The Right Thing, Drug Abuse, Harm Reduction, Norco, Opiate, Opiates, Pain Relief, Percocet, Release Formulations, Severe Pain, Time Release, Tyenol, Tylenol, Vicodin, Vocodin

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 8:27 am and is filed under Drug Abuse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.