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FDA shot themselves in the foot.

·915 words·5 mins

All this Sudafed hooplah really has my panties in a bunch.
There is some stupid ass law that as of like 9/06 we need to log all sudafed sales in a book, blah blah blah, etc.
One question. Who the fuck cares? Just put the raw bottles of sudafed behind the counter (like all sane pharmacies do) and just be aware that its being abused. You dont need more laws to do this, its like HIPAA, its fucking common sense!
But no, the FDA needs to do something about the “problem” about meth production. I think its time to write them an angry letter:
Dear FDA,
I’m concerned about your position about sudafed and its diversion to make methamphetamines. Unfortunally you shit in your own bed on this one. You see, pulling Phenylpropolamine (PPA) from the market was a bad idea. If you would of read the study for yourself rather than cave in to the retarded media (whom last I checked were NOT doctors or pharmacists) you would of learned that yes, PPA did cause brain hemmorages in women aged 16-39 (or something like that). Now dont you think thats a bit odd that it only occured in women between those two ages? Lets assume that you monkies can read english. Second lets assume that your actually have free thought and can make basic decisions. But since obvously you cant i’ll summarize it for you.
The women who were dying of brain hemmorages were taking well over the labeled dose in an attemtpt to lose weight. Makes sense doesnt it?
In fact, here are some papers that you might want to read that shows that incidence of stroke in PPA vs Sudafed is pretty much equal in recommended doses:
Drug Safety
Mostly this part
Stroke related to over-the-counter sympathomimetics was associated with acute hypertension and/or vasospasm or angiitis mechanisms, most related to the use of PPA; however, stroke also occurred with the use of other sympathomimetics, particularly pseudoephedrine. Although stroke complications occurred when doses were used that were higher than recommended doses, apparently there is also a stroke risk when these agents are taken properly.
Pubmed is full of articles like this. You guys know what pubmed is right? www.pubmed.gov? Scientific paper search engine? God I hope so.
Will you pull Tylenol off the shelves next for liver failure at higher-than-normal doses? How about ASA and all the NSAIDS for ulcers? Why not encase everyone in a little plastic bubble and put corks on their forks so they dont poke out their own eyes.
FDA, you are not my babysitter and you need to stop caving into media pressures. You created this meth nightmare by pulling PPA off of the shelves and forcing sudafed to take up the slack. You shit in your bed and you’re expecting the pharmacists to clean it up.
So this letter isnt all ranting and bitching, i’ll offer some suggestions:

  • Limit sales to only pharmacies. Not gas stations, whore houses or truck stops. Pharmacies are all over the place now and many are open 24 hours.
    • Take a gander at the US/Mexico boarder. I think you’ll be in for a surprise when big-rigs full of sudafed roll into this country without even a second look from immigration.
      Other than that you’re doing a great job! Now approve more generics before i stab you in the face with a spork.
      Love,
      The Angry Pharmacist.
      Aah, that felt better. 🙂

Comments #

Comment by jennas on 2006-05-13 19:29:38 -0700 #

Love your site!
It is the biggest pain in the ass that I have to stop what I’m doing to ring up sudafed sales, and Oh yeah, log in the person’s name, address, driver’s license #, name of the product, # of grams, MY signature, and the person’s signature. I live in a heavy meth area, and these lowlifes come in 1 minute apart pretending like they don’t know each other. This leaves my tech at the register for 20 minutes straight which causes us to get hopelessly behind.
The DEA dropped the ball on this too. There are only 9 factores in the world that make ephedrine & pseudoephedrine, and they have been selling in bulk to the drug cartels for years. The people who come into pharmacies are small-time.
Frontline had a great episode on the meth epidemic. You can watch it online.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/

Comment by Jessica on 2006-05-17 15:48:37 -0700 #

I think the problem here is assuming that common sense is inherent to the profession. Alas, this is not the case.
Stupid, pain-in-the ass law born and bred because of people with no fucking common sense.

Comment by Beverly on 2006-06-10 07:17:42 -0700 #

Regarding Jessica’s comment: indeed. So many laws are to protect stupid people. As a friend of mine would say – let them kill themselves doing stupid things and leave the gene pool cleaner than they found it.
And as for pseudoephedrine: for god’s sake. Last time I bought it I didn’t have to sign anything, but I was limited to one box. I am about out of it now so I dread my next experience…

Comment by RHonda on 2007-01-19 11:40:11 -0800 #

I’m sick of suffering. I refuse to have sinus surgery. I’m tired of being looked at by the government like a criminal because I want to buy half assed sudafed. (not even close to as good as PPA was)
PPA saved me from many sinus infections that would last for months.
I want PPA back.

The Angry Pharmacist
Author
The Angry Pharmacist
Started this site in 2005 out of frustration that pharmacy school does not prepare you for dealing with the ungrateful unwashed public. Was hugely popular until life called and I had to take a break. Now I try to provide low brow potty humor that applies to the pharmacy population at large. Except you clinical fucks, go play doctor with your white coats and snobby attitude.