As we all know, Barack Obama chose a well-known foe of mail order DXM as his running mate. Here's an interesting take on the current trend
of increasingly restricting the legal market for DXM:
Quote:
Are we going to let them make us supervise DEXTROMETHORPHAN sales, too? Hell,no!
There are supposed to be three kinds of people: people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who wonder what happened. Judging from the way pharmacy legislation is negotiated, I'd say that we pharmacists fall into that third category. We turn around, and find ourselves fettered by one more mindless, oppressive regulation, a regulation we end up living with because we were silent. Well, here comes another potential attempt to ignore our professionalism and add to our status as toadies for the administrators: "they" may be about to make us account for dextromethorphan (DXM) products the same way we do pseudoephedrine products!
DXM is an over-the-counter cough suppressant that has been available on the U.S. market for more than half a century. It can be considered an opiate derivative, but its specific chemistry prevents its being abused as an opiate, i.e., it is not supposed to have opiate-addictive properties. But, in large doses, it can be a euphoriant. OK, we agree that there is DXM abuse, and it is widespread among teenagers. According to Drug Topics, the "concerned parents'" Web sites have already formed, and some national drug abuse centers are weighing in on the issue. But, what is the first action that these folks want to take? Regulatory action. What do they want to regulate? Why, the easy thing, the feel-good thing: DXM sales! Drug Topics reports that Senator Joseph Biden is about to introduce federal legislation restricting DXM sales by the age of the purchaser. Do you smell a new pharmacy requirement for these sales? I do. Let's stop it!
Keep writing to Senator Biden at http://biden.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm to express your opposition to any pharmacy involvement in this restriction. (if you are not from Delaware, do not expect a reply; if you are from Delaware, lay into him particularly hard!) I would also suggest to the senator, and also state legislators and regulators, that if DXM, or PSE, or even chocolate milk, is deemed so abusable that they want to restrict its sales, then they ought to do so by making it Rx-only and a scheduled controlled substance! If they want pharmacists to deal with these drugs, then they should officially enroll them in the clinical armamentarium of therapeutic substances. But, tell them, no more police work, no more bean counting, for pharmacies!
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I'm still willing to cut Barack some slack. But don't be surprised if this
costs him the election!