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> … are all medications freely available at the corner store? Does this include warfarin, where getting the dose slightly wrong makes you bleed to death? Does i

by redeux 3y ago

> … are all medications freely available at the corner store? Does this include warfarin, where getting the dose slightly wrong makes you bleed to death? Does it include MAOIs, where eating cheese after use makes your blood vessels explode? Obviously you put these things on the label … Who puts these things on the label and why? I don’t understand what’s obvious about this in a laissez-faire system. The author seems to argue for the removal of medication safety regulation in one area (FDA) but imply that there would still be safety regulations in regards to labeling? This seems like a huge contradiction to me.

303uru 3y ago
Congrats, you just speared the stupidity of the libertarian dream in a sentence. As a pharmacist, it's terrifying that anyone is even broaching the idea of ending the FDA and putting all medications OTC.
- friend_and_foe 3y ago
  Well, prior to the modern age, people self medicated. All compounds were freely available in most countries. You didn't need anyone's permission to find them and take them. Was it better? I don't know. I doubt you'd have many of the extremely effective medicines that have been invented since then. But I also don't think restricting medications has done anything to help curb addiction for example, and in my opinion the situation we live in where people just assume something is safe just because it's on the shelf of a store is a bad outcome of outsourcing personal safety to a government agency. I'm very diligent about what I put into my body, and I think most people would also be if they realized they needed to be, most people have a false sense of security as an adverse side effect of governments taking the role of claiming something is safe. I like not having lead in my turmeric, I like being able to see what's in my food by looking at the label. But I don't like having to pay someone a few hundred bucks just to get permission to numb some acute pain I feel from time to time due to a chronic condition. I skirt that law using a "supplement", but I don't think I should have to. All in all I think there's room for improvement. A lot of room. I'm not quite ready to say the government shouldn't have anything to say about the way things are done but I am ready to say they should have a much less prominent role.
bonzini 3y ago
> Who puts these things on the label and why I guess because otherwise you could be sued? Not that it makes this any more viable.
friend_and_foe 3y ago
If you'd continued reading, this is addressed in the very next paragraph. The article doesn't argue for the abolishing of the FDA, the article is making a similar point to the one you're making.

by redeux 3y ago

303uru 3y ago

Congrats, you just speared the stupidity of the libertarian dream in a sentence. As a pharmacist, it's terrifying that anyone is even broaching the idea of ending the FDA and putting all medications OTC.

friend_and_foe 3y ago
Well, prior to the modern age, people self medicated. All compounds were freely available in most countries. You didn't need anyone's permission to find them and take them. Was it better? I don't know. I doubt you'd have many of the extremely effective medicines that have been invented since then. But I also don't think restricting medications has done anything to help curb addiction for example, and in my opinion the situation we live in where people just assume something is safe just because it's on the shelf of a store is a bad outcome of outsourcing personal safety to a government agency. I'm very diligent about what I put into my body, and I think most people would also be if they realized they needed to be, most people have a false sense of security as an adverse side effect of governments taking the role of claiming something is safe. I like not having lead in my turmeric, I like being able to see what's in my food by looking at the label. But I don't like having to pay someone a few hundred bucks just to get permission to numb some acute pain I feel from time to time due to a chronic condition. I skirt that law using a "supplement", but I don't think I should have to. All in all I think there's room for improvement. A lot of room. I'm not quite ready to say the government shouldn't have anything to say about the way things are done but I am ready to say they should have a much less prominent role.

bonzini 3y ago

> Who puts these things on the label and why I guess because otherwise you could be sued? Not that it makes this any more viable.

friend_and_foe 3y ago

If you'd continued reading, this is addressed in the very next paragraph. The article doesn't argue for the abolishing of the FDA, the article is making a similar point to the one you're making.