The potential harm to the pharmacy’s customer base would be too great if a pharmacist is willing to sell all of their drug stores to a single customer. That’s one pharmacist that would lose customers big time of they were always out of stuff. As you said, they’re there to make money and they won’t accomplish that by always being out of stuff that their customers need.
In the country I live in right now codeine linctus which is kool aid flavored syrup with 300mg of codeine per bottle is on the shelf in every grocery and pharmacy mostly, cost $2.50 USD. Anyone can buy it, a child might get questioned I dunno, there is no crazy doomsday scenario of drug addicts taking over. IN FACT people look down on anyone who would stoop to this to get high, why you should get some cash and grab some illicit and illegal(ooh yea baby the good stuff!) cocaine!
The legality of it seems to put off the thrill seekers.
I’m torn.
I think individuals should have broader freedom and autonomy wrt their consensual behaviors. Certainly there should be no penalty for consumption, and I don’t see much point in banning things that aren’t immediately physically dangerous.
OTOH I’m not keen on lifting regulations that safeguard consumers from dangerous products. At what level of harm do we say a product can’t be sold? If no level, then how do we prevent arsenic in our Cheerios?
I suppose if we made things OTC, but did not give makers of the products any special safeguards from litigation, they might come up with their own methods, like requiring a consultation with the pharmacist before they would sell it.
And of course, broad based public health concerns is a reasonable criteria for regulating things like antibiotics and vaccines. But most doctors don’t seem to currently worry too much about that when prescribing so it may be a moot point.
The thing is, it’s not that hard to get perscription drugs if you have a legitimate need for them.
Quite frankly I don’t get this idea that people’s “freedom” is threatened by being told they can’t act on every stupid idea they come up with. There’s a reason we have regulations. For example, things like knowing the building you enter passes some basic code of structural integrity.
I don’t want all drugs to be legal, but all drugs(or as many as necessary) being legal is the preferable option to the war on drugs and the crime(both in the US and in central/south america) associated with feeding America’s apparently insatiable demand for drugs.
Legal drugs would also be safer for the users, since they would be manufactured with the same guidelines used for other drugs. Nothing would be cut with shit or of an unknown quality.
That said, I only think there are a few current drugs that should be made freely available OTC. The really hard stuff, like heroin, cocaine, and such, would remain illegal to distribute, but we should have clinics(paid for by the taxes from other drugs. 
) that distribute it.
Drugs suck, and the world would probably be a better place if they didn’t exist, but they do, and many are easy to produce with a minimum of knowledge and supplies, and there is a high demand. Such being the case, prohibition will always end in failure. The goal should be to minimize harm, not minimize drug use.
Apparently you also have no thoughts, because you just described alcohol, and I presume you don’t advocate making it prescription-only.
It’s not hard if you’re an upper middle class business owner who can make his own schedule and has Blue Cross, true. But for the rest of us, it’s expensive, in time and money. For people too poor for medical insurance and too rich for Medicaid, it’s hard to justify a day off work to sit and wait in the clinic for 6 hours and pay for a $150 doctor visit for, say, a $4 refill on the same blood pressure med they’ve been safely taking for three years now. I have no problem with an educated (about their medication) person keeping their own blood pressure log and a diary of side effects and deciding that getting their metoprolol refilled is a good idea.
Professionally, of course, I toe the line and tell my patients they need to see their doctors for refills because the doctor needs to see how they’re doing, and it’s his license on the line if something changes and you have a bad reaction, or you need a higher dose and he doesn’t change your prescription. And all that’s true, especially for my patients who don’t keep track of their own blood pressure, or who are having side effects.
But in my head, I’m thinking, “Your blood pressure has been stable on this med for a long time and you’re having no side effects, it’s stupid you have to see a doctor again right now.”
I consider that a better argument for reforming the entire healthcare system than it is to make all drugs OTC. People freak out when "their’ drugs get recalled or are potentially considered to be unsafe and start bitching about the evil capitalists who are allowed to put unsafe products on the market yadda yadda. I can’t quite reconcile the “make them all OTC” idea with “how dare this product be unsafe for me and my children - I’m suing for emotional distress” reaction that I see rather often.
I don’t really have all that much faith in people - people are stupid, reckless, wilfully ignorant and simply wouldn’t take the time to fully understand the risks they are taking. While other countries might have lower drug regulations and it hasn’t led to chaos, I think there would need to be a massive cultural shift in the USA and Canada to get to this point. I feel that, right now, our societies are too quick to pin the blame on others for our own stupidity, it’s too easy to file (frivolous) lawsuits and no one ever thinks anything bad could ever happen to them. I’d hate to have to deal with the modern North American mother who picked up a medicine for her baby and accidentally killed it.
That said, I think loosening some standards, perhaps expanding the OTC options is fair; I just can’t get behind putting everything OTC. Radioactive medical isotopes at Walgreens? No thank you.
Actually, this reminded me of something. Chemotherapy drugs are nasty, nasty, NASTY pieces of chemistry. It’s a fine line the pharmacists and technicians who mix them up toe. It’s essentially poison to every cell in your body, and they have to get it just right so as many of the weaker, cancer-ridden, cells die, but the stronger “good” cells stay alive…and no matter what, plenty of “good” cells are still going to die, hence all the nasty side-effects.
You do NOT want any random Joe just getting some of that…not just because it’s dangerous to him, but it’s dangerous to whoever might be around him. These drugs need to be mixed by a trained professional, using protective equipment, under a biological safety cabinet. You think Joe has that at home? No, and if he does use it at home, it becomes hazardous for anyone else living there…and what are the odds he’ll properly dispose of it? 0%. He’s tossing that in the regular trash and it will go to a landfill, and contaminate the soil (well…contaminate it worse than what it will already be from the landfill.)
One of the things I do for my job is take air and surface samples for several chemo drugs at a couple hospitals, to make sure the employees aren’t being exposed to it and are following the proper procedures. The acceptable exposure limit is zero. If I find any amount, it’s a big deal to the hospital. It means their employees aren’t following proper procedure, and are exposing themselves and other members of the staff to poisons.
This, and similar instances, is where the “every drugs should be OTC” falls apart…yes, it’s a specialized case, and I’m sure you might be willing to make an exception for this…but why just this? The fact is, the average person is too ignorant of medical matters to make proper decisions for themselves, and the decisions they make for themselves impact other people, so it’s no longer simply a case of personal responsibility.
And regarding the War on Drugs…while I don’t agree with it, and I would like to see it ended, or at least scaled back/changed into something better, making all drugs, even currently illegal ones that have no real medical value (crack, crystal meth) legal, wouldn’t make those cartels go away. They aren’t going to say,
“Welp, we had a good run, pack it in boys…”
They are going to shift focus in other areas, or keep selling drugs but make them cheaper than the ones at the drug store, still as dangerous from impurities, etc…
I agree. I think both are about equally unlikely, at least during my lifetime.
Would the effect of resistant “superbugs” be evident, though? At least before a certain point?
Well, at least we’ll know one possible vector if/when it does happen…
So then who is going to sell it? There are plenty of goods produced without being forbidden to all but a certain trade which don’t find their way to store shelves. Can you just run down to the grocery store to buy elemental sodium?
No. You just fail to appreciate all the other really dangerous things that are not banned for all but certain trades yet don’t populate store shelves.
So it serves even less of a purpose. If they’re still going to be around anyway, the war on drugs is doubly stupid.
Some seem to be grasping at straws by discounting the entire idea due to some oddball substance, we should not end drug prohibition/have everything available OTC because of radioactive isotopes or expensive chemo drugs. There is no black market for these items now, and it stands to reason no market for OTC sale. Its a total non-issue.
As for idiots diagnosing themselves and dosing themselves, they can do this NOW. Have you shopped for drugs online? You can get most any non-narcotic shipped to you inside the USA fast and cheap from overseas. I simply do not see why if some fool is determined to start taking insulin against all better judgement we need a law to stand in their way.
And just because drugs are OTC is not going to make it legal to poison people or commit fraud(mix up and sell fradulently labeled patent medicine) as no one is advocating we abolish all laws. Someone who drugs another person for whatever reason will be prosecuted, how many poisonings have you heard of recently?
The only thing that will change is the informed or foolish will be able to buy their own therapeutic drugs to treat their illness, and drug addicts will have a cheap and safe source without going to buy on the street. Nothing stops a person from buying as much alcohol as they please right now and the world keeps turning and most people are sensible enough not to kill themselves, I don’t see that changing just because the same can be said for vicodin.
So this is exactly the type of problem I was envisioning that would exist by making all drugs OTC. Except that it appears to already exist. If “pharmacies” are this poorly regulated in terms of who qualifies as a pharmacy, then making drugs OTC does make very little difference. But still, it’s disturbing to see people going to great lengths to create drug shortages.
I still don’t understand the connection between grey market stockpiling and making drugs OTC. You know that the suppliers tying up the chain don’t need a prescription from their doctor to buy cases of Avastin, right? They’re wholesalers, not consumers. The reason they stockpile and falsify transit records and all the other (admittedly reprehensible) things they do isn’t because you need a prescription for Avastin, it’s because there isn’t enough white market Avastin being made.
I’m not seeing a huge grey market for ibuprofen. On the other hand, there is something of a grey market for pseudoephedrine, which is OTC but has age and quantity limits in many states.
Hmmm…seems like the correlation is in fact the opposite of what you envision: the more sales restrictions that are placed on the sale of a particular drug, the *more *likely it is to develop a grey or black market. Which is completely logical: we in fact create demand for grey and black markets when we tell people they can’t buy something easily and legally. Make it all available on the white market, and there’s no need for a grey or black market.