After President Trump declared that he uses hydroxychloroquine, the Food and Drug Administration walked back its advice against the drug and seemingly all others as well.
"The decision to take any drug is ultimately a decision between a patient and their doctor," FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in an emailed statement to various news outlets, including the Hill and CNBC. This came in response to President Trump's remarks that same day that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against COVID-19 for "a couple weeks."
As the late Dr. Thomas Szasz observed in his book Our Right to Drugs, a "Colossal charade" between patients, doctors, insurance companies, and the government arises from this regulatory framework of prescription drug laws.
The fact that our drug laws require people to secure a prescription for many of the drugs they want fosters a mutually degrading dishonesty between physicians and patients.
In 1991, then FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler told the Drug Information Association that the FDA would use seizures, injunctions, and prosecutions to enforce its ban on drug companies sharing "Off-label" use information with doctors.
That's too bad, because when the doctor-patient relationship isn't interrupted by bureaucratic third parties or red tape, it is the strongest bulwark against drug and prescription abuses.
What benefit is a layer of FDA regulations that simply restrict everyone's freedom for the sake of those who will circumnavigate the rules, anyway? The principle is more commonly accepted in the gun control debate, but it is the same in the prescription drug control debate.
"The decision to take any drug is ultimately a decision between a patient and their doctor," FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in an emailed statement to various news outlets, including the Hill and CNBC. This came in response to President Trump's remarks that same day that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against COVID-19 for "a couple weeks."
As the late Dr. Thomas Szasz observed in his book Our Right to Drugs, a "Colossal charade" between patients, doctors, insurance companies, and the government arises from this regulatory framework of prescription drug laws.
The fact that our drug laws require people to secure a prescription for many of the drugs they want fosters a mutually degrading dishonesty between physicians and patients.
In 1991, then FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler told the Drug Information Association that the FDA would use seizures, injunctions, and prosecutions to enforce its ban on drug companies sharing "Off-label" use information with doctors.
That's too bad, because when the doctor-patient relationship isn't interrupted by bureaucratic third parties or red tape, it is the strongest bulwark against drug and prescription abuses.
What benefit is a layer of FDA regulations that simply restrict everyone's freedom for the sake of those who will circumnavigate the rules, anyway? The principle is more commonly accepted in the gun control debate, but it is the same in the prescription drug control debate.
No comments:
Post a Comment