Yesterday, an FDA-panel voted to advise the agency to adopt rather idiotic standards with regards to acetaminophen, the generic for the medication in tylenol. They are lowering the amount of the drug that is in a maximum "dose" and then looking to ban prescription medications that mix acetaminophen with other drugs.
1) the "dose" is totally irrelevant to most people and probably why they're having what they claim are "accidental overdoses" of acetaminophen - people don't pay attention to the dose - they take what they need to get rid of their pain. Moreover, it's really not at all easy to overdose on acetaminophen, as most people know. A doctor in an old Associated Press article claims that 16 extra-strength tylenol pills taken in a day can kill you. This, is completely false, I can tell you from extensive personal experience. Depending on your condition, it may have little to no effect on you. You absolutely can cause yourself serious damage taking acetaminophen, but it isn't easy and the notion that people are following the instructions and such and "accidentally" overdose is absurd. If you're taking cold and flu pills 6 times a day, as suggested towards the end of the article, you're already taking WAY more than you're supposed to. Not to mention if you start popping other things on top of that - if you have a "nagging headache" on those many meds, you should go see a dr stat b.c. you shouldn't be able to function, let alone feel anything, under those circumstances. I still can't put my head around how you could accidentally put yourself in that situation without being an idiot.
What they're really talking about here are irresponsible people who don't follow instructions and get themselves sick. The warnings about liver damage are ALL OVER every single product with any acetaminophen in it. Everybody knows about the potential liver damage. Great story. But what in the world is that supposed to have to do with my life and my ability to take as much tylenol as I feel like?
But the good thing about the "doseage" issue is that it really doesn't matter at all because you can just take more pills. I find it offensive, but it will have no impact on my life and my untreatable migraines that occasionally respond to massive doses of tylenol. Which brings me to issue number 2, which does matter:
2) Eliminating prescription meds that mix in acetaminophen: This is horrifically, unimaginably offensive. Here's the issue - I never liked that there was acetaminophen in this stuff because of the fact that it causes liver damage and doesn't really do much for pain, so it's a bit annoying and actually dangerous when you have to take them for injuries, surgeries and chronic pain issues. But the FDA hasn't approved alternatives that would be readily available for patients (who are already stymied in their ability to treat their conditions due to antiquated drug regulations that place their chronic pain medications in the same class as cocaine) that do not have acetaminophen. Indeed, I read somewhere along the way that the acetaminophen was purposefully put into the pills to prevent people from taking too much - basically, I have to assume, your liver would go into failure before your heart would, which seems like a great plan....oh wait, no, it doesn't seem like a great plan at all. It seems incredibly idiotic.
But what about people who need real pain medication? I'll assume, for the sake of argument, that low doses of acetaminophen do something, which in my opinion is false, but let's assume. Regardless of this, it is clear that many many people have pain that is much greater than anything that tylenol can tackle and cannot function without medications to reduce the pain. Importantly, we have these medications and the world has had and used them for millenia and remarkably enough, there are still human beings. Yes, fascinating that everyone didn't become addicted to opium and decide to sit around all day and never eat or procreate to build or do anything. Shocking, really.
Hmmm. Or not. Maybe the issue is that some people can control themselves and other people can't. Some people get addicted and can't stop. Some people get addicted and don't want to stop. It's not any different than alcohol. Some people drink casually or daily and they're fine, no issues. Some people start drinking and get this addictive rush and can't stop and destroy their lives - that group should be out of the running for future genetic pools. Some people start drinking and they absolutely could stop when things get out of control, but hate their lives and don't want to stop. I am sad for those people because society has let them down and left them with a world that will never reach their expectations, but unfortunately, they also have to be left behind. Both groups are extremely self-involved, require a great deal of personal attention that is inappropriate and unreasonable, and generally have psychological issues that they need to deal with but have chosen not to.
Who's left on the island? People who can consume drugs, both for medicinal and recreational purposes, with a reasonable amount of care. These are the people we want in our society, these should be our leaders and role models etc. If you're taking 20 times the amount of tylenol that's prescribed because you can't stand a little bit of pain, you're in one of the former categories and you're off the island. But your idiocy should not cause people who otherwise should be on the island to be kicked off because they've broken a leg or have slipped discs or other ailments that require pain treatment. Nor should it impact people who want to slip away and feel absolutely nothing recreationally for a period of time. These people are causing no damage to our society and their actions, if anything, should be lauded. They represent how man has functioned since he became predominant on the planet and how he has continued to control it. It's a system that works.
3) FDA please leave me alone: I am very very tired of the FDA and various other governmental agencies trying to move us closer to an Orwellian socialist society. It's inappropriate for America to succumb to these temptations to expect constant nannying and the ability to blame others for the actions of individual decision-makers. The argument that society as a whole pays for these things is largely false: it only pays for the groups who cannot or choose not to control themselves. The rest of us who can control our use, do have to pay for those people, but why not weed those people out rather than force everyone to live with draconian rules? It isn't my fault or even my problem or even something I should have to know about that someone took too much tylenol and got sick. Or mixed too much tylenol with too much vicodin and killed themselves. They're idiots and however you look at it, they meant to die or they needed to die because they were a social burden, in every sense of the word. I refuse to lose my right to relieve pain as I see fit because some people didn't get enough attention as children and are requiring it now through desperate actions as adults. It's enough.
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