Three of the more popular and effective allergy medications have been proposed for reclassification as over-the-counter drugs. Bravo!
The drugs Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec are safe and don't require permission from a gatekeeper for general consumption, claims Wellpoint Health Networks, a California HMO. The newest benefit from the triad of concoctions under examination is the lack of the common side effect of drowsiness. The petition is under advisement by the Food and Drug Administration and hearings will be held starting May 11th to evaluate the claim.
Schering-Plough Corp., which makes Claritin, Aventis Pharma AG, which makes Allegra, and Pfizer Inc., maker of Zyrtec, will most likely lose money if the drugs become available over the counter. They will immediately become subject to Adam Smith's invisible hand if sold on the open marketplace due to competition from similar but much less expensive drugs such as Benadryl. Accordingly, the three companies in question are vehemently opposed to consumers being able to buy their products as if they were cough drops.
Additionally, there is a growing movement among pharmacists to free medications from the shackles of the physician's prescription. Pharmacists are highly educated in their craft, with an advanced masters degree as the entry point for the profession and doctorates not at all uncommon. They feel that they are eminently qualified to advise patients and prescribe medications. The general medical practitioner is a middleman, they say.
I agree. I'll go a step further than the pharmacists though, and suggest that we should be able to purchase our Zyrtec, Penicillin or Morphine from a 7-11 where there is not a pharmacist in sight. Place them on the shelves right alongside the Smith Bros. Cough Drops.
As radical as this sounds, it was the common state of affairs prior to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Harrison Act of 1914. Prior to the enactment of these infamous pieces of legislation, it was the right of any American citizen to self-medicate themselves. So it should be today as well.
If you as a literate intelligent American citizen know you are allergic to pine pollen, why are you not allowed to freely purchase a medication to alleviate your problem? The reasons aren't what you may think. They have nothing to do with obtaining proper advice along with a pure drug and everything to do with maintaining a cartel. Not just a pharmaceutical cartel, but an overall medical cartel.
Consider this scenario: You are afflicted with terrible congestion and attacks of sneezing in the spring. Quite rightly, you visit your medical professional of choice and he tells you that you probably have developed a quite common allergy to pollen and to take a Claritin with your morning orange juice. You do so and it works!
Fast forward to the next spring. Same weather, same horrible symptoms. Why should you be forced to visit an already overburdened gatekeeper to obtain a permission slip for what you know you need? You are forced to make that visit to support the cartel financially, every member from the top to the bottom.
Am I suggesting the abolition of our medical and pharmaceutical schools? Not at all. Faced with an unknown medical condition, I would quickly visit my physician. In the event of needing a drug more powerful than an aspirin, I'd welcome the opportunity to speak with a pharmacist for suggestions and alternatives. I heatedly object to being forced to do so.
Am I suggesting that pharmaceutical companies be forced to give their products away or for the government to subsidize their costs to consumers? Not at all. Sell them over the counter like any other good and let the marketplace determine their proper cost. If I choose to make my purchases from an outlet with a pharmaceutical professional on hand to offer advice, I'll pay a premium price. If I go to a discount store with a bored clerk on duty, I'll pay less. My choice.
As a society, we desperately need to put the societal innovations of the 20th Century under a powerful microscope and make an honest appraisal of what they have cost us. Handing over responsibility for our health to the State and the medical cartels are symptomatic of the larger problem of a general loss of our liberties as citizens of a once free republic.
I wish there was an over the counter pill we could take to cure ourselves, but I'm afraid that radical surgery will be required.
May 12, 2001
