Pepin’s Pharmaceutical Prattle for 09-15-2003
	Quote of the day: Nothing ever goes away. Barry Commoner (1917 - )

Good morning! I just saw a story about a new California Tax that will be imposed on all electronic equipment to encourage recycling of computers, televisions, and other electronics that contain noxious metals. This could reduce metal pollution by keeping the items out of the landfills. How do you get rid of outdated prescriptions? Throw in the garbage? Flush away? Burn them? Put on your plants to see what will happen? Some people are every worried about the disposal of medications. It would not surprise me to see a new tax placed on prescriptions to pay for disposal of unused medications. There is a difference though. Drugs are meant to be consumed and the assumption is that THAT is the end of them. With rare exception DRUGS spend very little time in the human body and are relatively unchanged when they emerge. Essentially you are just running them through your system on the way to the sewer system. As Barry says "Nothing ever goes away". Sure we might add or remove a methyl group or cleave a hydroxyl group from the molecules but everything is eliminated. The other difference between drugs and heavy metals is that the metals make their way into the food chain and us and are harmful. Medications that are discarded or destroyed (or eliminated) were meant for consumption by humans and thus very much less likely to cause any real harm. Medications left in tight containers and left in a landfill are likely to find their way into the water after many years and likely to be degraded while waiting. The concentration of any one chemical in any place is likely to be small. Burning of chemicals would be more of a concern because the heat may turn some chemicals into other less friendly substances. If you are worried about ground water and our lakes and fish then try going without lawn fertilizer and pesticides. I used to used 20 to 40 lbs of the stuff every year …many more times the volume of drugs taken by my entire family in 10 years year. So my advice to the consumer…. throw your medications in the garbage in their original packaging or go ahead and flush the medications. The FDA SHOULD look into constructing a list of drugs that COULD pose a REAL problem and make it known. So when are you going to minimize your use of lawn chemicals? Now I will go away and leave my PPP behind.

1) Phlushing Pharmaceuticals?
	Yada…yada…yada….I said it all above. …Click here for full text of story. http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030909/NEWS/309090368/1039

2) But beware the herbal teas!
	Star anise is the culprit. (seizures, vomiting, jitteriness and rapid eye movement). Please see the FDA announcement and stick to Celestial Seasoning or Lipton.. …Click here for full text of story. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2003/NEW00941.html

3) Just say no… to music!
	More that 250 people have received subpoenas for downloading copyrighted music. It will be interesting to see how this all works out. Maybe they can plead how poor they are and get WTO to bypass the intellectual property laws for them like they are for generic copies of branded drugs for poor nations. …Click here for full text of story http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/technology/10MUSI.html?th.

4) The costs of health care are not going away either.
	Kaiser Family Foundation study shows that employers are raising premiums and copays. Shows what others are doing if you get too many complaints around the new plan year. …Click here for full text of story.

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5) Death penalty for counterfeit drugs…

In India at least. The pharmacist that slighted cancer patients' active drug received 30 years in a plea bargain …Click here for DIRTBAG story. . Sounds like a plea bargain in India will be to decide between hanging and a firing squad. And this is one of the countries that wants to sell more and more generic drugs to the USA market. …Click here for full text of story http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=166070.

6) Canadian Internet pharmacies are about to go away.
	Justice department going after the most defiant Canadian pharmacies. Looks like some serious teeth behind the FDA bark. …Click here for full text of story. http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Feed=RTR&Date=20030911&ID=2860076&Symbol=US:GSK

7) A not-so-bitter pill to swallow.

Adenosine 5'-monophosphate, or AMP, blocks the taste buds that perceive bitter taste. This may sound like part of the Kreb's Cycle that you had to memorize in high school but not quite. This will work for drugs as well as food. AMP could be bigger than the aspartame and saccharine news (of years gone by) put together. …Click here for full text of story. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/technology/26BITT.html?th

Have a GREAT day! Steve

Disclaimer: "Pepin's Pharmaceutical Prattle" (AKA "The Prattle") is the property of PHARMWORKS, LLC and Steven M. Pepin, Pharm. D, BCPS. The opinions expressed are those of the bald-headed author. To start or stop any drug without the advice a supervision of you physician would be stupid. So don't do anything based upon what you read here without professional advice. To be added to or removed from the distribution list please e-mail your request to spepin@pharmworks.com . All insightful comments from readers are thoughtfully considered (the rest are callously discarded). Copyright 1998-2003 PHARMWORKS,LLC all rights reserved.