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http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20090702_Painkillers_at_a_crossroads_as_FDA_decision_looms.html
I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Okay, on one hand, I personally recommend that no one take acetaminophen (paracetamol, Tylenol) at all, in any form, mixed with other drugs or by itself, ever. I've known for years that it's terrible stuff. You are better off, no shit, developing a lifelong narcotics dependency than you are poisoning yourself with The! Number! One! Painkiller! In! America!, which is pushed on people in various insidious ways by a well-funded lobby which has all the compassion of the Mafia and all the ethics of your typical sewer rat.
On the other hand, I vigorously support people's right to poison themselves as they choose, and the fact of the matter is that for a lot of people, acetaminophen seems like the best choice for pain relief. I may vociferously disagree with that choice, and I'll try to talk them out of it, but as long as they're fully informed of the risks it's their decision to make. A good idea would be to place EU-cigarette-warning-style labels (I'm envisioning something that takes up half the bottle, and reads "WARNING: this medication contains acetaminophen, WHICH WILL ACTIVELY TRY TO KILL YOU, YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY, AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO") on all the pill bottles and let people go from there.
Mainly I'm just stunned that the makers of acetaminophen-laced drugs, who according to well-placed sources of my acquaintance had ... um ... a little more input on the FDA approval process than they should have ... have lost control of the debate to this degree. Mind you, this is the way the system is supposed to work, but it's still kind of a shocker. It's like seeing Joe Stalin voted out of office in a democratic election.
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pleased
exhausted
tired![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
irritated
WTF?!?
predatory
sad