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  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

Australia's Drug Spending Habits

popeyes mate said:
No wonder the pharmaceutical companies that market pseudoephedrine are totally against their products becoming prescription only medications. They would stand to lose big time. If people had to actually visit a Dr, and get a script to by cold and flu tablets, surely this would decrease the production and availability (I smoke meth and think they should make it prescription only), but who are the biggest opposers? Pharmaceutical companies getting a bite of that rather large cherry.
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Believe it or not cold and flu tablets have a use other than in meth manufacture, they can also be swallowed to ease the symptoms of cold or flu.
It's also major inconvenience for legit consumers to take hours out of the day and pay to see a Dr. rather than just pop into the chemist.
This is one of few times I am backing big pharma, why should they suffer financially because a small percentage of the product sold is being misused. This is drug war logic.
Only someone with a problem with their DOC would want to see an increase in price and decrease in availability, don't make your meth problem my meth problem.

Either way I think the current scheme of ID registering and a database of PSE sales of works pretty well to balance diversion and meeting the needs of consumers. Locally sourced gunked up tablets are a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of PSE and meth that is imported. In places like NZ where PSE becomes scripted it hasn't affected the meth market, if you've got people willing to pay $XX for a point of meth, you can regulate til you're out of red tape and you're still going to have meth.
 
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Yeah but are you sure restricting the sale of pseudo didnt make a dent in the price and availability of meth? I remember a 100% price increase around the time of the new laws.
 
I do hear your point oldirtybizza, however your first few paragraphs sound so much like the guy they interviewed from the Pharmaceutical company.

Im sure I was probably fried while watching the doco, but when they talked of kids of meth parents now in foster care, the cost of making a house inhabitable again after its been used as a cook house. The toll it takes on families, people who may have been robbed by a user, emergency departments, and mental health units where staff are at times threatened and attacked, and just the toll its taking on communities in general, to me at the time, making it a prescription drug seemed a good step.

I guess as person who has kids, regular trips to a Dr is the norm, we are usually in and out in 30min so I dont find it inconvenient. Hell in the last week Ive been 3 times, at $75 a pop, and then another $80 at the chemist just this morning!!

I do appreciate you comment about not making my meth problem your meth problem, but I really couldnt help think that the majority of the population who have been negatively affected in some way because of meth, would find a trip to the Dr a very small price to pay if it some way reduced its manufacturing.
 
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oldirtybizza said:
This is one of few times I am backing big pharma, why should they suffer financially because a small percentage of the product sold is being misused.
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If they actually want their products to be purchased and sold for only its intended purpose, why would they suffer financially? If people have a cold or allergy and want relief.. They will pay to get it.
 
^ I don't neccessarily think thats true, I think there are heaps of people that would grab it on the way home from work if it is that convenient but will be put off by a doctors trip. I would say that I personally fall into this category, just because you wouldn't be bothered with the fuck around doesn't mean others wouldn't be.

Honestly I believe that the amount of meth that is manufactured domestically from pseudo pills obtained in this country is a drop in the ocean, I know it most definately happens because I know some meth junkies who can and do swap pseudo pills for gear and/or cash but I think you would find that larger criminal syndicates control the overwhelming majority of meth manufacture and distribution in this country and not much of their product is being made from Sudafed. If anything the fact that meth addicts can obtain some of their fix by purchasing something from the pharmacy rather than resorting to theft and other crime the pills availability could arguably be reducing crime slightly. Obviously that isn't taking into account the damage that clan labs can do, but honestly like I said I don't think a significant portion of clan labs are resorting to these methods and the ones that are doing so are probably on a relatively small scale.

People can argue that the restrictions on pseudo caused the price to jump, maybe it did but honestly I am skeptical. More like unscrupulous crime sydnicates used it as an excuse to up the price. Regardless, I have only seen this countries meth problem get worse and worse since the restrictions on pseudo and the jump in cost of meth so no matter which way you twist it I don't see tighter restrictions on pseudo resulting in any tangible reduction in meth availability or use.
 
I don't need to go to a dr to know I have a head cold and need pseudo cold and flu. It's ridiculous to tell me I have to get a script for a medication that is the difference between working and taking time off. Personally I'd prefer to buy a packet of nighttime cold and flu and gobble them down and sleep my way through two or three days of a common cold. I actually find I recover quicker using this method when I am sick over a weekend than soldiering on with pseudo products. If I am suddenly having to take half a day off to see my doc, I'll simply stay in bed and nod away the sickness rather than suffer in a waiting room.

My biggest beef now are chemist that don't stock pseudo or look down out you for asking for it. I don't care if you need to run my ID, that's your job bean counter. Don't bullshit me that PE products work just as well because I damn we'll know they don't. To say the majority of society has a meth problem is completely mellow dramatic. The majority just want to stop a snotty nose.
 
One Thousand Words said:
To say the majority of society has a meth problem is completely mellow dramatic.
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I actually didnt say that. What I did say was:

I really couldnt help think that the majority of the population who have been negatively affected in some way because of meth, would find a trip to the Dr a very small price to pay if it some way reduced its manufacturing.

Anyway it is still something I personally would support. Unfortunately society now has a wait for nothing attitude. We want things on demand, we want those serving us to hurry the hell up, and we dont care who may be affected, as long as our needs are instantly satisfied..
 
Damn straight the majority of society don't want to wait 4-5 days while the cold runs its course. They want their pseudo and they want relief now.
 
And I can appreciate they want relief, which is exactly what I wanted for my baby today who has a cold. So I picked up the phone, made an appointment, took her to the doctor, was prescribed antibiotics, walked across the road to the chemist and purchased them. Maybe I have a good clinic or something because I phoned mid morning and took her in during my lunch break. It wasnt hard, and was not an inconvenience.
 
Good for you getting the lunch time spot. Reality is if every single person in this country wants that appointment this flu season, the majority will have to miss out and take time off work.
 
That is a fair call.
And to be honest I do find when its my children, there seems to be no delay in getting them fitted in to see a doctor. Last week I called and just asked if there were any available appointments and I was told they were fully booked. Later that day I just walked in the door with my baby and asked if she could see a doctor, and she saw one within 20 min.

I do also have to be prepared to pay $75 for the visit, but we all have different lengths at which we are willing to go, to get what we need.
 
^ Just because you can afford that doesn't mean other people can. I don't earn very much money and admittedly I would have a lot more if I didn't spend a very significant portion of my income on drugs and alcohol but that doesn't just mean I have 75 bucks to drop at random to see a doctor for a script I really shouldn't need to see a doctor for to begin with. Maybe the fact I spend so much money on drugs and alcohol is my fault, but you could say the same of meth users and their DOC so why the need for others to suffer for a negligible effect on meth supply? You seem to have this attitude like because tighter restrictions wouldn't matter for you that they wouldn't matter for others, and that just because meth is a big problem for you then it must be for everyone else. Neither of these is the case and it seems a bit selfish to me for people to think I should have to be fucked around to get a medication because they lack self control with their DOC.

Do you really believe that a majority of the population really been negatively affected by meth in some way? Half the country has probably never even seen the stuff. I mean yeah if you want to throw in shit like people feeling intimidated around shady ass charachters or a strung out mate borrowing a relatively small bit of cash and not paying it back then maybe a more significant portion has been affected, it would still pale in comparison to the amount of Australian's whos lives have been negatively impacted by alcohol but how much public support do you really see for tighter restrictions of that?

I think restricting pseudoephedrine containing medications is silly drug war mentality, like "Oh we MUST keep doing something to keep up this charade, despite the fact it is extremely impractical and is having almost no effect." It allows people to feel good but in doesn't actually accomplish anything apart from making everyones lives more difficult.
 
The only reason you should need a script for a medication is for safety regulation. You don't want antibiotics for instance to be abused for fear of creating resistance strains of bacteria. There is no public danger from pseudo drugs when used as intended. At worst you get cracked out for the day and get cotton mouth
 
Yeah, but unfortunately the majority of the country dosent mind giving up some of their medicinal drug privileges if they believe it will limit or societies problem with drug use.
 
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