Drug Labels

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30391, 16 March 1964, Page 10

Drug Labels

Sir, —We are all aware that pharmacy is an art and a science; that the chemist is dealing with highly dangerous and potent drugs; that the days of the witch-doctor and allied remedies for ills have long passed. How is it, then, that the chemist will not bring his prescription labels up to date? “The tablets,” “Take as directed,” etc. Th a label merely carries his serial number and advertises his shop. What help could that be if a child or anybody took an overdose of “The tablets”? I am sure that the fear of some hidden danger in the unknown causes many prescriptions to be thrown away. Many other businesses have to label and grade their merchandise. Why not chemists, where human lives and taxpayers’ money are at stake? Chemists should be compelled to come into the mid-twentieth century and the drug age and label their prescriptions correctly and fully. —Yours, etc., LAYMAN. March 10, 1964.

[Mr G. W. Jackman, registrar of the Pharmacy Board of New Zealand, Wellington, said: “It is a long-established pharmaceutical practice that a chemist shall not disclose to the patient the contents of any prescription given by a medical practitioner. It is the sole prerogative of the doctor to disclose to his patient what he is prescribing for him. If the doctor wishes the name of the drug to be displayed on the label of the container he will instruct the chemist to do so. In cases where tablets or medicine have been taken accidentally the serial number on the label would enable a doctor to quickly obtain from the dispensing chemist any information he may require regarding the contents of a prescription. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the public should at all times keep tablets or medicine out of the reach of children.”]