Drugs and Danger

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 8

Drugs and Danger

Recklessness With Poisons

AUCKLAND chemists, discussing the Dunedin case in which the death of a comparatively young man (aged 45) was attributed to an overdose of a strong sedative, agree that stricter laws governing the sale of these commodities are probable. In several phases of the sale of drugs New Zealand is admittedly out of date, and the system on which the sale of poisons is controlled is likely to be overhauled at the same time.

Overdosing with drugs that are on the border-line of danger is conceded to be a perilously popular habit. Behind the medical man who writes the prescriptions for any ailment or malady stands the chemist, whose professional training and standing demand that, consciously or otherwise, he always sets a check upon both stipulated quantities and stipulated doses. In one case in Auckland a doctor, by a slip of the pen, prescribed a dose of strychnine that would have killed a dozen people on the Such an error the chemist corrects at once. Even if there is only a shade of doubt, the dispenser usually takes the precaution of telephoning, the doctor. Sometimes, however, the doctor has in some cases underlined and initialled the extra strong ingredient, and this automatically sets the chemist’s misgivings at rest. While they act in this way as a check upon dispensed preparations, the chemists cannot, except in the way of warnings issued when the goods are sold, retard overdosing with patent medicines and tablets sold

under the Food and Drugs Act. It was sedatives in tabloid form which caused the. fatality at Dunedin, and several chemists in Auckland believe that overdosing of this nature is dangerously common here, as well as elsewhere, and that tragic consequences are escaped frequently by narrower margins than most people can contemplate in comfort. INSTRUCTIONS IGNORED Milder classes of sedatives in the form of the popular head-ache tablets, so commonly found in the haudbags and purses of the modern lady of fashion, are relatively harmless. Even

a stiff overdose has no ill-effects, except that it may mean the beginning of an ultimacely painful and dangerous practice. Even in the case of these popular specifics, chemists say people disregard the makers’ instructions with a blithe disregard of the consequences. Said one chemist: “I have seen a woman suffering from a headache come into the shop, buy some of these popular headache pills, and after reading the instructions, which rarely prescribe more than two or three every two hours, swallow half-a-dozen or more at a gulp, and this under my very nose, in spite of my protests.” Cough mixture, of course, is frequently taken as though it were tea. lemonade, or even more delectable liquors. Here, too, the consequences of overdosing are rarely serious, though the protests of the digestive organs may cause the reckless tippler more discomfort than he was previously suffering with his cold. “What people fail to recognise,” said a chemist this morning, “is that the manufacturers of patent medicines invariably prescribe the dose which is most effective, at the most effective intervals, for the great bulk of normal people. Going beyond that point, they are only inviting trouble.” As distinct from the ordinary, mild headache tablets and cough cures, there are what might be termed border-line preparations, a number of which include veronal and its derivatives. Several new preparations based on these agents have lately arrived on the New Zealand market, a number of them being of German origin. Unless used carelessly, they are not harmful, but it is their reckless use which the foreshadowed legislation will be designed to check. NEAR THE DANGER MARK One city chemist relates how he discovered that a friend of his, who from past experience and knowledge should have known better, taking 20 grains and more of one of these preparations in a single night. When warned of the danger—he was running perilously close to the mark —he professed surprise, and vast relief. There are many people, in this class, who are taking similar risks unwittingly, apparently becau'-“ of a fixed conviction hat the usual formal warnings and instructions g,. _n uy cnemists when the goods are sold, are only intended to he disregarded. In the sale of poisons, such as powerful irritant disinfectants, much has been done toward improving the system, but more remains to be done. At one time violently poisonous disinfectants could be sold by drapers and ordinary retailers, and there were local cases in which the despairing or afflicted, seeking the anodyne of death, bought a bottle in Queen Street, and drank the contents a minute afterwards in Albert Park, The possibility of this, and the accidental overdosing, has been substantially reduced to-day, but more can be done by wise restrictive measures, and by wider popular appreciation of the trained pharmacist as more than a merchant —a man who inherits the traditions of an ancient and honourable business, and whose advice must be respected accordingly.