Methamphetamine

Don't be scared about the title of this post- I won't regale you of stories of that methamphetamine binge from second year (which I am kidding about anyway). But I have read a few news articles describing a suit that the government is bringing against CVS because its policies allowed people to come in and buy large quantities of over-the-counter decongestants. Apparently these decongestants contained pseudoephedrine, a main ingredient used to make methamphetamine. Because of this, federal law limits how much a person can buy in a day and pharmacies are supposed to check ID's and make customers sign for their pseudoephedrine-containing drugs.

The problem with CVS's system (that apparently was avoided by all other major pharmacies) was a computerized ledger that allowed people to buy more than the federally regulated amount. And employees were told to listen to the computer, even if they were not sure about how much a customer was buying.

What bothers me about this situation is an unsettling trend for us to just listen to computers (not only in healthcare, but in other industries as well) rather than take the time to actually evaluate a situation. A computerized ledger keeping track if ID's that are scanned into a pharmacy computer makes sense; it eliminates a lot of the human error in paper and pencil record keeping. But to just assume that system is right does not. Given the amount of education needed to be a pharmacist (or any other healthcare professional), the decisions made in the industry should be by those people. Especially when it involves materials that can be used to make things like meth or other controlled substances. Or when people's lives are at stake. Computers can be useful to collect data and analyze it, but in the end I think the decisions of what to do should remain in the hands of people.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/15/130585355/cvs-pseudoephedrine-meth-smurfs
http://www.newser.com/story/102972/cvs-fined-75m-for-selling-meth-ingredient.html