Quick Hit

A good (and short) opinion piece by M. LeBlanc at Bitch, Ph.D. on how Americans view medication. From the post:

In the good old United States of America, you have to have a prescription for every goddamned thing. For birth control pills, for the Nuva ring, for Plan B. For antibiotics, for pain medication that doesn't totally suck, for a cough suppressant that's not intended for children, for a pill to treat yeast infections, for an anti-fungal cream, for anything with any potency that might actually work.

I thought about this, as I flopped one foot in front of the other on Boulevard Richard Lenoir. And then I thought about what would happen if all of a sudden, there were no more prescriptions, except for really serious stuff like chemo drugs or morphine or whatever. In America. What would that be like? Ignoring the fact that that would be incredibly unlikely to happen, I imagine tat people would be flocking to pharmacies, picking up medications for all kinds of ailments we didn't have or didn't need to be treated for. Everyone and their dog would be popping klonopin and prednisone for a nightcap.

But hey. Why don't they do that here? Why do I assume that Americans are hungry to get their grubby little hands on as much medication as they can, unlike the French or the Egyptians? They are, aren't they? Why?