balcony_belle
September 21st, 2006, 12:44 PM
Hi Everyone,
Please forgive the dramatic title--unfortunately, it's 100% true. This is a heads up to any members of the board, your friends, family, ect... who give blood. Whether you donate the gift of life to the Red Cross, local blood banks, whatever, this message is for you. The FDA passed a regulation in mid August that will place you under a one year ban for donation if you admit to taking any drug not manufactured within the United States of America. I'm not kidding.
I wasn't even aware there was a ban until I tried to give blood, answered 'yes' to the question on the survey as to whether I'd taken any medication within the past month, and when asked what form of medication, answered absently--"Oh, some Korean version of Midol I got from my roommate." The technichan sat up a little straighter, and his face became very grim. In a voice suitable for devliering the obituaries, he announced: "We have a problem."
Within the next few minutes, I was sickeningly well informed of just what that problem was. The FDA used to have any individual who'd consumed foreign medication under a ban for seven days following ingestion--but apparently that wasn't doing enough to promote their monopoly. They changed the ban from one week to one year. A full year of quarantine for a generic over-the-counter pill. Now, let's step back and take a look at the blatant illogic of such a law.
There is no, literally no, substance I know about that a human being could ingest once and it would remain in their systems for a full calender year. Over the counter meds? A few hours to a week. Prescription medications? Usually anywhere up to two weeks. Cigarettes? Three Weeks. Steroids? A week to three months. Morphine/Heroin? Up to three months. Marajuana? Up to six months (depending on who you're asking). Nothing, nada, niete that would justify an entire year of banishment.
Then there's the economic issues. Everyone knows that prescription drugs are ruinously expensive in the States--and that the exact same medication can be bought for less in say, Canada or Mexico. The amount of time/regulations/testing/bureaucratic red tape the FDA has set up for drug approval means that by the time medications reach the hands of consumers, the price is often beyond their ability to pay. By putting the cost of meds beyond the reach of those who need them, the FDA gives citizens little choice but to find a more affordable avenue towards ensuring their continued, or improved, health. In addition, the delay caused by FDA legislations and it's conspicous amount of favoritisim towards the American-based pharmaceutical giants means that medications that have been approved and proven effective in other parts of the world are denied, rejected, or stonewalled here--leaving sick and suffering Americans as the victims. The true priority of the FDA should be the health and saftey of the populance they are supposed to protect--not deliberately keeping badly needed medications beyond their reach through price, trade, or big-business bias.
Beyond the insult of punishing Americans who are simply trying to ensure they stay healthy, and the physiological impossibility of justifying their claim, the real cost of this heinous legislation may be felt in human lives.
Anyone who has ever given blood is familiar with the statement "Give the gift of life." And that is precisely what blood donation is--giving life, giving a chance of survival, of recovery, to someone badly injured or in mortal peril. The ability to save someone's life should never be legislated against, indeed, it's sickening to even think of. And yet it happened, it's in effect.
The most unforgivable thing is that the law doesn't truly affect donors, it affects the donation recipients. For donors it's an infuriating inconvience, but it spares us the needles, the hunt for the vein, the discomfort, lightheadness, weakness, soreness and possible bruising that donations may create. For anyone that's ever been jabbed continously in the search of an elusive vein, for anyone who was unable to give a full donation because of backflow, anemia, or vein collaps, for anyone that had to disrupt their routine to give donations--the law is an enforced break from our self-inflicted punishment. The same cannot be said for those would benefit from our discomfort, from our gift of life. People could die as a result of this law. People could die as a result of an unjustifiable, arbitrary regulation created for the sole purpose of propping up the major pharmaceutical companies at the expense of the citizens they are supposed to serve. This law affects not only those who merely want to help, but most importantly, those in need, those crisis, those at death's door. The one year quarantine against blood donotions from those who've admitted to ingesting foreign-made meds is going to reap a bitter harvest in the lives of all those who die who shouldn't have, wouldn't have, if there hadn't been legislation in place making it illegal for them to have the means to be saved.
Now, naturally, I'm not one that advocates anarchy, or blatant law-breaking. If a law is bad the thing to do is change it, rescind it--and I'll be writing to my reps and congressmen to that effect. But since the potential cost in human lives is more than I can comfortably endure, allow me to make one simple suggestion. The next time you make a donation, if you've taken any medication recently, merely state its American name, and leave out its shipping address.
~Belle
Please forgive the dramatic title--unfortunately, it's 100% true. This is a heads up to any members of the board, your friends, family, ect... who give blood. Whether you donate the gift of life to the Red Cross, local blood banks, whatever, this message is for you. The FDA passed a regulation in mid August that will place you under a one year ban for donation if you admit to taking any drug not manufactured within the United States of America. I'm not kidding.
I wasn't even aware there was a ban until I tried to give blood, answered 'yes' to the question on the survey as to whether I'd taken any medication within the past month, and when asked what form of medication, answered absently--"Oh, some Korean version of Midol I got from my roommate." The technichan sat up a little straighter, and his face became very grim. In a voice suitable for devliering the obituaries, he announced: "We have a problem."
Within the next few minutes, I was sickeningly well informed of just what that problem was. The FDA used to have any individual who'd consumed foreign medication under a ban for seven days following ingestion--but apparently that wasn't doing enough to promote their monopoly. They changed the ban from one week to one year. A full year of quarantine for a generic over-the-counter pill. Now, let's step back and take a look at the blatant illogic of such a law.
There is no, literally no, substance I know about that a human being could ingest once and it would remain in their systems for a full calender year. Over the counter meds? A few hours to a week. Prescription medications? Usually anywhere up to two weeks. Cigarettes? Three Weeks. Steroids? A week to three months. Morphine/Heroin? Up to three months. Marajuana? Up to six months (depending on who you're asking). Nothing, nada, niete that would justify an entire year of banishment.
Then there's the economic issues. Everyone knows that prescription drugs are ruinously expensive in the States--and that the exact same medication can be bought for less in say, Canada or Mexico. The amount of time/regulations/testing/bureaucratic red tape the FDA has set up for drug approval means that by the time medications reach the hands of consumers, the price is often beyond their ability to pay. By putting the cost of meds beyond the reach of those who need them, the FDA gives citizens little choice but to find a more affordable avenue towards ensuring their continued, or improved, health. In addition, the delay caused by FDA legislations and it's conspicous amount of favoritisim towards the American-based pharmaceutical giants means that medications that have been approved and proven effective in other parts of the world are denied, rejected, or stonewalled here--leaving sick and suffering Americans as the victims. The true priority of the FDA should be the health and saftey of the populance they are supposed to protect--not deliberately keeping badly needed medications beyond their reach through price, trade, or big-business bias.
Beyond the insult of punishing Americans who are simply trying to ensure they stay healthy, and the physiological impossibility of justifying their claim, the real cost of this heinous legislation may be felt in human lives.
Anyone who has ever given blood is familiar with the statement "Give the gift of life." And that is precisely what blood donation is--giving life, giving a chance of survival, of recovery, to someone badly injured or in mortal peril. The ability to save someone's life should never be legislated against, indeed, it's sickening to even think of. And yet it happened, it's in effect.
The most unforgivable thing is that the law doesn't truly affect donors, it affects the donation recipients. For donors it's an infuriating inconvience, but it spares us the needles, the hunt for the vein, the discomfort, lightheadness, weakness, soreness and possible bruising that donations may create. For anyone that's ever been jabbed continously in the search of an elusive vein, for anyone who was unable to give a full donation because of backflow, anemia, or vein collaps, for anyone that had to disrupt their routine to give donations--the law is an enforced break from our self-inflicted punishment. The same cannot be said for those would benefit from our discomfort, from our gift of life. People could die as a result of this law. People could die as a result of an unjustifiable, arbitrary regulation created for the sole purpose of propping up the major pharmaceutical companies at the expense of the citizens they are supposed to serve. This law affects not only those who merely want to help, but most importantly, those in need, those crisis, those at death's door. The one year quarantine against blood donotions from those who've admitted to ingesting foreign-made meds is going to reap a bitter harvest in the lives of all those who die who shouldn't have, wouldn't have, if there hadn't been legislation in place making it illegal for them to have the means to be saved.
Now, naturally, I'm not one that advocates anarchy, or blatant law-breaking. If a law is bad the thing to do is change it, rescind it--and I'll be writing to my reps and congressmen to that effect. But since the potential cost in human lives is more than I can comfortably endure, allow me to make one simple suggestion. The next time you make a donation, if you've taken any medication recently, merely state its American name, and leave out its shipping address.
~Belle