Prescription drug
The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education.
Many prescriptions issued by health practitioners in Australia are covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, a scheme that provides subsidised prescription drugs to residents of Australia to ensure that all Australians have affordable and reliable access to a wide range of necessary medicines.
Those covered by government entitlements (low-income earners, welfare recipients, Health Care Card holders, etc.)
District nurses and health visitors have had limited prescribing rights since the mid-1990s; until then, prescriptions for dressings and simple medicines had to be signed by a doctor.
Survey results published by Ipsos MORI in 2008 found that around 800,000 people in England were not collecting prescriptions or getting them dispensed because of the cost, the same as in 2001.
It regulates manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of controlled substances, which are drugs with potential for abuse or addiction.
As a general rule, over-the-counter drugs (OTC) are used to treat a condition that does not need care from a healthcare professional if have been proven to meet higher safety standards for self-medication by patients.
[citation needed] Some prescription drugs are commonly abused, particularly those marketed as analgesics, including fentanyl (Duragesic), hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (OxyContin), oxymorphone (Opana), propoxyphene (Darvon), hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), and diphenoxylate (Lomotil).
[16] Some prescription painkillers have been found to be addictive, and unintentional poisoning deaths in the United States have skyrocketed since the 1990s according to the National Safety Council.
[21] Joel Davis, a former FDA expiration-date compliance chief, said that with a handful of exceptions—notably nitroglycerin, insulin, and some liquid antibiotics (outdated tetracyclines can cause Fanconi syndrome)—most expired drugs are probably effective.
[23] The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide notes that, with rare exceptions, "it's true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date".
Drug expiration dates exist on most medication labels, including prescription, over-the-counter and dietary supplements.
U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers are required by law to place expiration dates on prescription products prior to marketing.
For legal and liability reasons, manufacturers will not make recommendations about the stability of drugs past the original expiration date.
[26] Generics undergo strict scrutiny to meet the equal efficacy, safety, dosage, strength, stability, and quality of brand name drugs.
[30] Generic drug programs lower the amount of money patients have to pay when picking up their prescription at the pharmacy.
[34] The continuous discarding of incompletely treated water may interact with other environmental chemicals and lead to uncertain ecological effects.
Recent advancements in technology have allowed scientists to detect smaller, trace quantities of pharmaceuticals in the ng/ml range.
[37] Despite being found at low concentrations, female hormonal contraceptives may cause feminizing effects on male vertebrate species, such as fish, frogs and crocodiles.
[39] If no take-back programs are available, prescription drugs can be discarded in household trash after they are crushed or dissolved and then mixed in a separate container or sealable bag with undesirable substances like cat litter or other unappealing material (to discourage consumption).
