Written By: Amogh Kukreja and Neelesh
Edited by: Pranav Jatin Goud
Introduction
OTC or over-the-counter drugs are those that are available at supermarkets/drugstores without a prescription. Examples include Dextromethorphan (DXM) in cough medicine and Pseudoephedrine in cold medicines.
MANUFACTURING AND REGULATING OTC DRUGS: OTC drugs are legal in the United States. Like prescription drugs, OTC medicines are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Unlike prescription drugs, OTCs can be used without medical supervision. They can also be created and sold without product licenses. Consequently, they are more readily available; the majority of OTC medicines can be sold in any of the approximately 750,000 retail outlets in the United States—supermarkets, mass merchandisers, pharmacies, etc.
To account for the easy availability of such drugs, the law states that OTC medicine labelling should provide all the information necessary for safe use of the drug. However, users tend to ignore these instructions and abuse the drug: after marijuana, OTCs are the most commonly abused drug.
Why and how are OTC drugs abused?
OTCs are readily available in most drugstores. As mentioned above, they can be procured without licenses. OTCs cost much less than illegal drugs (cocaine, meth, etc.). They are less dangerous than other illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine and marijuana and are not regarded as dangerous by the public. Consequently, people are not well aware of them and OTC addictions often go unnoticed. These factors have all resulted in the commonplace abuse of OTCs.
OTCs are used with various other ingredients (most commonly other drugs). A commonly abused example is codeine, which is mixed with soda, hard candies and sometimes alcohol to create the addictive mixture called lean.
OTCs can have adverse impacts when taken in large quantities. The abuse of the most dangerous OTCs, such as Acetaminophen, Fentanyl, Oxycodone and Codeine, among others, can result in dire consequences, including liver damage/ potentially fatal liver failure, respiratory depression and cardiac arrest.
Furthermore, OTC drugs are legal. Hence, they do not carry the same image as cocaine, ecstasy or other illegal drugs and are not seen as addictive by the public. This means that several addictions go unnoticed until they have fatal or near-fatal effects. This illusion is not easily replaced. Thanks to it, OTCs have claimed the lives of thousands and nearly killed many others: an estimated 3.1 million people in the USA aged 12-25 have overdosed on them in the last decade alone.
Most people think that cocaine, heroin and other drugs are the most lethal. However, strict laws, public information campaigns and medical awareness mean that these drugs have become less common.
Now, the real problems on the narcotics scene are the ones that nobody notices, and the ones that are easily available: the OTCs. If not banned or suitably regulated, these drugs will continue to affect thousands across the globe.
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