Audrey Young reports that the government say they will not scrap Pharmac as part of a free-trade deal with the US. Actually, National is being quite a bit more cagey than that. Tony Ryall is simply not commenting and Tim Groser is being positively vague as this shows: He said Pharmac was an outstandingly successful [...]

I see an number of doctors are voicing their concerns of the government interest in a Pharmac-like organisation to take over hospital based purchases. Not without good reason, I might add. The Pharmac model has a major flaw. That flaw is that the model is based on the free availability of cheap “equivalents”. There is [...]

I have to say I am amused by the frenzied reaction to the story of the Chinese drug dealer who was drawing a sickness benefit and living in a state house. Does anyone actually think this is an abnormal situation? Judging by the reactions over on Kiwiblog, I would say the answer to that is [...]

Moves are afoot in National’s “War on Drugs” to restrict the sale of codeine in all its forms, including the combinations with paracetamol (Panadeine, Codalgin et al.). The Herald reports: Public access to a widely-used class of painkillers containing codeine is likely to be restricted within months because of what is said to be an [...]

There is a fair amount of news about drug addiction at the moment, with John Key announcing a (somewhat laughable) $7 million boost for P treatment. Garth George, in one of his best columns for some time, points out that the real killer in terms of drug addictions is, of course, alcohol. He laments the [...]

A recent high quality study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the use of intravenous drugs in out-of-hospital resuscitation does not lead to better survival rates – just more admissions to hospital. This is a significant finding for two reasons. First, it emphasises that good quality CPR and early access to [...]

There’s a sad story in the Herald today of a young doctor who has been charged with forging prescriptions for weight-loss pills to keep her awake while working long hours. On the face of it, the judge was probably correct to reject the defenses plea for a discharge without conviction. I have absolutely no wish [...]

I see Sir Peter Gluckman seems to have found his niche as the supplier of scientific opinion the matches John Key’s. That seems to be the only explanation for suggesting that pseudoephedrine be banned. And this is still the amount of thought that has gone into this idea. Honestly, does Sir Peter just shuffle through [...]

Take a good look at the above image. It tells you exactly how much good John Key’s proposal for banning over-the-counter pseudoephedrine will do. By the purest coincidence, it also tells you exactly how much thought has gone into the proposal. Apparently the reasoning behind the suggestion is this: Gangs and drug syndicates often use [...]

It is obvious to me that, if we were proposing to legalise tobacco now (probably on the basis of its de facto widespread use), there would be an outcry from the medical profession, because of tobacco’s terrible health effects. I have noticed in various blogs, including my own, that people use the strange argument that [...]