FDA and Adderall: A Counterfeit Hypocrisy

by Maxwell Hansen - Sept 22, 2007

 

According to the FDA, U.S. law defines counterfeit drugs as those sold under a product name without proper authorization. Counterfeiting can apply to both brand name and generic products, where the identity of the source is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled in a way that suggests that it is the authentic approved product. Counterfeit products may include products without the active ingredient, with an insufficient quantity of the active ingredient, with the wrong active ingredient, or with fake packaging. If this is true, I fail to understand how the FDA has no problem accepting Ritalin for mainstream sale, even though Ritalin never mentions its active ingredients in a manner that could be understood by the mass population.

Ritalin can obviously never proclaim its actual nature unless they put on word on the front of the package: cocaine. To seems obvious fraudulent mislabeling, so why isn’t it labeled as a counterfeit drug by the FDA guidelines? Of course most of us are aware that Ritalin acts similar to cocaine, however the point is that the FDA is being extremely hypocritical by allowing drugs exactly the same as the ones they make illegal mass produced under a different name.

Another great example of drug administrational hypocrisy is adderall. In Canada the drug was banned due to sudden unexplained death in children, but apparently that affect is not enough to ban it here, probably because there is still money to be made with it. The administration even claims on their site that serious threat of amphetamine addiction, sudden unexplained death, and development of cardiac abnormality in children is insufficient to cease prescribing the substance. It is easy to predict exactly when the FDA will decide to make adderall illegal, probably as soon as it stops being profitable.