A Simple Way to Reduce Suicides

[elleng]

EVERY year about a million Americans attempt suicide. More than 38,000 succeed. In addition, each year there are around 33,000 unintentional deaths by poisonings. Taken together, that’s more than twice the number of people who die annually in car accidents.

The tragedy is that while motor vehicle deaths have been dropping, suicides and poisonings from medications have been steadily rising since 1999. About half of suicides are committed with firearms, and nearly 20 percent by poisoning. A good way to kill yourself is by overdosing on Tylenol or other pills. About 90 percent of the deaths from unintentional poisonings occur because of drugs, and not because of things like household cleaners or bleach.

There is a simple way to make medication less accessible for those who would deliberately or accidentally overdose — and that is packaging.

We need to make it harder to buy pills in bottles of 50 or 100 that can be easily dumped out and swallowed. We should not be selling big bottles of Tylenol and other drugs that are typically implicated in overdoses, like prescription painkillers and Valium-type drugs, called benzodiazepines. Pills should be packaged in blister packs of 16 or 25. Anyone who wanted 50 would have to buy numerous blister packages and sit down and push out the pills one by one. Turns out you really, really have to want to commit suicide to push out 50 pills. And most people are not that committed.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/a-simple-way-to-reduce-suicides/

[Downwinder]

1. Would have flunked my geometry class.

[LiberalEsto]

2. There used to be poison control centers in some states

but they were shut down for budget reasons. They were a lifesaver.

More than 25 years ago, when my older daughter was little, she bit into a cookie and her mouth started hurting. I immediately called the NJ Poison Control Center - the 800 number was on a little sticker on the phone.

I described what was happening and they said it sounded like an allergic reaction to something in the cookie. As far as I recall they said it didn't sound too serious and advised me to put liquid Benadryl on her lips. They told me to call 911 if she started having swelling or breathing problems, and to follow up with her pediatrician as soon as possible.

After allergy testing it turned out she had an allergy to nuts.

[elleng]

3. Yes, there were such centers,

and sure hope they exist/will exist when my daughters have children. We kept the number on our fridge.

[AAO]

4. How to make Tylenol less accessible - you'd need to convince the company

Or you'd have to convince the FDA this should be a scheduled drug.

[cate94]

5. I hate this idea.

This makes getting pain medication next to impossible for people who really need it. I have the beginning of arthritis in my hands and packaging is already quite frustrating.

Also, I am of Irish decent. If you read the article it says it didn't reduce deaths in Ireland. I expect the reason I think it is a bad idea is the same reason it didn't work in Ireland. If I ever decide to kill myself, blister packs will not stop me. I'd be hell bent on doing it by that point.