MEDS: Beware nasty side effects

As a person who believes that I have been negatively affected by a side effect of a pharmaceutical medicine, I would like to caution others to pay attention to the cautions and warnings pertaining to any medicine that you take. These side effects have been proven to exist and should be taken seriously.

Now that pharmaceutical advertising has become more prevalent in the media, surpassing that of alcohol, cigarettes and even automobiles, we should pay attention to what they are and are not saying. I admit that there are pharmaceutical wonderments that have saved and prolonged lives but we are very prone and encouraged to take a pill for almost any affliction or condition du jour, even if those afflictions are less dramatic than the potential side effects of the drug. I find it troubling when the manufacturer lists death, blindness, loss of essential normal body functions as the potential side effects of these very strong compounds.

We should not assume that we are protected from these side effects, particularly if you take a generic. It is not commonly known that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the manufacturers of generic drugs are not deemed responsible for damages caused by their products.

I take responsibility for my personal “suffering;” I should have fully investigated and taken seriously the documented side effects. I only wish the majority of the medical community was more cautious when prescribing these compounds for conditions that are actually less grave than the potential side effects.

JEFFERY COULTER

Coeur d’Alene