This started out as a comment to this post at Rocket Jones. Ted shares a very personal story about the possibility that the Cox-2 inhibitor Celebrex could be taken off the market. As the nanny state is once again trying to protect us from ourselves, and not allow any one to make an informed choice about what risks they are willing to accept in exchange for what benefits.

And yet tobacco, which has no medicinal value and has/will kill a lot more people than Celebrex ever will, is sold over the counter with a simple warning printed on the side.

Perhaps the FDA needs to establish a new level of “approved” status for drugs. Allow them to be prescribed if the patient signs a statement to the effect that they understand the potential side effects and are willing to accept the risk in order to get the benefit. I'm sure the medical profession won't object to the revenue generated by the regular visits to monitor the situation.

The problem is that the process is not driven by science and logic but by politics and public opinion. Or rather in this case public hysteria. One bit of bad news about a medicine and the media whips up a headline driven shit storm of idiocy. There are people out there who believe that if you take a Celebrex, you will have a heart attack and die. They don't read enough of the coverage to understand that it is a potential risk for some people taking the drug over the long term. Further since none of the people with their panties in a bunch are likely to ever need the drug they have no conception of the benefit side of the equation.

This decision should not be made politically by people who will not be effected one way or the other. Give people the information they need about a drug to make an informed decision and let them decide. There's even a name for doing it this way: we call it Freedom.

Read Ted's post and pay particular attention to the last line.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 08:12 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment