Show le O 6 Y By Jock Jack Wallis The seven Tylenol deaths in the area of Chicago two weeks ago makes one wonder what can happen next It is hard to believe someone would substitute deadly cyanide in a substance millions of people take every day for relief from pain People have trusted what they found on their store shelves until the Tylenol deaths Now the question arises what must be done to assure the purity of over over- the counter drugs or any other substance Tylenol was the leading pain reliever the over drug selling more than Bayer aspirin Excedrin and Anacin combined Americans have been spending about 1 million a day on Tylenol products When the fatal cap cap- capsules capsules sules were bought there were 11 million bottles of Tylenol capsules available across America at the wholesale and retail levels and another 11 million bot- bot bottles bottles in the medicine cabinets of con con- consumers consumers sumers That's about one billion capsules The makers of Tylenol have called in all of its Tylenol capsules wholesale and retail and says it will destroy them This represents a total retail value that could exceed 79 million The capsules will pro pro- probably probably bably be replaced by tablets which have not been implicated in any deaths Two other related drug problems have been brought to our attention this week One was stressed by Senator Paula Hawkins of Florida concerning selling drugs near public schools She calls it Turning Public Schools into Private Hells To help stunt the mushrooming growth of drug abuse among school age children Senator Hawkins has introduced Introduced ed a bill making it a federal crime for adults to sell drugs on or near school property A survey conducted by the National In- In of Drug Abuse in 1980 revealed that the nearly two thirds of this nations nation's high school seniors had experimented with illegal drugs and two in five had us- us used used ed drugs other than marijuana Alcohol use among these students is even more according to Sen Hawkins Another problem among young people is the look alike drugs According to Sen John Danforth of Missouri The nations nation's young people are the targets of dangerous lucrative and growing fast trade in phony amphetamines bar bar- barbiturates barbiturates and tranquilizers look look alike drugs Sen Danforth said antihistamines caf- caf caffeine caffeine feine and other substances routinely sold the over in cold allergy and diet piUs pills are the staples of look alike pills that are made to resemble illegal controlled substances such as amphetamines and Quaaludes The look alike drugs lead young people to accept drug use drug trafficking and the of drug drug- dependent lifestyles To help stop this dangerous drug market Senator Danforth intends to of- of offer offer fer an amendment prohibiting the manufacture and distribution of imitation imitation tion controlled substances Another warning is the interaction of two or more medicines that can result in harmful chemical compounds Older persons use an average of five to six dif dif- different different ferent drugs a day says Dr A Shepard of the University of Texas Further those over 65 use more than 25 percent of all prescribed drugs It would appear that we have become a drug society Instead of having com com- command mand of our many saving life drugs it seems that the drugs have gained control of many people and ruined their lives We hope something can be done to con con- control control drug abuse and protect those innocent inno- inno innocent cent victims of crimes committed by those under the influence of drugs |