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NEWS & LETTERS, May 2004Prison poison pillsby C. C. Simmons The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), the bloated state agency that operates a state prison system with 150,000 convicts, recently implemented a scheme that threatens the health and safety of the prisoners. Prison officials now reclaim unused medications from sick, lame, dead, and dying prisoners. The reclaimed meds are returned to the prison system’s central pharmacy in Huntsville where they are repackaged, relabeled, and then reissued to other prisoners. In the fall of 1982 in Illinois, a deranged psychopath (who was neither identified nor apprehended) added cyanide to some Tylenol capsules on retail store shelves. As a consequence, seven people--three in one family--died, 31 million Tylenol capsules were recalled and destroyed, and state and federal laws were enacted to forbid the reissue of over-the-counter and prescription medications. There is sound rationale for these laws. After a medication has been dispensed, the issuing pharmacy loses control of the care and custody of the item. The issuer cannot, for example, guarantee that the medication has been stored within the allowable temperature and humidity ranges, nor offer assurances that the medication has been free from handling by persons who are infected with communicable diseases, nor ensure that the item was not subject to tampering or contamination. Self-righteous prison officials who regularly see themselves as above the law blatantly violate the state and federal food and drug statutes. With deliberate indifference and callous disregard for the well-being of the prisoners, TDCJ officials attempt to justify their unlawful reclaim-reissue practice as a cost saving measure. Many unsuspecting Texas prisoners now receive medications that were previously issued to and handled by someone with a contagious disease, or meds that have been stored or transported under environmental conditions outside of the recommended ranges for the particular medication, or even medications that might have been contaminated by a Tylenol-copy-cat psychopath. Recognizing the seriousness of TDCJ’s unlawful practice, the Texas State Board of Pharmacy has opened an investigation. Complaints and requests for information should be directed to: Texas State Board of Pharmacy |
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