National Post — Poison in healthy doses: MP warns that Canadians blind to dangers of prescription drugs

Canadians are willfully blind to the lethal risks of prescription drugs, which kill people “every day” through side effects, even at proper doses, according to a Conservative MP. “All drugs are poisons,” Terence Young told a packed audience this week at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. “The only difference between a drug and a poison is dosage.”

…David Healy, CEO of RxISK.org, is an Irish doctor working in Wales who has made a career of holding drug companies to account on these questions. He said the database, which launched in October, will eventually provide data that will prod regulators into action. In a broader sense, though, he said a key goal of RxISK.org is to drive doctors and patients away from a “magical” view of pills.

“A drug is made of a chemical and information. The chemical may be more or less good. It is a poison that depending on the dose may do good or harm. The key component to a drug, and the bit that’s potentially getting worse at the moment, is the informational part of the drug,” Dr. Healy said. “The magic used to lie in the doctor, and it’s moved into the pill. We’ve got to restore the situation where the magic lies in a doctor and a patient working as a team, and the pill is an aid that may help that.”…

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