Richard Weinmeyer, JD, MA, MPhil, Annalise Norling, Margaret Kawarski, and Estelle Higgins
Although the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 is effective in reducing contaminants to safe levels in public drinking water, its administration and enforcement poses challenges.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(10):1018-1026. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.10.hlaw1-1710.
Jennifer Aldrich, MD, Jessica Kant, MSW, LICSW, MPH, and Eric Gramszlo
Estelle v Gamble (1976) reiterates that the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution requires adequate care to be offered to all people who are incarcerated.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(6):E407-413. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.407.
Conflicts between federal and state laws governing marijuana, lack of evidence about its efficacy as a treatment, and physicians' inability to predict or control dosage would all be aided by reclassification of the drug that would let clinical research go forward.
Though there are channels through which terminally ill patients can access some experimental drugs that have not yet received FDA approval for marketing to the public, in general those drugs must already be proven safe and effective.
There are numerous state and federal laws designed to protect against misuse and diversion of prescription drugs that apply to patients' behavior, physicians' prescribing practices, and dispensing.
While proponents of direct-to-consumer drug advertising tout them as vehicles for patient empowerment, critics point to their influence on unsound prescribing and the medicalization of human experience.
The drug Neurontin is used as an example of why it is permissible for physicians to engage in off-label prescribing, but off-label marketing by pharmaceutical companies is prohibited by the FDA.