This is regarding the opinion piece “Smart pills, anyone?” (Commentary, July 16), which was written by Henry I. Miller, a physician, former Food and Drug Administration official and a fellow at the Hoover Institution; and David Longtin, a freelance writer.
The piece contained the following assertion: “One member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, historian Francis Fukuyama, even wants new laws to allow the use of these medications only for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and depression, while banning `healthy’ people from taking them or any brain-boosting drug.”
I have never said anything remotely like this.
I have made a general argument that we need to revamp and update our regulatory institutions for human biomedicine.
And I have endorsed the recommendations made in the Bioethics Council’s recent report Reproduction and Responsibility for new legislation in the area of embryo research and assisted reproduction.
I have never recommended new laws for psychotropic drugs, however, because such laws already exist.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as Prozac and Zoloft, must be prescribed by a physician.
Also amphetamines like Ritalin not only require prescriptions but are Schedule II drugs controlled by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Both categories of drugs are to be used only for therapeutic purposes.
While I think there has been a tendency to overprescribe many psychotropics, I support the current laws regarding these drugs and do not believe they need to be changed.
