ATS: FDA to RFID Chip Some Prescription Medicines

Labeling it a means to control drug abuse and counterfeiting, the Food and Drug Administration is said to be ready to implement a plan to place tiny tracking chips on bottles of certain prescription medications. High on their list are the anti-impotence pill Viagra and the narcotic painkiller OxyContin. Viagra is said to be "one of the most counterfeited drugs in the world" and OxyContin, a powerful opiate painkiller, is one of the more popular and addictive medicines being abused in America.



While curbing the dangers of fake medicines and drug abuse can certainly be viewed as a good idea, larger problems exist in chipping prescription medication. Consumers may face an invasion of privacy in the workplace, schools, and via the government as a whole. A scanner can pick up the radio transmissions from RFID chips and return what sort of prescription bottles a person is carrying. RFID chips also make it easier to compile a database of sorts showing what medication any given person has been prescribed, which is troubling if compiled on a national level.

I agree with the idea in principle, and if its intentions are true, but there exists far too great a possibility for this to be abused and spiral out of control.


[edit on 14-11-2004 by Banshee]

Is it the bottles the drugs are shipped in to pharmacies or actual printed labels AT the pharmacy? Drugs are usually shipped in bottles that are then opened, counted, and then put into those brown child-proof pharmacy tubes. If the actual bottle from the manufacturer was tracked to the pharmacy, or embedded with a chip to be read or scanned at the pharmacy to verify the authenticity of the pills, then I see no problem with that other than a logistics nightmare. If medication I took suddenly came FROM the pharmacy with radio chips, I think I'll buy stock in tupperware and ziploc.

Where do they get the technology to create this ? I don't care about the updating which happens to it, but I'm puzzled as to how they are able to create such technologically advanced material?

Not a problem for me.

I'll just take the bottle home and put in one of my empty bottles. Then put that in my purse, lol.

Rokgodes