Deregulating Mandatory Medical Prescription

Abstract

AbstractThis Article links the legal evolution of mandatory medical prescription since 1900 to the police-power's prohibition of alcohol and the opiates as well as to the self-interested monopolization of new drugs by physicians. The Article advances a theory of professionalization consistent with the evidence that mandatory prescription is not in the public interest. The Article suggests that the supremacy of self-medication is consistent with competition policy, the medical profession's fiduciary duty to clients, reduced medical costs and improved health. The author analyzes the consequences of regulating drug production, testing, marketing and consumtion by granting decision-making authority to the lowest-cost risk avoider, suggesting this as a plausible basis for legal reform.