Tiny Antennas to Keep Tabs on U.S. Drugs

[PfcHammer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/15/health/15drug.html

Tiny Antennas to Keep Tabs on U.S. Drugs
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: November 15, 2004

The Food and Drug Administration and several major drug makers are expected to announce initiatives today that will put tiny radio antennas on the labels of millions of medicine bottles to combat counterfeiting and fraud.

Among the medicines that will soon be tagged are Viagra, one of the most counterfeited drugs in the world, and OxyContin, a pain-control narcotic that has become one of the most abused medicines in the United States. The tagged bottles - for now, only the large ones from which druggists get the pills to fill prescriptions - will start going to distributors this week, officials said.

Experts do not expect the technology to stop there. The adoption by the drug industry, they said in interviews, could be the leading edge of a change that will rid grocery stores of checkout lines, find lost luggage in airports, streamline warehousing and add a weapon in the battle against cargo theft.

"It's basically a bar code that barks," said one expert, Robin Koh, director of applications research at the Auto-ID Labs of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The technology, Mr. Koh said, could "make supply chains more efficient and more secure."

[daleo]

1. This sounds "barking mad"

Just what we need - all our products tagged and transmitting. Orwell never thought of this one.

[wurzel]

2. So you buy something, put it in your pocket, and anyone can find you?

How thoughtful

[Eugene]

3. Downside: RFID tag barks "Oxycontin here" to anyone

with a scanner. Chipping comsumer goods
is a privacy nightmare.

:dem:

[flamingyouth]

4. This is completely insane

Maybe I should just go back to Molokai and get away from the news again. :crazy:

[alittlelark]

5. Simple, dump the drugs into another bottle

tear off all labels as you leave the store (they'll have to deal w/ full trashcans....

We will not let this happen.

[wordout]

6. just dump pills into another bottle

n leave the tagged one on the pharmacy counter. now, whats the REAL reason for tagging?

[cdsilv]

7. WalMart's RFID requirement?

Doesn't WM require radio frequency ID tagging of all products, including drugs?

WM is the largest corp. in the world, after all....

[LosinIt]

9. I think you can get popped for having controlled drugs in a nonlabeled btl

If I remember correctly, if your pills are not in their official bottle you could be accused of trafficking them.

[wordout]

10. and THAT would make everybody a drug dealer.

ok i get it; you either accept this tracking chip, or die in jail.

[Dogmudgeon]

13. They have to give you a chance to produce the Rx first

The label isn't the legal document; the doctor's prescription order is.

But if you're going on vacation and need to take a particular med on a steady basis -- especially a narcotic -- take the bottle.

--bkl

[alarimer]

30. but a lot of people use those pill containers

labelled with the day of the week, etc. I guess that must be illegal too.

[mcscajun]

8. The basic reason? Inventory control

Our prescription bottles won't be tagged...the bottles the pharmacist receives will be.

Wal-Mart is ordering all of its vendors to add RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification tags) to all products. And this will spread to many, many businesses, to control inventory, just-in-time delivery, reduce 'shrinkage' ( a cute little corporo-fascist term for employee theft ), etc.

The broadcast/receiving range of an RFID tag is very, very limited.

For more info: http://www.rfidjournal.com/

There are privacy issues, though:

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/169

[napi21]

32. I thought I heard they were doing this to prevent counterfeiting.

That was the statement made on the radio today. The other thing I heard about these tags had to do with either Pepsi or Coke adding them too, a demade from Walmart for their inventory control. The DOD said no products with these tags would be permited to be sent to the overseas military...something about security.

[gumby]

11. Welcome to the Matrix

we are all little more tagged targets now.

[wordout]

12. i've read discussion of embedding products

so people can breeze thru "checkouts". and with your mandatory rfID card, it would be automatically deducted from your virtual wage.

[hux4000]

14. done

kick

[newyawker99]

18. Hi hux4000!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Trillo]

15. Fictional scenario

How about putting the itsy-bitsy transmitters in the drug itself as a nano-transmitter. Then every drug people have ever taken will transmit to somewhere!

Goodbye private medical records. Getting away from fiction, a satellite or other receiver can likely determine what medicines you have in your home.

New medicine cabinets that are also Faraday cages will be sold.

Geez ... the possible abuses! Life has taught me if something can be abused, someone will figure out how.

[__Inanna__]

16. What's coming down the pike are chips to be implanted in us

don't believe me? it's true. I don't have a link, but did read that the entire DOJ in Mexico has these chips subcutaneously implanted.

Now it's been approved for use by the FDA here, in medical applications, as in for certain conditions PEOPLE will have them under their skin, tracking wherever they are!!

I predict that in the future we'll all be required to have either a national id card (with RFID technology) or them implanted IN US !!

I DO have a link on this....

http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/about_pressreleases.asp?RELEASE_ID=144

We absolutely MUST stand up and do something soon, before this becomes a reality.

[corker]

17. scarey shit n/t

[ilovenicepeople]

21. The implanted chip is my line in the sand.

I WILL NOT GET ONE!!!!! OH the irony of the people that I know that turned to the "lord" when I was younger,they metioned about "the mark of the beast" warning me of the evil satan.Those same people nowadays are the same ones that except getting the chip,when I mention the warning they gave me years ago they look at me like I'm crazy.So now I just ask them:"At what point did you decide to drop christ and start worshiping satan?"KNOW WHAT THEY SAY TO ME?"Your going to go to hell for saying that."SO I SAY BACK TO THEM:"If I'm going to hell I will keep poking you with a sharp stick for eternity,and tell you over and over and over:"I TOLD YOU SO,I TOLD YOU SO......"

[wordout]

23. what ilovenicepeople says is true.

An co-worker and i discussed this subject at length a decade ago. at that time we both considered death the better alternative. there was never any doubt when we parted company.

fast forward into the future, our paths cross again, and he is now seriously involved in baptist church. i soon realized he has some fucked-up beliefs about bush being a christian, so i mention the fda approving digitalangel for use in the states and ask if he "would consider a microchip implant if bush asked him to".

he replied, "i'd have to think about it" and "it would have to be for a good reason".

"you have to have it to buy food. no chip, no paycheck" i said.

"i'd have to think about it", he repeated.

!!!!!!!!!!!

Wonder how many other "bushtians" are ready to "Get Chipped"?

[snippy]

27. Maybe Bush is the antiChrist and the chip is the mark of the beast.

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Revelation 13:17

Seems pretty obvious to me.

[TO Kid]

22. Not as scary as some would think

These transmitters are extremely weak- they are powered by the radio signal from the scanner (think of a crystal radio that retransmits). The range is only a few metres- the only way to get a strong enough signal to be picked up from more than a block or two would be with a scanner so powerful that it would cook everything in sight.

[wordout]

24. few meters = distance between passing cars

or a person carrying a handheld scanner in a crowd. that would be great for knowing who to mug for pills you want.

[snippy]

28. Think lots and lots and lots of scanners. n/t

[Trillo]

33. Or parabolic dishes. nt

[Tyler Durden]

19. Microwave, anyone?

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe about 15 seconds on "high" should whomp the living shit out of just about ANY RFID/Store-magnetic tagging.

Take out the meds, nuke the bottle for a few seconds, VOILA!

I'll bet it works with clothes, too, but if they have a zipper I wouldn't try it.

[Tyler Durden]

20. X-rays might work, too.

I don't know, have to look into it. You folks in Radiology might know.

[Lizzie Borden]

31. Sounds like a good solution.

As it is, I cut up pills if I think I can do with less than a whole one.

[3days]

25. There's got to be a Viagra joke in here somewhere

Tiny Antennas to Keep Tabs on U.S. Drugs

[donhakman]

26. tiny antennas

mmmmmmmmm crunchy

[snippy]

29. What will these wacky republicans think of next.

We need to point out that this is what happens when people vote republican.

Republicans I know absolutely hate having it pointed out that everything the federal government does is the result of one party control and is being done by republicans.