Should Pharma Cos. test on inmates?

[Anonymous]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/13/news/notes.php

Briefly: Panel favors increasing drug tests on convicts  
Reuters, The Associated Press, The New York Times

Published: August 13, 2006
 
 
PHILADELPHIA An influential panel of medical advisers recommended that the U.S. government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on inmates. The practice all but stopped three decades ago after disclosures of abuse.
 
The proposed change sparked debate among prison rights advocates and researchers about whether prisoners can make uncoerced decisions.
 
Until the early 1970s, about 90 percent of all pharmaceutical products were tested on inmates, federal officials say. But such research diminished sharply in 1974 after disclosures of abuse.
 
Under current regulations, adopted in 1978, a prisoner can participate in federally financed biomedical research if the experiment poses no more than "minimal" risk. But the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, in a report presented Aug. 1, advised that experiments with greater risk be permitted if they had the potential to benefit prisoners. (NYT)

[Anonymous]

An acquantence just got out of prison. He was astonished at how many prisoners scam for psych drugs. Not the cheap ones, but the expensive new one's.

They know how to bluff a mental illness. He said it is a colossal waste of money.

I think prisoners loose their rights upon conviction. Any way they can contribute back to society should be done.

Drug testing included.