As a future medical professional I see this as absurd. Look around the news and see the rampart issue of counterfeit drugs then think again about where you get your medication from. Not only that, but uses like this is what is contributing to the rapid development of resistant bacteria. Drug companies aren't putting as much effort into researching antibiotics like they used to, and if I recall correctly we're several years off from new antibiotics. I highly doubt your average layperson knows which gram negative and which gram positive variants amoxicillin exerts its bactericidal effect on or how to identify if that is what they are suffering from, what the common side effects are and how to identify a type II hypersensitivity reaction.
Any time I have ever gone to the doctor with an infection, I have never had to wait around for the doctor to do a Gram stain or culture or anything to determine exactly what I had, nor did the doctor make any effort to follow up and make sure I completed the course of treatment. So what difference would it make had I gone and just self-medicated? Having a prescription label did pretty much nothing to solve the problems you bring up. Sometimes the advice of a doctor is invaluable, and I will be glad to go and get it. Other times, I just need more cream for psoriasis or whatever, and it's exactly the same psoriasis I had last time I saw the doctor, and it's a waste of time and resources to go get another prescription that he's going to give on the spot anyway just when I tell him "yeah, it still works, I just need more". I may as well just order it online.
I like how people attack me on things I never said. No, the current system (United States) is not perfect what so ever. There is a huge amount of waste in the medical industry. Medical spending is rising faster than our GDP. Insurance companies reaping in tons of money along with pharmaceutical companies. I've seen cancer patients been denied coverage for antibiotics (although somewhat costly antibiotics) while medicaid hands out brand name medications when there are cheaper alternatives.
No I don't think the current MD centric system is ideal. The fact of the matter is they are expensive and there is a general shortage of them, especially general practitioners. The US has the highest (or one of the highest, i can't remember) percentages of specialists. Why? Partly because that's where the money is.
I believe a partial solution to this is for the other health care professionals to begin to assume some of the functions of the MDs and for the paraprofessionals (nurses and such) to take on more duties. This is already happening to some degree, so we'll see what happens.
But I don't believe lay persons self diagnosing themselves with such and such infection and picking up antibiotics is a great idea. If you think doctors overprescribe antibiotics imagine what the average lay person would do. Yes many doctors hand them out like candy (along with hydrocodone...) Hopefully this will begin to change. I've read some interesting articles comparing antibiotic usage in ear infections and how the UK tends to prescribe antibiotics much less than the US in pediatric populations but has a very similar outcome.
The fact of the matter is I don't have the answer, but neither does anyone here. Hopefully we'll get there one day.
But for anyone who is worried, we were pretty much told that the government won't go after an individual buying drugs online like this. While I don't think it's technically legal, they don't really care. Bigger fish to fry.
