Phenylpropanolamine: An Over-the-Counter Amphetamine?

Wisconsin's successful physician-led effort to thwart licit amphetamine diversion for street sale (p 1336) is an important victory in the ever-frustrating fight against drug abuse. It is all the more heartening because, contrary to the myth that the medical profession merely reacts to or ignores major controversies, the leaders of the state Controlled Substances Board and the Medical Examining Board undertook their mission with an investigative zeal and thoroughness that would have been the envy of the reporters on "Sixty Minutes." The Wisconsin action served another purpose, namely, to remind physicians and the public alike that amphetamines have no place in the management of obesity. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration has sounded the death knell for amphetamines' use in weight control by filing a formal notice of revocation of its approval.1The high ratio of abuse as well as the risk of dependence and other potentially harmful side