The FDA is looking to make it harder to abuse an over the counter drug. Immodium A-D contains loperamide, a opiod drug, that can make users high in large doses.
Upstate New York Poison control center received 59 reports of misuse last year and 6 so far this year. Four Upstate residents have died from overdoses of loperamide since 2016, according to Jeanna Marraffa, a toxicologist at the poison center at Upstate Medical University.
The standard dose is about 4 tablets a day, however some have taken 30 to even 100 pills in one day, in order to get high.
The FDA is asking the manufacturers to redesign their packing so they only contain enough medication for short term use. There's also talk of moving the product behind the counter much like other medications that contain pseudoephedrine, which can be used to make methamphetamine. can be used to make meth.
Marraffa says parents should be concerned if they find a lot of boxes of this product, or any anti-diarrhea medication containing loperamide in their children's rooms or around the house.