Procter & Gamble Halts Door-to-Door Drug Distribution

Following protests by a North Hollywood resident and a Los Angeles councilman that it endangered children, Procter & Gamble announced Friday it had cut short a program that distributed free samples of new drugs door-to-door.

A doctor said that at least one of the products--NyQuil Hot Therapy--contains acetaminophen, pseudoephedrine and dextromethorphan, which could be lethal if taken in high enough doses. The packets contain a warning that the drug should be kept away from children and not given to those under 12.

The company’s announcement came just hours after Councilman Joel Wachs and Riva Martin of North Hollywood held a news conference criticizing the company for leaving bags containing free samples of NyQuil Hot Therapy, DayQuil Gel Caps and Pepto-Bismol diarrhea control in mailboxes and on doorsteps along the 7800 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

Greg Nelson, a spokesman for Wachs, praised the company, saying, “They made a quick decision, and it was a good decision.”

Residents of the Laurel Canyon area said plastic bags containing packets of the sample drugs and other free products began turning up Thursday in mailboxes and on doorsteps in at least one North Hollywood neighborhood.

Jim Schwartz, a spokesman for the Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, a giant drug and consumer products firm, said the bags were supposed to be hung on doorknobs, with two of the sample drugs going to each home.

Martin told the news conference that she saw several children following the bag distributor and pilfering the medicines. She said that when she asked what they were doing, one child responded: “Hey, man. No pain with this stuff.”

“I called up Procter & Gamble just about in tears and they never even called me back,” Martin said.

Distraught at the thought of the children using the drugs to get high, Martin said she then called Wachs.

“This is just one of those examples of the difference one person can make,” Nelson said. “If she hadn’t called, we probably never would have known.”

Criticizing the company for showing bad judgment, Wachs called on the council Friday to urge Procter & Gamble to voluntarily discontinue the program, and he introduced a motion asking the city attorney and Police Department to examine ways of restricting or prohibiting door-to-door distribution of medicines or products that could harm children.

Wachs said he was concerned about children taking the drugs “for a cheap thrill,” but doctors also say that if taken in high doses, the drug could result in harm or death.

“I don’t want people to think that if a child takes one packet of this stuff they’re going to die,” said Dr. Alan Nager, a physician in the pediatrics emergency room at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

“The more they take, the more likely they are to reach their toxic level for their body. If enough of this substance were taken, it could result in a fatality.”

Nager said the more likely effects would include agitation, nausea and vomiting, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and blurred visions.

He said distributing the product door-to-door was a bad idea.

“Anytime you provide open access to medicine, you’re looking for trouble,” said Nager, who also serves as a consultant to the Los Angeles Regional Poison Control Center. “It’s an open invitation for a child to find out what’s in it.”

One of Martin’s neighbors said her child picked up one of the medicine packets and started playing with it.

“I got scared so I threw it in the trash,” Dora Ham said.