Oral contraceptives and breach of warranty under the Uniform Commercial Code

This is a discussion of the issue as to whether a woman who either becomes pregnant while on pills or suffers side effects as a result of taking birth control pills has a breach of warranty cause of action under the Uniform Commercial Code. It is concluded that the woman has no cause for action against her doctor. In fact, it is unlikely that the woman will be able to support a claim of breach of warranty against anyone in the chain of supply, either the pharmaceutical company or the distributor. Previously decided cases offer no precedent as to when a breach of warranty can be found as a result of side effects produced by pills. Warnings which presently accompany oral contraceptives are insufficient. However, a woman claiming damages must prove that the side effects she suffered were directly caused from use of oral contraceptives. There is the assumption of risk issue, whether the woman assumes the risk by reading the information booklet and deciding to take the pills anyway. Revised warnings should certainly be included with pills.     

Heroin abuse and a gas chromatographic method for determining illicit heroin samples in Singapore.

The abuse of heroin (diacetylmorphine) in Singapore escalated sharply in 1975 and 1976, as indicated by the 35-fold increase in the number of heroin seizures and the 20-fold increase in the urine samples containing morphine since 1974. A rapid and simple GC method has been described to estimate diacetylmorphine (and caffeine). Monoacetylmorphine and acetylcodeine may be ascertained by an additional step involving acetylation. All gas chromatograms of a large number of samples analyzed consistently had the same pattern, indicating that they possibly had a common origin. This GC "fingerprint," together with the quantitative data, appears to be characteristic of the illicit Asian or Chinese type of heroin found in Singapore. The proportions of the four major ingredients in some twelve typical samples have been tabulated. Statistical data confirming the accuracy and reproducibility of the analytical method have also been presented.