Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know Mr. Jason O'Sullivan. Before taking the drug, he was leading a perfectly normal, healthy and happy life. He took it in good faith and, unfortunately, the health implications for him have been absolutely disastrous. To say that his life has been turned upside down is a complete understatement. Every minute of every day, he is affected very adversely by the drug.

Let me quote the statement of a mother whose son was also affected by the drug:

I am a nurse and what I will put here will be in layman's terms or basically more generalised language to make it as direct and understandable to as many people as possible. Please read this.

I have a son who took Accutane. Basically, my son took the drug for two months instead of the full four but his personality changed dramatically. He became extremely aggressive, violent and suicidal, and his entire life started going down the drain. It is like his survival instincts had completely reversed and he could only focus on the most negative aspects of life, to the point where his physical actions were out of control and severely detrimental to him. Paranoia led him to becoming extremely violent, verbally abusive and self-consumed, and even caused him to suffer from such disorders as agoraphobia, body dysmorphic disorder, depression and even delusions. He closed himself off from the world, lost his career and all of his friends and pushed everyone out of his life. As a registered nurse, I was able to realise, as he changed, where it might have come from, through research.

The nurse discovered that Accutane was originally a cancer-fighting medication. Doctors began to realise the drug was too dangerous to give to cancer patients because losing one's mind is not an acceptable side effect to live with along with all the other severe side effects. Most doctors stopped prescribing it. The nurse's perspective suggests to me that the pharmaceutical company, Roche, had to make money for the development of the drug so it decided to market it under a new name. It may have decided to do so because it noticed that cancer patients using the drug were cured of their pimples after taking the drug. However, marketing to children with pimples a drug that is too dangerous to prescribe to people with cancer just to make money is beyond careless. It is utterly unacceptable, despicable and cruel. Accutane, according to the nurse, can cause severe white-matter damage in the brain.

That is but one other case. The number of suicides directly related to the use of the drug leads me to contend it is highly questionable whether it should be made available at all. While the drug company may say a very small number of people have such an adverse reaction, one suicide is one too many.

I know Mr. Jason O'Sullivan and what the drug has done to his life. If a person were to be knocked down in the morning and killed outright, it would be a better solution than having this problem in one's head and system without being able to do anything about it. The key point is that those who look at a person suffering from the side effects of the drug cannot see the disorder. It is not like cancer, which may make one thin and the treatment for which makes one go bald. The people in question look perfect. They cannot sleep at night, however. If they do, they are more tired when they wake up the next morning. They are more tired than they would be if they had not gone to bed at all. What the drug does to one's mind is absolutely frightening. This is why I believe passionately that we should be able to do something to try to help the petitioner. Where else can he go? It is not as if he is looking for redress for himself. He is not asking this in his petition. What he is saying is that he wants the drug withdrawn. I know from my dealings with him that he wants to stop other young people from having their lives torn asunder by taking the drug.