CHF is committed to the National Medicines Policy and in ensuring that all Australians have access to high quality, safe medicines and that all medicines should be used in line with the principles of the quality use of medicines.

CHF is keen to ensure the scheduling process is used to protect consumers by restricting access based on possibility of harm. Considerations of harm need to include potential for overdose, either accidental or deliberate and put in place processes that reduce the opportunities for both.

There is considerable evidence that slow release paracetamol has a higher risk of accidental overdose than ordinary paracetamol and that it is more difficult to treat an overdose with this form than the standard. There is also the capacity for greater consequences of deliberate overdosing with the modified form, particularly as at present it is able to be purchased in large amounts i.e. boxes of 96 tablets.