Quebec is proposing new restrictions on Benadryl and other medications that contain diphenhydramine as their only active ingredient.
According to a draft regulation recently published in Official Gazette of Quebecthose products would no longer be available on pharmacy shelves and would instead be kept behind the counter.
The medications would still be available without a prescription, but pharmacists would be required to record sales in a patient’s file.
The proposed restriction is currently subject to a public consultation.
The measure was recommended by a Quebec coroner last year following the overdose death of an 18-year-old.
The teenager died of acute diphenhydramine poisoning at his home in St-Mathias-sur-Richelieu.
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On the morning of December 11, 2023, the man was found by his mother in his bed, unconscious and lying on his back. Toxicology tests revealed that the man had a lethal level of diphenhydramine in his blood. The drug is the sedative ingredient in some over-the-counter antihistamines, including the brand name Benadryl, among others.
The coroner found the circumstances surrounding the death raise questions about the uncontrolled availability of a potentially lethal over-the-counter substance. He noted that there is consensus on the dangers of poisoning among scientific bodies, but it is not kept behind the counter.
“I cannot understand why the sale of diphenhydramine is not better controlled,” wrote medical examiner Vincent Denault at the time. “I cannot understand why diphenhydramine is available over the counter, especially since Gravol, which also contains diphenhydramine, is not available.”
Denault noted that it was not the first time there had been a drug-related death. The coroner has already evaluated three previous investigations in Quebec.
There was a surge around 2020 after the so-called Benadryl TikTok challenge on social media invited users to consume large amounts of medication tablets containing diphenhydramine.
“The deaths of children have brought this dangerous trend to the fore,” Denault wrote. Scientific literature confirms that diphenhydramine is consumed in high doses for its euphoric and hallucinogenic effects and that people have used it to commit suicide.
Denault’s recommendation was that the provincial professions office take steps to change regulations involving the sale of medicinal products, to classify diphenhydramine intended for oral administration in a section that requires more management by pharmacists.
This management would include creating a dossier, noting the sale and conducting a pharmacological study of the dossier.
– with file from The Canadian Press
