OK, lots of drugs have interactions, and many people know that the pharmacies are supposed to check for interactions when the prescription is filled. Unfortunately there are two problems about drug interactions.

The system does not work at least half the time for several reasons. Not all the consumer's prescriptions are in the pharmacy computer. The pharmacist gets so many "beeps" on the computer they just can't sort out a life-threatening interaction from some minor issue.

When I worked with NBC Dateline, the show sent people with undercover cameras into 11 pharmacies to see if they would fill two prescriptions with an interaction so severe it was life-threatening. Only four of the 11 pharmacies checked refused to dispense the two prescriptions, as they should have done.

The best you can hope for is to be aware if you're taking of the drugs with many or serious interactions. You need to exercise great vigilance every time you start or stop taking a drug

Here are some examples of drugs with interactions to note:

• Populsid is a drug for hearburn that can have a lethal interaction with several other drugs.
• Coumadin, the drug to prevent blod clots, has a very large number of interactions.
• Lanoxin or digoxin interacts with many drugs.
• A family of drugs for depression called MAO inhibors (Parnate is an example) can have many serious interactions.

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