What information can you give a patient who is insistent he receive a prescription for antibiotics to treat his common cold?

• Why you can't prescribe medicines that are unnecessary by licensing and Board Certification mandate.
• Why antibiotics don't work for viral illnesses (see related questions).
• Why medicines should not be taken unless absolutely necessary and explain the side effects and risks associated with antibiotic use that should not be taken unnecessarily.
• How you would contribute to creating new antibiotic-resistant bacteria if you were to do as the patient directed.
• That "flesh-eating bacteria" (MRSA) mutated into existence when doctors in the past began doing this when patients demanded antibiotics to treat themselves, despite the medical professional's advice.
• Why a patient who attempts to treat himself has a fool for a patient.
• Why you have MD after your name and they do not.
• And if they continue to insist on your doing what you can not ethically do, give them information on where to find a different doctor currently accepting new patients.

Don't give in and write an order for potentially harmful drugs without medical reason and use only for label uses.