Ask Your Doctor if This Big Pharma Scam Is Right for You: The Dangers of a Drugged Up America

[marmar]

Hightower Lowdown / By Jim Hightower

Ask Your Doctor if This Big Pharma Scam Is Right for You: The Dangers of a Drugged Up America
In medicated America, the fix for every problem is just a prescription away. Except that it's not.

May 8, 2012 |


Butterflies waft across a beautiful field of spring flowers. A delightful young family bicycles joyously down a country lane. A couple on a park bench leans sensually into each other. A 40-something woman's face radiates with both perfect beauty and internal happiness. "All's right with the world," is the message... as long as you've taken your dosages of Lunesta, Celebrex, Cialis, and Botox.

Welcome to medicated America, where the fix for every problem--from incontinence to erectile dysfunction, stiff joints to mood swings, weight gain to wrinkles-- is just a prescription away. Thus the beautiful images, stirring music, attractive actors, and soothing words in the omnipresent, multibillion-dollar kaleidoscope of drug advertising by Pfizer, Merck, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and other giants of Big Pharma--all pitching their particular brand-name nostrum directly at us hoi polloi (the industry spends a fourth of its income on ads and other promotions, nearly double its expenditures on research and development). The corporate come-ons typically conclude with a phrase that has achieved cliche status in America's vernacular: "Ask your doctor if 'Suprema Wundercure' is right for you."

The better question, though, is one that cartoonist Dan Piraro expressed in one of his "Bizarro" panels: "Ask your doctor if playing into the hands of the pharmaceutical industry is right for you." ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/health/155331/ask_your_doctor_if_this_big_pharma_scam_is_right_for_you%3A_the_dangers_of_a_drugged_up_america/

[lunasun]

1. But the drug is FDA approved so it must have gone through extensive FDA testing and

be tried and true......so many of theses drugs have serious side effects ...do not be the guinea pig

Oh you will sue or stop the drug if that happens = good luck!

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[sad sally]

3. Every time I see kudos for all the added prescription drug help millions of seniors have gotten with

the ACA, it makes me mad. I'm a seasoned senior, married almost 50 years to another seasoned senior. We both know a thing or two about aches and pains, youthful bad habits that result in health issues and hereditary body problems. However, there are alternatives to running to doctors, who are more than happy to prescribe any/every new drug on the market; and, if there are side effects, heck, there's a drug for that.

When you think of drug addiction, seniors aren't the first age group that comes to mind. But one quarter of the prescription drugs sold in the United States are used by the elderly, often for problems such as chronic pain, insomnia, and anxiety, according to Modern Medicine.com. According to the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, as many as 17% of adults age 60 and over abuse prescription drugs. Narcotic pain killers, sleeping pills and tranquillizers are common medications of abuse.

When drugs come from a doctor's prescription pad, misuse is harder to identify. We assume pharmaceutical drugs are only used for treating medical conditions. But many older adults take mood-altering medications for non-medical reasons. Over time, they develop a tolerance to the drug. Achieving the same effect requires more and more of the drug.

I'm not convinced we are the group that "needs drugs the most," and upping the profits of big pharmaceuticals is not where I want either the government or me to invest billions in.

[Myrina]

5. They don't care about 'quality' of your life,

... just that you stay alive to keep giving them money. As much of your money as possible - be it insurance, medicare, or out of pocket.

[raccoon]

6. Esp. this part is good: "One would assume that in a rich, medically advanced, health-conscious

nation like ours, dicey decisions aboutwhether to allow a particular pharmaceutical product into our bodies would be among the most rational we make--as determined by (1) the best science available, (2) the strict moral duty of medical purveyors to "First, do no harm," (3) good government regulation, and (4) the profession's fear of public reproach and legal punishment. One would, however, be wrong on all counts:

• Science has been supplanted by rank hucksterism

• The strictest "moral duty" of corporate executives has been reduced to maximizing profits

• A "good" regulation is one that's good for profit seekers

• Public reproach is just a momentary embarrassment to be covered over by corporate image makers

• Legal "punishment" never includes jail time, but only a fine that's easily absorbed as a necessary cost of doing business by these immensely profitable entities."



Great article!

[FiveGoodMen]

7. Agreed on all counts!

[midnight]

8. Right, some of the side effects are worse than the problem you started out with. Does anyone recall

the ad put up on D.U. one about Fu**adol or some such pill to take away the nonsense?