White House plan to reduce prescription drug abuse falls short

Sunday, September 11, 2011 by: PF Louis
Tags: drug abuse, White House, health news

(NaturalNews) A recent Reuter's press release reported the White House's announcement to look into curbing pharmaceutical drug abuse. It noted that psychotropic drugs, anti-depressants, and pain killers were the most commonly "abused." The article raised concerns over the larger numbers of pharmaceutical "abusers," and painted a picture of a concerned government coming to the rescue. The article is misleading and the picture painted is bogus.

A Major Cause of Death in the USA

Correctly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs are the third highest cause of death in the USA. This goes beyond psychotropic drugs used for mental health diagnoses, of course. Over 100,000 deaths annually occur from correctly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs. There was no reference to this fact whatsoever in the Reuter's article that was widely distributed to several print and internet news outlets.

Okay, so many if not most of those deadly pharmaceuticals are for physical ailments. But among those are pain killers, which also tend to be "abused." Strong pain killers such as Vicodin and Oxycotin are among the leading drugs targeted by drug abusers. Abused in Pharma speak is using any drug for a purpose other than for what it is prescribed.

However, when it comes to psychotropic drugs, many of those to whom they are prescribed "correctly," wind up going crazy, suicidal, or homicidal. So correctly prescribing those drugs is abusive.

Over 45% of overdose deaths come from prescription drugs, while 39% of overdose deaths are caused by illegal street drugs. Almost 50% of teens and young adults surveyed considered prescription drugs safer than street drugs, and 65% claimed medicine cabinets as their drug sources.

This author has personally met former psychiatric patients and read numerous internet forum accounts from those who had to stop taking those drugs "correctly prescribed " by MD psychiatrists for the reasons mentioned above. There have been several accounts of suicides and aggressive behavior reported among those taking anti-depressants and even smoking cessation drugs.

These accounts don't become statistics for public awareness. That's reserved for those "abusers." The White House doesn't seem too concerned about these actual chronic situations that have been occurring annually for the past several years. Instead they're intent on spending money for "education, prevention, and treatment" to reign in the average person. Pharma is too big to lose.

The Nation's Drug Lords are "Legal"

The FDA shrugs its shoulders and allows drug companies to continue business as usual. This includes allowing Big Pharma to promote drugs with TV commercials. The USA and New Zealand are the only two nations in the world that allow this.

The usual visuals for these commercials show frowning or upset looking actors switching to happy faces of relief as the announcer intones the drug's name and the logo appears on the screen. The phrase in text on the screen or announced is often "ask your doctor about (product name)."

TV does create enough of an impression on several levels to be considered mind control. Some doctors have complained that patients come to them demanding prescriptions for advertised drugs, sometimes even before the MDs know of them. So pharmaceuticals make you happy? That's what's on TV, so why not "abuse" them.

The FDA also shrugs while allowing Big Pharma to keep drugs proven to be dangerous on the market long after several serious adverse effects, including death, are recorded. The FDA has a large revolving door that allows conflicts of interest from people coming into the agency from Big Pharma in order to create policy favorable to the industry. Conversely, Big Pharma rewards those who have been favorable to them with high paying jobs as they leave the FDA.

Big Pharma's sales reps are the top drug pushers on the wholesale level. They directly visit doctors offices and clinics offering published materials, samples, and more. Often doctors who sell retail in high numbers with their prescriptions are rewarded with vacation trips and sometime even financial kickbacks.

Big Pharma also spend lots of bucks on infiltrating medical schools. Pharmaceutical reps give lectures on the benefits of their wares before future MDs even begin practicing medicine on an intern level.

Pharmaceutical companies publish inaccurate papers in medical journals that are often signed off by doctors or scientists who are paid by Big Pharma for their signatures only. A former Editor of the New England Journal, Dr. Marcia Angell, author of The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It, came to the conclusion that almost nothing published in medical journals regarding drug research can be trusted.

So where's the war on drugs with Big Pharma? Why does the FDA receive money for allowing pharmaceutical companies to do their own testing? It seems the war on drugs is misdirected. It should be on Big Pharma and the FDA.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/20/us...

http://www.prescriptiondrugabuse.us/statisti...

http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/presc...

http://www.publicspark.com/2010/04/05/prescr...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/prescription...

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/big-phar...