Are we a drugged society?

While I was making the morning coffee, my wife asked me to watch a drug ad. on TV. She backed up the DVR and played it. Although not easily shocked, this time I was. She rewound it again and I recorded the narrative on my phone.

The 1 1/2 minute ad. was for Intermezzo, a sleep aid. The first 15 seconds or so pitched its value, the balance described how it could kill you! I found it a moment ago on YouTube.

Clearly, many people will be rushing to their doctors to badger them for the new wonder drug. The stupid physicians will, no doubt, prescribe it as they are too lazy not to.

Even worse, over-the-counter Tylenol can kill you as well! Although taking the recommended dose is considered safe, just an extra table or two can cause irreparable liver damage and death.

My question is why are ads. for physician prescribed drugs allowed on commercial TV? Forget trying to ban certain scary looking weapons, how about banning all physician prescribed drugs ads. on TV and radio? I’m sure that they do more damage to the American public than “assault weapons.”

The problem with drugs being prescribed for almost everything, is that in addition to making people believe that no matter what their lifestyle, just popping a pill or being injected with something will cure the problem. It won’t.

Although many pathogens are killed by modern drugs, some aren’t. They become super-bugs, resistant to the latest drugs. It’s getting more and more difficult to kill them as drug companies have little incentive to spend ten years developing new antibiotics. Why? Because antibiotic usage is minimal; that means minimal profits compared to other drugs.

Unlike blood pressure medication, for example, antibiotic treatments may only last days. Blood pressure medication is taken for life, so it’s a far better annuity income stream for the drug companies.

Eventually, we won’t be able kill some of these super-bugs because of our addiction to prescription drugs. That will start killing us, causing a public uproar. As it will take years to develop drugs to combat the super-bugs, it’s possible that the 21st century version of the 14th century”Black Death” will devastate the public before the newest drugs are developed.

It could become the Darwinian “survival of the fittest,” the misunderstood phrase used to describe evolution. That wasn’t what Charles Darwin meant, but it makes my point in this context.

If elected in 2014, I’ll propose a bill that will block reimbursement by insurance companies or other reimbursements for prescription drugs advertised in the media, including television. It will stop the patients from nagging their doctors for these drugs. If they have to pay for them themselves, they won’t want them. Problem solved.

Do you want to find out more about how they make this type of commercial? Watch this –