Freedom of Speech and the Pharmaceutical Industry!

.

.

.

The cost of pharmaceutical drugs is outrageous.  A 30 year old rip-off artist and out of work hedge fund manager took a pill that was costing $7.50 and crank it up to $2000 dollars a pill….because he took over the company.  That pill served 12,000 people.  Now that number is down to 10,000 folks.

Serving the public good for the Healthcare Industry has become an idea and thing of the past since the 1960’s.  Who are the ones at fault in this process?  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA-HSS), National Institute of Health (NIH), American Medical Association (AMA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) are all good places to mention in the “blame them” category.  Of course, there are about 10 others that are supporting characters; like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Department of Commerce (DOC), Department of Agriculture (DOA), Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Surgeon General, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, The Supreme Court, both Houses of Congress and any Secretary  of Health and the President’s Office of National Drug Control Policy…..are all good places to start.

Fighting Big Global Pharma is a tough job.  Most Prescription Drugs are now mostly manufactured in India or other third world countries.  Even illegal drugs are being re-packaged and transported around the globe – under authentic looking labels of well known prescription drugs.  Only two countries in the world allow Pharmaceutical Advertising on television.  The United States and New Zealand!  Every other country in our Global Community…..”just says NO!” to Commercial Drug Advertisements on television or radio.

Let’s start this conversation with the reasons why Doctors, Big Pharma and Government types support these ads:  Freedom of Speech and the Support of the Supreme Court are always the first arguments in favor of putting drug advertisements of television.  They say, you can’t restrict someone’s right to sell any product.  Good, let’s start selling Marijuana on television then.  At least in the States that have passed laws for medical or recreational use.  How about just aiming it just on Cancer patients, during their last days?  No, Big Pharma cannot make enough money doing that.  They need to sell drugs “that do not cure”.  They need to sell drugs which are so-called “Therapies”, which you may have to take for the rest of your life.  Drugs, with side effects, which require at least five other drugs to mitigate the effects.  Drugs, that when produced under cheaper Generic labels, don’t contain the necessary ingredients to buffer the effects that actually do harm to your body and require you to take still other drugs.

According to the Freedom of Speech argument put out by Big Pharma, they can sell Poisons of any kind, Illegal Drugs of any kind, Pain Medications that are addictive  – of any kind and anything else they can repackage and call something else….that is in fact the same product.  The next argument Big Pharma puts out is that the FDA and the NIH think that when these television ads are put out….they serve to inform the public of various ailments that they might not have known about.  They say, these advertisement actually serve at Public Service Announcements – like Cialis, Viagra and other of the same type that can cause( if you are lucky) the famous four hour erection.  The reality of course is that psychosomatic illness has been around since the Stone Age.  “OH, that what it is…..” after a friend or co-worker explains “their most recent ailment”.  Have swollen feet?  Hmmm…..do you sleep in front of the TV with your legs down?  Did you stub your toe, heel or bunyan on the couch and forgot about it?  Do you have toenail fungus because you haven’t trimmed your toes in several months?  How about sore feet?  Corns on your little toe?

Big Pharma will put you on a un-cost effective drug with lots of side effects that you may be stuck on….your entire life.  What ever happened to just going to the doctor when something was serious?  NO, Doctors now get huge kick-backs from Big Pharma for pushing the same drugs you are watching on television.  Do you dare ask about the side effects?  If you do, there is every chance that your doctor is too busy to explain everything and thinks you should be looking it up on the web….anyway.

We need to face the facts of life:  American Medicine has become a Government “make work system”.  To be sure, it did not start with ObamaCare.  This system has been in effect for many years and we just didn’t know it.  Much like the additives that are put into our food and our vaccines…….which are never advertised on television, by the way….or even listed on the package or product.  Has anyone ever noticed that no one goes in for just one Cancer, Knee or other procedure and are cured anymore?  Michael Jackson and many other Hollywood celebrities have proven that all plastic surgeons are not created equal.  “Revision surgery” has become “Standard Operating Procedure”.  “Hey, the client has the money, so do that knee three times, do that shoulder or rotator twice, do that hip four or five times.”

Medicine in this country has basically declined over the last 40 years, but has been bolstered by technology.  MRI’s, CAT SCANS, PET SCANS, Artificial Limb Improvements, Computers that lose your records, Doctors that take too many X-Rays, Hospitals that kill because records or drug prescriptions are changed or misplaced. The cost of these procedures and the cost of drugs in American is about four times what it is in the rest of the world.  Yes, the same drugs four times as expensive.  The argument that R & D has to be paid for “by somebody”…..doesn’t or shouldn’t mean “US Citizens and their Healthcare System”.  The reality is that most drug companies are foreign companies:  Merck, Bayer, Novartis, Glaxo-Smith-Kline are able examples.  Look up Foreign Drug Companies on Google……staggering to be sure and certainly not US derived.  Having said that; “Why are Big Pharma Drugs allowed to advertise on American television?”

We have a right to know WHO (The Company Name – not just the name of the product)  makes our drugs, where they are manufactured, how much is the cost of manufacture and what are the side effects – that will cause us to take “other drugs to fix the side effects”?  These things should be told to us, by our doctors – not by some paid actor talking about the inconvenience of stepping into the bathroom to take a pill…..at a so-called inappropriate time!  So, let’s see how wonderful this Globalization of products in our society has worked:  S-10 Pick-ups made in Mexico – $15,000 dollar more.  The I-Pad now $300 dollars more……basic prescriptions for drugs up 500 percent since 1989.  We are not protecting American Industry by allowing Presription Drug Advertising on television.

Freedom of Speech and the Pharmaceutical Industry!  As Dirty Harry once said:  “Your mouthwash isn’t makin it!