Approximately 130 million Americans swallow, inject, inhale, spray, infuse, & pat on prescribed medication every month as indicated by the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Americans fill many more prescriptions than any other country.

The number of prescriptions have risen dramastically over the past decade by two-thirds. Currently, over 3.5 billion prescriptions are filled each year. Polls suggest that Americans devour even more nonprescripton drugs.

While the pharmaceutical industry took in over $250 billion in sales last year, 125,000 Americans died from drug reactions. This makes the pharmaceutical industry the fourth- leading national cause of death after heart disease, cancer, & stroke.

Recently, safety questions surrounded some depression & anti-inflammatory drugs pushing Vioxx & Bextra off of the market. Rising ranks of doctors, researchers, & public health experts are saying that America is overmedicating itself. They claim America is buying & taking far too much medicine, too readily & too carelessly, for its own health & wealth.

Leaked documents show Merck (major pharmaceutical company) knew of Vioxx dangers yet hid them for years.

Merck caught in scandel to buy Vioxx heart attack risks, intimidate scientists, & keep pushing dangerous drugs. Vioxx lawsuits are now forming.

Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine & Author of "The Truth About the Drug Companies" says, "we are taking too many drugs for dubious or exaggerated ailments."  "What the drug companies are doing now is promoting drugs for long-term use to essentially healthy people. Why? Because it is the biggest market."

In 2002, two million pediatric prescriptions were written for Paxil alone, many to toddlers. According to a Medico Health Solutions analysis of customer data, the use of behavioral medications for children topped all other areas of drugs in 2003 at 17% of total spending. This compared to 16% for antibiotics and asthma drugs, 11% for skin conditions, and six% for allergy meds. Antidepressants spending grew by 21% over a three-year period and ADHD by 369% (no typo) compared to 4.3% in the use of antibiotics.

A 1999 University of North Carolina study found that only eight% of a surveyed group of 600 family physicians and pediatricians reported having received adequate training in the management of childhood depression. Yet that did not stop 72% of the same group from prescribing SSRIs to patients under age 18.

The following information was taken from a newstarget.com article, "In Windfall to Drug Companies, FDA Removes Fine Print Side Effects Requirement in Direct-to-Consumer Drug Ads":

Direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs is one of the greatest medical frauds ever perpetrated on the American public. The drug companies love it, because it allows them to convince people that they need certain brand name prescriptions even when they don't. After seeing enough advertising of a prescription drug that is mentioned along with images of happy, healthy people, many consumers go straight to their doctors and ask for the drug by name, even as they are oblivious to the facts of what the drug is for.

It's a massive propaganda campaign, of course. But the drug companies and the FDA in both insist it is nothing more than a "public Education" campaign -- as if they are doing everybody in favor by spending all these hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising that seeks to do nothing more than help people understand prescription drugs. It's nonsense: the entire purpose of prescription drug advertising is simply to sell more drugs, and any individual, company, or federal agency that suggests otherwise is lying through their teeth.

Drug companies and the FDA love the profit-generating impact of direct-to-consumer advertising so much, in fact, that the FDA has just issued new rules to make this form of pharmaceutical advertising even easier for drug companies: now, drug companies no longer need to include the technical fine print of side effects caused by their drugs. It was precisely this technical fine print that lended any margin of safety to these ads in the first place, for that was the only place a critical reader could learn about the bizarre side effects caused by most prescription drugs. But now, the FDA says this fine print is ignored by most readers, and therefore it shouldn't be required at all. In other words, the FDA is telling prescription drug companies that they can simply promote the hype of the prescription drugs and do away with the only section of text that could possibly qualify as "public Education" in the first place. What's left, then, is nothing but the hype, which is exactly what the drug companies wanted.

Looking at these changes in the regulations, and how they strongly favor prescription drug companies while removing the public education component that used to be required with direct-to-consumer advertising, one can only ask: what could possibly be the motivation behind such a decision? The answer is obvious: it is part of the FDA's continued profit protection campaign for drug companies.

Once again, the FDA proves through its actions that it is a corrupt organization that puts consumer protection last and pharmaceutical profits first. Isn't it time to reform the FDA yet? "FDA Sets Voluntary Drug Ad Guidelines."

Disclaimer:  The information posted on this website is for educational purposes only. We are not licensed Medical Doctors & do not intend to substitue the advise of a professional. The information presented is based on our opinions on the benefits of alternative treatment vs. drugging for treatment. Some of our sources include websites of licensed Medical Doctors & websites of others sharing our opinions. Any mention on this site of alternative treatment & healing through natural remedies, organic or herbal, have not been evaluated by the FDA. Again, some  information on this site is based solely on personal experiences & personal opinions & is protected under Free Speech.