Big Pharma Whistles, and the Drug Enforcement Administration Comes Running

^[1]The DEA is enabling—even encouraging—a generation of opiate addicts, while the FDA tries to quash safe and helpful supplements like DHEA. Goodness, the legal drug-makers have been busy! This week the Associated Press revealed ^[2] that in 2010, US pharmacies dispensed the equivalent of 69 tons of pure oxycodone (used as ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet, and Percodan) and 42 tons of pure hydrocodone (used in Vicodin, Norco, and Lortab). That’s enough to give forty 5-milligram Percocets and twenty-four 5-milligram Vicodins to every single person in the United States.

The production and sale of both drugs has increased tremendously over the past decade; in some locations, sales have increased by 1,500 percent. Distribution is particularly high in Appalachia, the Midwest—particularly suburbia—and the Southwest.

Why the increase? Our poor diets and inactive lifestyles increase inflammation and pain. Older people are especially vulnerable in this regard. And doctors are increasingly willing to treat pain with drugs. Sales are also being driven by addiction, as users become physically dependent on painkillers and begin “doctor shopping” to keep the prescriptions coming.

Read More:

http://www.anh-usa.org/big-pharma-whistles-and-dea-comes-running/

Monsanto and Big Tobacco Blamed for Birth Defects

Monsanto, Philip Morris and other U.S. tobacco giants knowingly poisoned Argentinean tobacco farmers with pesticides, causing "devastating birth defects" in their children, dozens of workers claim in court.

The farmers, on their own behalf and for their injured children, sued Altria Group fka Philip Morris Cos., Philip Morris USA, Carolina Leaf Tobacco, Universal Corporation fka Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, Monsanto, and their affiliates and Argentine subsidiaries, in New Castle County Court.
    
The farmers grow tobacco on small family-owned farms in Misiones Province and sell it to U.S. tobacco distributors. Most of Argentina's tobacco is grown in Misiones, a rural northeastern province.
    
The farmers claim the tobacco companies asked them to use herbicides, pesticides and other toxic products made distributed by Monsanto, and assured them the products were safe.

Read More:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/10/45469.htm

Patrick Cox - The “Shadow Pharmaceutical” Sector

The business of medical biotechnologies operates within an extraordinarily complex regulatory system.

The SEC and the IRS are only the beginning of the story…

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration determines what can legally be sold. It even exercises control over what can be said by companies about medical therapies. Elsewhere, other regulatory authorities play similar roles.

It was not always that way, of course. Prior to the 20th century, there was virtually no regulation of medical therapies. Medical decisions were considered the domain of doctors and patients, who bore the responsibilities and risks associated with the use of any product. Even currently banned Class A drugs used for recreational purposes were available for sale without limitations.

Today, the average cost of bringing a medical product from conception to market is around $400 million, according to The Cato Institute. The time required can be as long as 10 years.

As a result, the FDA is widely considered in need of major reform, though the nature of those reforms is a matter of debate. Responding to criticisms, the FDA has implemented some programs to accelerate review procedures.

Read More:

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-shadow-pharmaceutical-sector/

Sayer Ji - Has Drug-Driven Medicine Become A Form of Human Sacrifice?

Benjamin Rush accurately foretold a grave possibility facing Americans today, namely, that the art and science of healing be restricted to a select class of allopathic physicians, who have the sole legal right to recommend and administer medicines, and whose pharmacopeia excludes – as a matter of principle – all the healing foods, vitamins and herbs which have been used safely and effectively for countless millenia in the prevention and treatment of disease.

We have entered an era where medicine no longer bears any resemblance to the art and science of healing.  The doctor no longer facilitates the body’s innate self-healing capabilities with time, care, good nutrition and special help from our plant allies.  To the contrary, medicine has transmogrified into a business enterprise founded on the inherently nihilistic principles of pure, unbridled capitalism, with an estimated 786,000 Americans dying annually from iatrogenic or medically-caused deaths.*

Read More:

http://greenmedinfo.com/blog/has-drug-driven-medicine-become-form-human-sacrifice

Pharma Execs Admit: ‘Our Model Is Broken’

As if we didn’t already know this, yes? Still, a new survey finds that 68 percent of pharma execs agree that Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall. To be specific, 44 percent agree that the pharma industry model is broken and 24 percent strongly agree with this statement. Another 22 percent are neutral and 6 percent disagree. We wonder where this 28 percent is working right now…

And over the next two years, 76 percent believe the healthcare system pricing and budget pressures will be the biggest challenge; followed by 70 percent who believe they will have to demonstrate cost effectiveness; 69 percent who cite more restrictive market access; 60 percent who fear generic competition; 53 percent who worry about less access to docs and 50 percent who are concerned about the ability of patients to pay for their meds.

The survey canvassed 156 pharma execs who either influence or have responsibility for sales and marketing at big drugmakers in the US and Europe. On average, they have held their jobs for five years and 52 percent are directors, with 15 percent say they are vp’s and 20 percent identifying as managers. Most are responsible for a product portfolio, 46 percent, or a specific brand, 33 percent.

Read More:

http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/03/pharma-execs-admit-our-model-is-broken/

FDA’s Huge Conflicts of Interest with Big Pharma

^[1]Tragically, the drug they endorsed is killing the women who take it. Why is FDA doing this?

The birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, which were endorsed by an FDA advisory committee last December, contain a drug called drospirenone. Women who take it are nearly seven times more likely to develop thromboembolism ^[2] (obstruction of a blood vessel by a blood clot, which can cause deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, stroke, heart attack, and death) compared to women who do not take any contraceptive pill, and twice the risk of women who take a contraceptive pill containing levonorgestrel. Thousands of women have filed a lawsuit against Bayer, saying they were injured by Yaz or Yasmin.

Why would the FDA approve such a dangerous drug? An investigation by the Washington Monthly and the British medical journal BMJ found that at least four members of the advisory committee ^[3] have either done work for the drugs’ manufacturers or licensees or received research funding from them. The members reported their industry ties to FDA, but FDA decided it didn’t matter and didn’t make the disclosures public.

Each of those four panelists who received money from the pill’s manufacturer voted in favor of the pill. Interestingly, the committee’s ruling that the drug’s benefit outweighs the risks was decided by a four-vote margin.

Read More:

http://www.anh-usa.org/fda-huge-conflicts-of-interest-with-big-pharma/

Gary Null, Ph.D, and Nancy Ashley, VMD - The Politics of Medicine Part II: FDA Pimping for Big Pharma

Gary Null - Politics of Medicine Part II: FDA Pimping for Big Pharma

Gary Null, Ph.D., and Nancy Ashley, VMD - The Politics of Medicine

THE POLITICS OF MEDICINE

By Gary Null, PhD and Nancy Ashley, VMD

March 5, 2012 

In 2012, America has become the most overmedicated society in history. Indeed, there is a medication for every condition, and we believe these medications will make us happy, slender, full of energy, and attractive like the people in the television ads.  We are even told that we don’t take enough medications as the list of made-up diseases grows longer and longer:  restless leg syndrome, social anxiety disorder, overactive bladder, pre-diabetes, adult ADD.  We never stop to question why we need all these drugs.  We never even notice that they aren’t making us better, or that we can’t get off them once we start taking them.  Why do we refuse to see that despite all these medications we are nevertheless the sickest industrialized nation on earth?

America doesn’t profit from prevention.  There are no preventative programs for cancer, heart disease, arthritis, dementia, Alzheimer’s, or diabetes, for a simple reason:  it would compete with the massive profits of the medical industrial complex.  So instead we have become a nation of gluttons -- we sublimate our anxiety and fears with comfort foods and the government encourages it instead of offering us an honest look at cause and effect.  Protecting the financial interest of the fast food industry, the makers of potato chips, soft drinks, hamburgers, steaks, desserts, genetically engineered corn, and pesticides are a compliant FDA and USDA whose leaders have been hand-picked by the White House to represent the interests of manufacturers. There will be no advocacy from Congress whatsoever to help the health of Americans.  But what is the likely outcome if we continue with our current lifestyles?

We are witnessing a watershed of dysfunction.  The American media has assisted in creating this mythology.  They have not only protected the American medical paradigm and the pharmaceutical industry, but they have actually attacked physicians, scientists, whistle-blowers, and parents groups that have run into the medical bureaucratic juggernaut.  As a nation we have sunk so low as to allow our legislators to create laws based on what they are told by big business through the American Legislative Exchange Committee (ALEC), laws that mandate the Gardasil vaccine for girls and now boys or they can’t go to school, and laws that require that health care workers get the flu vaccine or lose their jobs.  All of this without the major media ever raising a single question:  is this real science, or science for sale?

We have decided to explore the politics of medicine and the consequences of therapies, physicians, scientists, advisors, government agencies, the media, and a vulnerable public who are unaware of how malignant the system has become – how pernicious, widespread, and in fact, endemic, the self-interest, greed and  bad science actually is.   Part I of our in-depth investigative report will show that American medicine is not only broken, but contributes to unnecessary injury and death into the millions of victims per year.  It has morphed into an extension of the pharmaceutical industrial complex – the friendly face with the white coat and the stethoscope.  We will now deconstruct this myth.

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Lee Fang - Why Can’t You Smoke Pot? Because Lobbyists Are Getting Rich Off of the War on Drugs

John Lovell is a lobbyist who makes a lot of money from making sure you can’t smoke a joint. That’s his job. He’s a lobbyist for the police unions in Sacramento, and he is a driving force behind grabbing Federal dollars to shut down the California marijuana industry. I’ll get to the evidence on this important story in a bit, but first, some context.

At some point in the distant past, the war on drugs might have been popular. But not anymore — the polling is clear, but beyond that, the last three Presidents have used illegal drugs. So why do we still put hundreds of thousands of people in steel cages for pot-related offenses? Well, there are many reasons, but one of them is, of course, money in politics. Corruption. Whatever you want to call it, it’s why you can’t smoke a joint without committing a crime, though of course you can ingest any number of pills or drinks completely within the law.

Read More:

http://www.republicreport.org/2012/exclusive-why-cant-you-smoke-pot-because-lobbyists-are-getting-rich-off-of-the-war-on-drugs/

7 Reasons Why You Should Never Eat Genetically Modified Foods

7 Reasons Why You Should Never Eat Genetically Modified Foods 1. Numerous studies have linked GM foods with several types of cancer, toxicity to human cells, allergies, autoimmune diseases, viral and bacterial illness and infectious diseases.

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