America's Drugged Socity - Prescription Drugs'

On almost any television channel or in magazines throughout the country, you would be hard pressed to not find an advertisement for some kind of prescription drug.

Everything from arthritis pain, to indigestion, to erectile dysfunction, to anxiety and depression "disorders" has many pharmaceutical companies looking to sell you one of their latest prescription drugs.  Advertisers use tactics such as the colors and shapes of the pills to even cartoons to get people to remember their drugs. As a result, many doctors today are flooded with patients that are convinced they need a prescription drug for something and won't be happy until they leave with a prescription. Many pharmaceutical companies also look to market many of their drugs for other uses through new "studies". Examples of this recently include an epilepsy drug for alcoholism, an anti-impotence drug for high blood pressure and an anti-depressant to quit smoking.

The cost of all this to Americans is much more than the billions that are spent on the drugs; many people are losing their health and even their lives because of the harmful "side effects" of the drugs. The fact is that all drugs have effects and are, to a greater or lesser degree, harmful to our bodies. L. Ron Hubbard stated this datum for many years, along with the accumulation of drug residues in the fatty tissue of the body, through research in the field of drug rehabilitation. He also discovered a method to effectively reduce the build-up of those toxins through a sauna detoxification process.

The harmful effects of these widely promoted prescription drugs are not without consequence to the pharmaceutical companies. There now are hundreds of thousands of current or potential lawsuits against various drug manufacturers due to these effects. It actually comes as little surprise to the drug conglomerates though, as many of them, if not all, have been stockpiling billions of dollars to pay for these damages through settlements. Apparently the many billions of dollars in sales outweigh the detrimental health situations and damaging suits, as long as people continue to think that there is a drug to fit every illness or condition.

An article last week in the New York Times reported pharmaceutical companies currently under suit include Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb. This array of drug giants covers many of the well-known name brand prescription drugs on the market, and many of the suits claim that the companies tried to hide or lessen the actual risk of the side effects.

As if the side effects weren't enough, drugs such as prescription painkillers can be highly addictive. One example of this fact is the outbreak of name-brand oxycodone addiction and the crime that comes with such a problem. A feature article in the June issue of Redbook magazine tells the story of several women that were originally prescribed some type of medication and ended up becoming hooked. Mindy Jewkes was one of the women interviewed. She was a Registered Nurse who got addicted to prescription painkillers and lost everything in her life that was dear to her before getting her life back through Narconon Arrowhead, which is a non-traditional drug rehabilitation and education facility. According to the article, there were 5 million people in 2001 that ended up taking prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.

Unfortunately, due to massive lobbying efforts and self-funded clinical trials and studies, leading to false hopes that drugs are the answer, "traditional medicine" has become the effect of the drug companies, not to mention the promotional free samples, gifts and incentives that have been offered to pharmacies, universities and doctors themselves. Just by looking at recent news stories, one could find several examples of drug companies being reprimanded for such practices or even fraud.

You don't have to be too old to remember the time when people were relatively "normal" and half your family wasn't on some kind of drug. A good question to ask is if the drugging of millions of Americans for conditions that can be handled without manufactured chemicals is worth the convenience of taking a pill and hoping you don't get one of the several side effects that can occur with  prescription drugs or over-the-counter medication.

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