Medicated society = controlled citizens

I've been mulling this over for a bit now. Each night as I typically watch one of the 3 big news US news networks I watch the same event unfold. Night after night without any hesitation we get bombarded with commercials for prescription drugs. It would appear that there is a drug for just about any problem or disorder you feel you might have. Arthritis, acid reflux, blurred vision, acute headaches, erectile difficulties, cholesterol, weight loss, depression/anxiety etc, etc. You name it theres a remedy it seems. I realize that the FDA was given the green light several years back to be able to feature their products. Further I realize that several drugs do benefit people and that airing the commercials during the news slot is most likely a peak period for viewership. What better time to get your message out right?

The veracity of prescription drugs is not in question here (I'm not a doctor or pharmacist) but given the gullible masses is this really the direction we should be going in? Given all the problems today with non prescription drug abuse how is society better off? More prescription drugs leads to more dependency which equates to control. Further without knowing what's really in prescription drugs who's to say that additives may not be in place to condition people for other purposes.

Today an article appeared which validates these thoughts. The article is titled "Prescription abuse to pass illicit drugs".

Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday. Prescription drug abuse already has outstripped traditional illegal drugs such as heroin, coc aine and Ecstasy in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia, the U.N.-affiliated International Narcotics Control Board said in its annual report for 2006.

In the United States alone, the abuse of painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers and other prescription medications has gone beyond "practically all illicit drugs with the exception of cannabis," with users increasingly turning to them first, the Vienna-based group said.

src: news.yahoo.com...

What's the next step. Do we declare a war on prescription drugs?

brill

[edit on 2-3-2007 by brill]

Good post. Not to mention a medicated society means billions upon billions of dollars. Every day they create new disorders. I have to laugh at that.

People who need the meds are people who can be controlled. Get them hooked and they have to keep coming back for more.

My personal experiance is going in to to see the doc, got a prescription for Adderall with just a blood pressure check and a little later I was also on Effexor XR.

A year later my life was in the toilet and I had lost everything.

I'll never do drugs again, even if the doctor says they are the only thing that will save my life. I don't trust the doctors and I have no doubt they are in it just to get the kickback from the drugs they prescribe.

Just thought I'd toss that into the mix....

Oh, I agree. I have never lived in the United States but are currently in Central America and the rare time that I turn the television on I am amazed at the ads - they are 90% advertising pharmaceutical products.

But what amazes me more is the list of side effects appears to be worse than the original condition.

Big pharma

Originally posted by mrwupy
I'll never do drugs again, even if the doctor says they are the only thing that will save my life. I don't trust the doctors and I have no doubt they are in it just to get the kickback from the drugs they prescribe.

Just thought I'd toss that into the mix....

That raises a good point. Given a situation where a doctor says you better take this prescription otherwise your inviting problems really does put the average person in a bind. After all this is your doctor, its almost an implied trust that you take whatever advice/medication he/she prescribes. On the other other hand if you don't you could end up in worse condition. Certainly a strong majority would take their doctors word as gold. This just fuels the abuse of prescription medication and definitely keeps the dollars rolling. Nice to hear that you were able to overcome your situation.

brill

Originally posted by deessell

But what amazes me more is the list of side effects appears to be worse than the original condition.

Big pharma

True, the side effects list is usually very questionable. Yes we can cure your limp noodle but your bout of uncontrolled flatulence and drooling is just something you'll have to live with.

brill

Further I realize that several drugs do benefit people and that airing the commercials during the news slot is most likely a peak period for viewership.

It's all about marketing, you see those commercials because the marketing departments know that viewers are gullable. Thats is essentially how all commercials work.

However, the chance that people can be controlled by a substance because the companies are not required to state how they work is feasable. It is a possibility that people may get controlled by a substance in the future... however, with todays technology, the most it will come to is a dependancy (addiction), not absolute control.

Look at anti-depressants... most of these you simply cannot come off of. If you do stop your daily dose of anti-depressants, you are likely to become suicidal.
Which is why I warn people off of anti-depressants as much as possible. Never go on them, unless you were already a threat to yourself or those around you.

Originally posted by johnsky
However, the chance that people can be controlled by a substance because the companies are not required to state how they work is feasable. It is a possibility that people may get controlled by a substance in the future... however, with todays technology, the most it will come to is a dependancy (addiction), not absolute control.

I'm not so sure about that. To me addiction is a weakness. In overcoming that weakness you definitely can become dependent on a remedy and that is control. Absolute control no, but control nonetheless. Whose to say that there isn't collusion between the FDA & big pharmaceutical corporations. Who stands to benefit in the end?

brill

In California they have some good prescription drugs, so I hear.
But other than cannabis, I don't really trust prescription drugs. Sure, some of them are great, but FDA approval is easier than ever now, and natural remedies aren't even considered in the medical community and have even been labeled "quackery."

And why is that?

Because you can't patent an herb.

It's the same way with food additives.

So there is huge money backing the drugs, and nothing backing natural stuff. Gee, I wonder who has the millions to bribe the FDA into bowing down the their wishes?

Don't get me started.

Hey look, the Ritalin episode of South Park is on right now

Well, you see my point there on absolute control.

But a partnership between the FDA and medical companies, I'll be honest, I hadn't thought about that.

How would that work though, there would have to be a bribe scheme in place right? I guess the next thing we should be doing is looking for just such a thing... any ideas on how else that would work?

True story: I had a teacher in high school who has/had (not sure anymore) a brother who had severe depression problems. He though about suicide and the like, well they gave him a pill. Well he (I was talking about pharma in class to her and she told me this) was "cured" he was less depressed, just one problem... The drugs wore off. He was immune, so they doubled, trippled, quatrippled, quadruppled and so on his medications till he was taking about 3 bottles of pills a day. She told me that in his current state he has/had a backpack to carry around anywhere he goes full of medications. If he even fails to take 1 pill he will crash and burn now. She said he is broke, near homeless, and can hardly do jack squat.

I myself hate drugs so bad that I never take them anymore unless it interferes with my life to the point I have no choice. However the last (in the last 4 years) that I had a fever, I was almost out cold in the bed but absolutely WOULD NOT take a drug, rather die than take a drug. The only drug I have used in the last 4 years was one for pollen problems which happens once a year for one month, other than that: heck no!
The more people they get on anti-depressents the more control they have, because people feel "happy!" They feel good! Yet if they stop taking it they jump off a cliff or hang themselves... This is one way of controlling people, ESPECIALLY if they hook them when young like they are now. A drug should be a last resort before surgery, not something you take regularly unless you have arthritis so severe your hands fall off.
I love this advertisement I saw on TV, I will never forget it, it went something like this:
"Take this drug if you have frequent heart attacks or are suseptible to heart attacks (100% of human race then)! Side effects are (speeds up to a blurr): nausea, indegestion, blurred vision, internal bleeding, and heart failure! BUY THIS DRUG TODAY!"
I am not kidding, that was on TV! Take a drug to stop a heart attack, but may die FROM a heart attack or have internal bleeding... I will take the heart attack and get it over with!

Originally posted by johnsky
Well, you see my point there on absolute control.

But a partnership between the FDA and medical companies, I'll be honest, I hadn't thought about that.

How would that work though, there would have to be a bribe scheme in place right? I guess the next thing we should be doing is looking for just such a thing... any ideas on how else that would work?

Maybe not bribes but revealing a partnership would certainly not be easy. Whistle blowers would be one hope and I guess detailing backgrounds on the individuals involved might offer some further insight but overall not an easy task . It's almost a wait and see approach to see what unfolds.

brill

I remember a few years back when some Doctors got in trouble for taking kickbacks for diagnosing Lyme Disease and they were sending out home health care workers to give IV doses of the anti dote for Lyme's disease. They were diagnosing patients that didn't have the disease simply for the kickbacks from the drug company. I believe in that case they were prosecuted.

There is a report from the Netherlands on line if you look real good for it that tells how the brain is altered permanantly from SSRI antideppresants and the brain nerve endings are deformed after years of using the drugs leaving the patients unable to produce seretonin on their own after using the drugs too long.

I had a teenage friend who was on Ritalin since he was four and he said he used to chew holes in his lip from the drug. He grew up to be a drug abuser when they no longer prescribed the speed for him.

The behavioural issues are never addressed, just medicate and forget the kids problems with behaviour and call them biochemically mixed up.

When you need to change your diet to avoid heartburn instead you take a daily pill. When you need to change your diet because of cholesteral just take a pill and eat all the fat you want. Etc. Etc. Etc...........

Originally posted by deessell
Oh, I agree. I have never lived in the United States but are currently in Central America and the rare time that I turn the television on I am amazed at the ads - they are 90% advertising pharmaceutical products.

But what amazes me more is the list of side effects appears to be worse than the original condition.

Big pharma

240000 Americans are killed stone dead by FDA approved drugs prescription drugs every year....1.2 million hospitalised...

Yet all we hear is about the 4000 who got killed by terrorists over 5 years!

The FDA is staffed by drug companies employee's and is rotton and corrupt to the core...


just google big pharma...

its a trillion dollar industry and has it's tentacles everywhere.

now they are invading india and china and russia to get them medicated.

see

www.abovetopsecret.com...

for example, sry gtg now.

Thank you Brill for this thread!

I TOTALLY agree with this discussion. My opinion is that we need to start learning how to use natural, homeopathic remedies ASAP. Although I fear that the powers that be will at some point make it illegal to use them.

I recently read a story somewhere about a doctor who left the states to practice in Mexico because he was able to cure patients of cancer and the government actually went to Mexico, arrested him and brought him back to the states. I don't remember more details but I'll have to locate that information again.

I have been on anti-depressants for over 6 years. If it were not for the side-effects (mostly the weight gain), I would happily stay on them. But to go from 97 lbs to 140 lbs (with no difference in my diet) is just not acceptable for me.

Only recently have I begun to suspect what they are up to with prescription drugs and especially anti-depressants. SSRI's are being pushed on the public so much more now than ever before. When I first went on my meds, I don't recall ever seeing TV commercials advertising anti-depressants. Those medications were a mystery to me and it was almost like a "taboo" to be on anti-depressant medication.

I also read recently that there is a new agenda to start educating the public more on anti-depressants and targeting the younger citizens to get them on medications. I'm even starting to read more news online stating the high number of people in this country that suffer from anxiety and depression.

And you're right about them having a pill for everything. I'll take that a step further and say that they are causing our illnesses by whatever they are placing in our food, water, medications, the air, etc. Then they offer us a medication to alleviate it, and I would not be surprised at all if the medications themselves had some hidden chemicals to cause even further complications.

I'm in the process now of weaning myself off of my meds (for the second time) and then I will start back on a natural remedy to control my anxiety and depression. I've been doing research lately on natural remedies (there are a few available) and it appears that there is a possibility that they can actually cure the person after long-term use where the person doesn't need to continue taking the remedy (but not enough evidence to support this yet - that I have found).

A couple of years ago I got off of my medication for about 8-9 months and was doing well on a natural remedy but for some odd reason, I stopped taking it (like I "forgot" to take it or something) and then my depression came back and then I went back on my medication (at the urging of my mother). I don't know why I made that decision. I should have just started back on the natural remedy, but maybe it's possible that the depression/anxiety caused me to not be thinking rationally.

Anyway, I am convinced now that staying on these meds is the worst thing I could do and I am determined to get off them and stay off them this time.

I have heard a lot on the news about more people abusing prescription drugs and I think that is exactly what they are trying to accomplish.

I am interested in any links that can help further my own research on this subject.

Thanks again!