Drugging America: The drug industry exposed Deception for Profits

One more question...how many of you drink alcohol EVER, smoke cigarettes, buy things like Tylenol over the counter EVER, or have smoked marijuana in your life? Hmm. If the answer is "no", you're either Mormon, part of some strange cult, or lying.

Yes, I agree mspray11 with legalizing marijuana. Yes, BIG PHARMA is greedy and corrupt and a lot of the doctors are greedy and sheep. However, those of you who are saying get rid of anti-depressents or other such medications need to get a grip. To the person who said dating someone on anti-depressants is no fun or whatever, BREAK UP with the person and only date "the happy"! What a judgemental snob you are! Maybe NONE of you posting comments have had REAL anxiety or panic attacks like I have. I have PTSD. No, not because I was a soldier, but while we're on that topic, go ask a Veteran how they are coping with THEIR PTSD. I'm sorry, but NOT being on certain medications actually would decrease my quality of life. Oh, and HOW MANY OF YOU WEAR GLASSES???? I say outlaw eyeglasses you big blind WUSSES who couldn't read this silly article in the first place! And tell someone in a wheelchair to stop being such a wimp and start walking. All of you commenting are pretty ill-informed and must lead easy lives free of mental health problems, physical pain, etc. Hey...should I just STOP taking my ASTHMA meds and die from an asthma attack? Should anyone I know with diabetes STOP taking their insulin?

Just like the oil companies, these people are going to control the populous. This is worse. They are creating a bunch of drug addicts legally. The doctors get a kick back from the drug companies for pushing. It kind of makes legalizing Marijuana a no-brainer. A friend of mine from way back used to say that street drugs were better because they were not stomped on with all the chemicals that big pharma uses. Maybe they should stop knocking self-medicators. How many "strickly pot smokers" are jumping of off bridges these days? Talk about highway robbery. The assembly line on these pills is a hell of a lot cheaper than drilling for oil. It doesn't cost them anymore to produce Prozac than it does Flintstone Vitamins. Capitalism is looking pretty grim these days.

Seriously, can we just get America off the meds, dating a person on anti-depressants is not the cats meow.

Nice to see others are becoming more aware... Please check out the Speak Sooth group...

Great Post!! Spread the word!!

Damn and I used to enjoy water, bottled water isn't safe tap water isn't safe, guess we gotta drink beer...lol

So my tax dollars help fund the barrage of ads that raise my blood pressure, interferes with eating and sleeping? And the legal action ads to file claims against these companies are close on their heels to remind me to get compensation for killing me? Messed up! Spend an hour for a favorite 42min show to relax with and have it taken away with 18min of hounding. On my tax dollars, too? Why not R&D better to eliminate that crap!

Pharmaceutical companies control the FDA approval boards by getting their people appointed to them. It is ridiculous. Before you pop a pill (or feed one to your kid), do your own research people!!!

For goodness sake they are prescribing amphetamines to young children!!!

These people have no morals!!!

Zoloft
Eve-xor
Paxil
Nero-tin

All drugs given to me at fourteen thru twenty two because I got pissed off in class and beat the hell out of a kid that shouldn't have talked shit. After I got off the drugs live improved immeasurably and as it turned out I wasn't crazy after all just needed to stop taking there pills. I think their were more but I can't remember them all. "God bless Texas MHMR and mandatory therapy from my juvenile probation officer" I think i should of took the six months in juvy or better yet I should have only hit him twice, its that third punch that got me in trouble.

Time to wake up, get informed and fight back!

"A vast array of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.

How do the drugs get into the water?

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife."

"Ask the pharmaceutical industry whether the contamination of water supplies is a problem, and officials will tell you no. "Based on what we now know, I would say we find there's little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health," said microbiologist Thomas White, a consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

But at a conference last summer, Mary Buzby director of environmental technology for drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. said: "There's no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they're at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms."

Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation."

It's long but well worth reading. Remember......knowledge is empowering.

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/pharmawater_site/day1_01.html