Have you noticed the increase of drug company advertising directly targeting consumers? By 2011 eMarketer predicts the total pharmaceutical advertising spend will grow to a whopping $40 billion a year.
Pharmaceutical companies are spending billions of dollars a year to spread the word about drug therapies formulated to treat everything from ingrown toenails and insomnia to high cholesterol and depression. How many billions? Well, by 2011 eMarketer predicts the total pharmaceutical advertising spend will grow to a whopping $40 billion. That’s still three year away, but the evidence of Big Pharma’s plans to drug America is easily discerned by watching just about any channel on television today.
Recently, I was watching a TV commercial for a self-proclaimed breakthrough drug I was encouraged to “ask my doctor about.” As I was watching the ad all I could think about was how difficult it must be to produce an appealing promotion for a product that has so many devastating side effects. You’d have to be a marketing genius to peddle some of these drugs. One “pharmaceutical therapy” that aims to help people with insomnia sleep better at night, for example, comes with a laundry list of possible side effects, including but not limited to hives, difficulty breathing, swelling of the face, lips, tongue or throat, impaired thinking, slowed reactions and drowsiness. The commercial admitted the drug can be habit-forming and stopping usage may cause withdrawal symptoms. By taking this drug, then, you can get a good night’s sleep but may wake up with hives and swollen eyes, unable to breathe or drive to work. Wow! Do you still feel you should call your doctor right away? If you do then the marketing team did an award-winning job with its campaign.
It may surprise you to learn that some drug companies are spending more each year on advertising and marketing than on research and development of new products. Roughly $60 billion dollars is spent yearly on illegal drugs in the United States, according to U.S. government estimates. These publicly-traded legal drug dealers, however, are now surpassing illegal drug revenues. Obviously, there are big bucks in the sale of legal drugs. Eli Lilly, maker of Prozac, for example, is a $61 billion company that sells its products in over 140 countries. And who hasn’t seen a commercial about Viagra? This drug is made by drug giant Pfizer, a $170 billion company. Forbes magazine reported that depression drugs like Eli Lilly’s Cymbalta show a sales increase in 2004 up a whopping 727 percent! Read the Full Article
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Mr. Clark,
You have hit a home run on your article on the drugging of America. We now spend 2.1 Trillion Dollars per year on Health Care costs. That’s a whopping $7,000 per person in this country. And our nation ranks dead last in preventable deaths of ALL industrialized nations, according to an article that I read today on the Yahoo News section.
More than half of our country takes dietary supplements to enhance their health. And yet, it is against the law in this country to say that any food or dietary supplement cures, treats, mitigates, or prevents disease conditions. Do you know why? Because according to the laws of this land, only pharmaceutical drugs can make such claims. The company that I have been associated with over the past 13 years, Mannatech, is being sued right now by the Attorney General of Texas for sharing truthful, non-misleading testimonies of what our dietary supplements have done in people’s lives to help them with their health situations. In that lawsuit, it says that if a claim is made that our supplements have a positive affect on any disease condition, the classification of that supplement goes from being a dietary supplement to a drug.
This is not only true for us, but has been true of many other foods and companies as well. In fact, the FDA position paper that was written in December 2006 says that no food can make any claim for any health condition, but only for supporting the structure and function of the human body. Is it any wonder that we’re in the position that we’re in?
Why doesn’t the media pick up on this idea? You said it in your article…They stand to make $40 billion by the year 2011, just in advertising of pharmaceutical drugs alone. Why would they want to expose anything that might put that revenue at risk?
Thanks so much for your article. It is a breath of fresh air to see the truth come out.
Blessings,
Jim Illick
To Jonas Clark, When I first became a Christian 22 years ago, I was going through a lot of anxiety and depression and was put on several drugs. I also had Christian counseling. Being a baby Christian at the time, the drugs did help me. By the grace of God after about three years I dropped the drugs (lithium & Xanax) and trusted God to keep me stable. This was a decision that did not come without much prayer. I understand to a degree, about the spiritual side to all of this. My question to you is have you ever been through a clinical depression or had high anxiety and attacks so bad you would black out? What is your personal experience? Are you qualified to give a view point or are you just a good writer. With no disrespect to you. It is a past hell I went through and the gained victory is what causes me to be a little touchy on this subject, for give me.
My reply to your article is I believe your point is well taken about the over use of drugs, people just want a fix me pill without getting to the root of the problem. Dangers to the side effects of legal drugs. However to those who are on the brink of suicide I am not convinced ALL drugs are evil. Not to say that what the article is saying, but the article leaves you with an assumption that anti depressants are intrinsically bad because of the possible side effects. (I personally would tell a person to try St. John’s Wart first. This herb is much less risky) Also, the people are caught in “The love of money” who sell and introduce the drugs, are they ALL bad?
The article never mentions a counter point. How about the the doctors who love the patients and are not in it for the “greed” but just want to see them feel better. They know the risks but feel it is worth the risk in lieu of percent of actual bad cases. Lets face it, a lot of warnings are written then reviewed by lawyers then rewritten to protect the drug companies.
(I think I was told on a product warning to wear safety glasses using some simple tool like a screw driver, go figure.)
We must be very careful not to give a one sided report. If you have test reports and clear evidence like the FDA is in bed with the drug companies, Marketing plans that tell doctors to push more drugs on people at the expense of the well being of the patients or other reports, then expose it as sin. Cases here and there that surface do not prove anything but are just warnings to us to be careful, right?
Remember, there are people who may be reading this article that may be in bad shape and the church body that are in is not equipped to deal with them or they are not in a fellowship, the “drug” could be the only God send they have for a hope to get better.
Take care, Larry Lasich
Kudos Apostle!
Great information in this article on all areas. First, I’d like to comment regarding the side effects. If the pharma companies are making that much money off of their advertised drugs, surely Satan has been absolutely successful in blinding the eyes and clouding the minds of most of the t.v. viewers. If we are in our right minds, how can we look at a commercial and accept the lies, seeing and knowing that it will cause harm in many other areas of our bodies and lives even if the drugs can supposedly help the “ONE” area we are trying to get help in? Personally, I’d rather have one or two or even three sleepless nights than to mess up countless other areas of my life.
Yes, having little sleep is quite miserable and nobody likes it, but I’d rather work on one problem rather than have several to deal with if I had the choice. Maybe Prov 3:24 might help some of these folks. This passage deals with “the rewards of keeping wisdom & discretion as life and grace for ourselves”. We will walk safely & not stumble; and when we lie down, we won’t be afraid & our sleep will be sweet.
The devil, satan, loves to have our minds tortured and our imaginations played with. He’s running through the playgrounds of our minds and he’s having BIG fun! But we can shorten his play time. I have noticed that many times if I cannot sleep, I will either read the Bible, begin to pray, or start to recall some scriptures…and you know what? Many times I quickly fall asleep. You see, the enemy would rather my being asleep as opposed to having my mind plugged up and bombarded with God’s good stuff while he is standing around being a witness. So rather than listening to good stuff, the enemy leaves me alone and allows me to sleep. We can shut him down, y’all!
In the USA, the cost of living is always going up. Just like this is true for the average Joe, it’s true for the Big Wigs over the pharma companies too. They are doing whatever it takes in order to maintain and/or surpass their standard of living. Just like we want a good salary/income so that we can tithe, pay our bills, get a better/bigger apartment/house, a better car, and take a vacation, the pharmas also want gigantic profits/salaries so that they can give to charities and get a fat writeoff (did they really give then, is most of it coming back into their own pockets?), they will probably say that they need a newer/bigger castle/mansion, car, yachts, more elaborate vacations, etc. There is nothing wrong with having the finer things, but it seems like “we” are trying to do it fairly and honestly; whereas the “pharmas” are getting theirs at the expense, detriment, and demise of the rest of us. How many of these mind/body-altering drugs do “they” put into “their own” bodies? I’m sure not as many as they would prescribed for the rest of the world.
They don’t care about anyone else except themselves and lining their pockets. It is true when the Bible says that the “love” of money is the “root” of ALL evil. These people should not have the right to give authority to so many others to prescribe such drugs to unsuspecting people who “might” get sick. God gave us our free will and our imagination. If it’s ok with the Maker, Creator, and Giver of all life for us to wonder about, think about and question where we are going with our future, who is mankind (pharma) to say we are “sick” because we are still seeking direction for our lives? Matt 6:33 says that we are to seek “first” the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the other things will be added unto us. Maybe some of these people just have not found the Lord yet. Did ANYONE suggest that the people maybe take a trip to their neighborhood church first before prescribing medicine for a sickness that they “say” they might have?! Jim I., one of the commenters on this article, made a great point when he asked, “Why would they want to expose anything that might put that revenue at risk?”. It’s all about the money.
Many people see that they are getting old… getting on towards that “death” age, so they are trying drugs to live forever. Sorry buddy, forget it. The “first” living forever was taken away from us back in the Garden of Eden because of rebellion and sin. Leave the viagra alone! If you are that desperate, try something natural that won’t kill you or blind you, or give you some other side effects just for a few seconds pleasure. If that doesn’t work… oh well… When it’s over, it’s over. Just enjoy the remainder of your years admiring, in good taste, the beauty that God has made. If you accept Jesus Christ and live and walk in His way, in the “next” life you will be able to live forever… but we will be like the angels (smile).
It’s a shame that fear has to take hold of many people regarding this drug thing. People are not perfect. We all make mistakes (wrong choices, wrong decisions) concerning many areas in our lives. So when that happens, the medical field tells us that we have to take drugs for the rest of our lives. This seems like a form of coercion to me. Even though it is under the guise of help, it appears to be a plan to keep the regular people under the thumbs of some who present themselves as supposing to be smarter than the rest of us. But we would prove to be smarter if we would come into the knowledge of God; acknowledge our errors, faults, and mistakes; repent; make an extra effort to do things God’s way… including reading 1 Pet 2:24, which says that we are healed by Jesus’ stripes; and having the faith of God, believing with our whole heart and not doubting at all that He is able to turn some things around for us, many of us might not have to stay on drugs for the rest or our lives and keep helping the pharmas to send their kids to the best schools, while ours can’t go or are struggling to go; also to help them keep buying the castles to live in and to buy more yachts to go sailing in. With some of that legal drug money that we would have left over (after not having to buy prescriptions any longer), we might be able to move out of an apartment into a better/bigger house, and to buy a better automobile. Using God’s wisdom helps us to do smarter things in our lifetime… for ourselves, for our children, and our great, great grandchildren.
The devil is targeting the younger generation because he knows that God will raise up a standard and he will have to flee from them in seven different ways! He wants to mess up their little minds so that he won’t have to flee. But he heeds to re-read the last book in the Bible. Poor thing, he doesn’t win, no matter what he does. We are the VICTORIOUS…the MORE than Conquerors. True, many of us have messed up in the past but have now received a revelation about God, who He is to us, and His goodness towards us. And we are praying and standing steadfast in the faith for the next generations until Jesus returns. Satan shall NOT have them! They belong to the Lord our God.
One of the Ten Commandments tells us that we have to honor our mothers and our fathers so that our days may be long upon the land which the Lord our God gives us. Well, in this, I think many of us went wrong here with rebellion and disobedience. So we reap what we sow. Many times we beget what we were. Satan was working all the time…in the spirit world, the word tired is not in his dictionary (but he is still defeated). Society was persuaded by satan to take prayer out of the schools; they tried to convince us that spanking the kids was not good while raising a child…now the kids call the police on the parents and the children are given to abusing foster homes. So out of fear, the kids get to raise the parents with threats, violence & abuse, which is not in the plan of God.
We can refer to God’s wisdom and order of things in Prov 13:24…it shows that a man actually hates his child if he spares the rod and does not spank him, but loves him if he disciplines him promptly. Prov 22:15 tells us clearly that “foolishness” is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction drives it far from him. Prov 23:13-14 admonishes us not to withhold correction, that if we beat a child, he will “NOT” die and by beating him, we deliver his soul from HELL. The Bible does not say to use “child abuse”, but it does say to discipline and correct the child with the rod.
The schools, other institutions and the workplace have no tolerance for troubled people or anyone with mental problems. So these people get medicated in order to have a zombie-type existence. What about their purpose and goals in life? Pharmas and some others in society have played God (like satan?, like Nimrod?) and helped to take away lives which they have neither made nor created. By taking away godly aids, now society can’t deal with troublemakers (which many times could be satanic in nature, and not the children themselves, but they just might be in need of deliverance and to be set free). The prayers in schools and the parents being able to give spankings may have helped siciety. Now they’ve created a monster and their only “smart” solution to this big monster problem is to drug them up to be like zombies. God gave us all the right to life and a future, and to have it more abundantly. How can you have an abundant life being all drugged up?
Just like the tyranny which was first brought forth in this country in the coercing and killing of the American Indians to make them get out of the way while the invaders doggedly grabbed up lands which were occupied by more or less peaceful inhabitants and the forced slave labor of the African Americans who were snatched up against their will from their native lands, today the giants in the pharma industry are using the strong arm to get what they want, the way they want it. And it’s all out of selfishness and GREED.
But this is warfare! There are many of us who now know what the problem is with most of these people who have been labelled as “sick” or will become sick because they question their future. Most of them might not know Jesus. Has ANYONE suggested they receive prayer, Christian counsel, or a word about the Lord? They need Him just like we all do, and they probably need to be delivered and set free from some things! So we are praying for them, that they will have ears to hear and that their eyes will be opened to God, to His will, and to His way. Many of these “life-time” users of “legal” drugs will be coming off of these prescriptions and will be able to share with others a new way, a better way…the Way of Christ! Their minds will be transformed, renewed, and they will have the mind of Christ! We are indeed free in Christ Jesus! My Bible tells me in James 5 that the effective, fervent prayer of the righteous avails MUCH! So it’s ON, Baby! I know that “Pharma” is a huge giant, but guess what? So was Goliath, and did he not come down? Did he not fall? Yes he did! And God has a time for your fall too, pharma giant! Glory to God in the highest! Amen
I am a born again, spirit filled believer. I am also a mental health counselor, and I work on the adolescent psychiatric unit of a hospital. I work first hand with children and families who are experiencing emotional crises that prompt them to want to harm or kill themselves, their parents or others. Many suffer from psychotic breaks. These are often great kids from good families, even Christian families, good students, good athletes, no drugs or alcohol, no dabbling in occult or witchcraft. They just wake up to a world of paranoia, suicidal / homocidal ideation and total confusion. Others suffer from a variety of mood disorders that render them unable to function in their homes, schools or communities without being a danger to themselves or others. There was a time when these children would be herded off to a state mental hospital where they would spend months or years, some their entire lifetime institutionalized. They would be given drugs that would make them into zombies…safe to themselves and others, but non functioning. These institutions housed thousands upon thousands of the mentally ill and we’ve all read of the abuses.
These institutions have long since been shut down. There are still psychiatric hospitals, but most house only small populations. In an acute psychiatric unit, such as ours, patients stay usually only a few days to a few weeks and 98% return home. Some require longer stays and go to an intermediate care where they may stay several months. A very small percentage might stay longer than a year, but even there the goal is to return home. The very people who years ago would have been in a mental institution are now your neighbors, a teacher at school, the teller or the president of your local bank, a pastor or deacon in your church. Now as a Christian I would like to attribute this change to some pentecostal / apostolic / prophetic healing. (Do I hear brother Jonas yelling from the back pew: “preach it brother John!”) However, the truth of the matter is that the change came because of those “dirty money loving drug companies.” Millions of people are functioning members of society due to newer medications that have come out in the last 20 - 30 years.
It is easy to make a big hurrah about the abuses of the drug companies and there are many. It’s easy to villify their greed and make them into enemies of the kingdom. Anything that big and that rich has got to be bad to the bone (Goliath!). But as kingdom people we need to look at what is true. I see people helped on a daily basis by these drugs when they are used in a therapeutic manner. Now I attribute this help to the God who is bigger, more powerful and more creative than all of the drug companies put together. He annoints even ungodly men (Cyrus) who have their own agendas, to invent medications that will bless people. Yes psychiatrists don’t talk, they prescribe medications …that’s their expertise. That’s where a counselor like myself comes in to provide the listening / talking part of the therapy. Even though our unit is totally secular, we have a number of born again staff members and no one gets through our unit without a witness and offer of salvation. Several are won to Christ every week. I have seen God miraculously heal depression outright, but it is my prayer is that God will give the church an even more powerful annointing to heal even the worst of the mentally ill. God indeed has something better than drugs to offer the world in the finished work of Christ. But until the church’s delivery system get’s up to par with what we possess in Christ, we should be careful about throwing stones at what is benefical to a suffering world.
In reference to Letter on “Legal Drugs”. I could elaboarte in great depth, but I will sum up my comment with this. The Bible I believe clearly warns of this out of control use of chemicals. Not only in Prescription drugs and stree drugs, but also the mass amount of use of chemicals in everything we ingest. We can also add in countless other items we deal with on a daily basis as innocent as air freshners and microwave ovens. In the Word it states in 2 places for great examples; first one being in Galatians chapter 5:20, the list of works of the flesh we see “Witchcraft” listed. then in Revelations chapter 9:21 we see the use of the word “Sorceries” used in this verse. Both of these words are translated from the greek word “pharmakeia” which we get our word pharmacy from. Clearly the perfect Word of God foretold this matter and is warning against this activity. The scriptures My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, and the love of money is the root of all evil ring loudly in this. The bottom line is, it is all about greed and power. I do not know who said it, but it is a great phrase. When the power of Love becomes greater than the love of power, then we will see the changing power of God manifest. Truly a subject we could much deeper in, but in keeping with our article, thought you might find these points of interest and of use for the Kingdom.
God Bless
Sid Grimes
Five drugs found at Heath Ledger’s death scene. According to Ireland Online some were “anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills.” What do you think? Did prescription (legal) drugs play a part in his death?
The New York City medical examiner said Wednesday that Heath Ledger died from an overdose of painkillers, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication and other prescription drugs. The cause of death was “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine,” said spokeswoman Ellen Borakove. These drugs are found in the painkiller OxyContin, sleep aids Restoril and Unisom and anti-anxiety drugs found in Valium and Xanax. “Hydrocodone is a narcotic that can produce a calm, euphoric state similar to heroin or morphine–and despite such important and obvious benefits in pain relief, evidence is pointing to chronic addiction” says drug-addiction.com. The medical examiner’s statement comes two weeks after the 28-year-old Australian-born actor was found dead in the bed of his rented SoHo apartment. Police found six bottles of prescription drugs in his apartment including a rolled-up $20 bill near the bed. Heath Ledger was a rising star in Hollywood and mourned by his fans and family. Read about the dangers of legal drugs in The Voice magazine, The Drugging of America.