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The United States Justice Department charges that under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), cigarette companies have deceived the public for decades in an effort to sell their products. Few would deny the deceptions, except perhaps the tobacco companies themselves. But what's most intriguing about this effort to prosecute Big Tobacco for racketeering is that the racketeering charges almost perfectly describe the behavior of Big Pharma (drug companies) today.

Consider: the charges against Big Tobacco are based on what the Justice Department calls the "seven pillars of fraud," according to the New York Times: that the companies denied the damaging health effects of smoking; promoted what they described as independent research, which they financed; denied that smoking was addictive; denied that cigarette makers manipulated the level of nicotine in their products; promoted cigarettes that were called "less hazardous," against scientific evidence that they were not; marketed to children as young as 12; and suppressed evidence to keep documents out of the public realm and litigation.

Let's look at these more closely to see how they resemble the actions of Big Pharma today:

The companies denied the damaging health effects of smoking
Today, drug companies deny the damaging health effects of taking prescription drugs. As literally hundreds of thousands of Americans are killed each year by prescription drugs, including at least 27,000 by Vioxx (or 56,000+ if you believe senior FDA researcher Dr. David Graham), the drug companies deny their products are dangerous at all. Even after drugs like Rezulin are recalled, no drug company admits they caused any damage to the health of anyone.

Promoted what they described as independent research, which they financed:
The drug companies are doing the exact same thing. They're funding so-called "independent research" that is actually highly-distorted science, carefully designed to minimize the dangerous side effects of drugs while exaggerating (or outright inventing) apparent benefits. Clinical trial researchers, for their part, know that if they don't produce positive results for the drug companies, they'll never find work in the industry again. Here's another example of fraud: many so-called "peer reviewed" articles published in medical journals are actually ghost-written by drug companies themselves, even while the names of other doctors (who receive $10,000 checks if they go along with the scam) appear as the "authors."

Denied that smoking was addictive:
For their part, the drug companies have denied that antidepressant drugs cause children to commit suicide and think violent thoughts. Yet the evidence has been clear for years. In fact, one drug company actually buried their own evidence showing a strong link between SSRI drugs (antidepressants) and suicidal thoughts in children. Still today, nobody talks about the fact that the two Colombine High School killers were taking antidepressant drugs when they slaughtered their classmates with automatic rifles. Nor that Phil Hartman's wife, who killed the famous comedian and then took her own life, was also on SSRIs. There are probably tens of thousands of violent acts (including suicides) committed each year in the United States alone that are caused by antidepressant drugs, yet Big Pharma denies everything.

Denied that cigarette makers manipulated the level of nicotine in their products:

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Related Articles: • Psychiatric Drugs: Chemical Warfare on Humans - interview with Robert Whitaker • The great direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising con: how patients and doctors alike are easily influenced to demand dangerous drugs • The raw (and ugly) truth about the war on drugs	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/002469_drugs_drug_companies_tobacco.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/002469_drugs_drug_companies_tobacco.html">Big Tobacco racketeering charges mirror pharmaceutical industry crimes</a>