Originally published October 11 2005
A look at the new book, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds and Bodies
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Julie Mayeda's review of Greg Critser's expose, "Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds and Bodies," situates the book in a line of recent publications all denouncing the practices of the pharmaceutical industry.
Last year, the former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell, turned the heat on Big Pharma with the publication of her measured yet scalding disclosure, "The Truth About Drug Companies."
Simply put, we are a nation on drugs; half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug daily, and of that half, 1 of 6 pop three or more per day.
How did we become a nation of pill poppers -- we, whom Critser has aptly labeled Generation Rx?
Thanks and blame go to Big Pharma, marketer of the pills that help fuel our culture's frenetic work pace and high expectations, and in the process has elevated itself from a stodgy flat-lined industry to Wall Street darling.
Its success had more to do with persuading Washington bureaucrats to lower and sometimes obliterate barriers put in place to keep consumers safe and protect them from being swindled.
First, Big Pharma persuaded policymakers to drop the requirement that advertisements include a time-sapping list of all of a drug's side effects.
Then, as Critser points out, the Bayh-Dole Act was passed by Congress in 1981, which made it easier for companies to use research discoveries originated from publicly funded laboratories.
Thus, instead of incurring research and development costs, Big Pharma now enjoyed the option of buying patent rights from National Institutes of Health scientists for lucrative drug discoveries.
The "Middle-Year Tribe" members feel compelled to maintain or boost productivity on the one hand while staving off the aging process on the other.
For us, Big Pharma proffers pills for heartburn, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, depression or all of the above.
According to one expert on liver disease quoted by Critser, "In the United States drug-induced liver disease is the most common cause of acute liver failure."
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