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The Public Citizen is reporting that $48 million has been set aside by the makers of the antidepressant/ anti-anxiety drug Paxil.  They have even gone as far as promoting it on You Tube.  The short of it is that parents can get reimbursements for the money they spent on buying the drug for their child under 18.  It’s part of a class-action lawsuit because the drug was fraudulently promoted to doctors to give to children, despite its heavy and dangerous side effects.  For more info check out the Paxil Payback website.

Despite loving the fact that these guys have to admit wrongdoing and pay for it, I am still upset that criminal charges aren’t brought against these companies for their deliberite deception that has resulted in trauma and death too many times to be excusable (as in the Oxycontin verdict).  They either need to pay so much they go out of business or go to prison for millions of accounts of assualt.

I spent half an hour on the phone with a mother last night talking about finding drug-free treatment for her 19 yr old daughter who was on heroin.  She seemingly agreed with everything I was talking about until she told me her daughter needed to stay on her anti-psychotic medication, Seroquel, for some “BS” bipolar diagnosis.  I asked her if she knew how bad of a drug that it was, and that there were currently lawsuits being filed against its makers and those of similar drugs.  I asked her if she knew that these drugs can cause diabetes.  She didn’t seem to care. “I can’t deal with her when she stops taking her meds,” the mother explained.  I told her about the withdrawal effects and the other side effects, and she agreed that they were dangerous, but couldn’t personally handle her daughter when she stopped taking it.  I told her about the trained professionals and doctors that can help her daughter get off that drug safely, and she was still hesitant.  However, knowing that it was damaging, she then shifted the blame to her daughter, saying, “I tried to get her to stop, but she wants to keep taking it.” 

She asked me if I had any proof to back up what I was saying, and I said of course.  All she had to do was read the packaging of the drug itslef.  The psychiatrists and other doctors who prescribe these drugs pass off theory as being truth and blindly believe what the drug makers tell them, with little evidence from the fictitious studies they’re shown.  Instead they’ll listen to a drug company-paid “expert” doctor, even though right there on the packaging the company has to plainly (but in small print) write that they don’t know what causes the disorder, that they don’t know if the drug works, but that they believe it could help and a study showed that not too many people were hurt by it. 

 The underlying element here is that too many parents have given up on finding out for themselves.  They listen to their doctor, who is really no more educated on how damaging these drugs are than you or me, and would rather find a pill that keeps them managable for a short period of time than find a permanent solution to the problem.

Fresh from the newsletter of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA):

“Earlier this week, the United States Senate passed S. Res. 225, a resolution designating August 2007 as “National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month.” The move comes after recent studies have unveiled an alarming trend among young people who intentionally take large amounts of cough medicine to get ‘high’ from the active ingredient dextromethorphan (DXM).”

 Wow.  I am moved with the sincerity of this.  Somebody pulled a PR move to save a bit of face and decided to tell kids “it’s okay to take drugs in the right amounts for the right reasons”.  They already get that message on the television every day.  Not to mention the fact that when they go to the doctor now days, they’re told that it’s all “medicine”, in an attempt to lessen the severity of the fact that they’re still drugs. 

Yes, kids need to know about the dangers of DXM abuse, but what about teaching parents not to buy it, or stores not to carry it, or companies not to sell it? Hah!  Good luck with that one.  “Why would we sacrifice billions of dollars for kids’ well-being when we can spend a few million on some public service announcements?”  That should be the slogan for drug makers.  I actually saw a commercial today for Celexa that was practically bragging that it hadn’t been pulled off the market yet, and that other drugs in the category were just as dangerous, so why not buy some if it kills the arthritis pain?! Why didn’t they just stay “We didn’t get caught yet, so we’re going to try and squeaze a bouple billion more dollars out of consumers before we have to pay dearly like Vioxx”?

Guess what?  If all people had these three basic pieces of information regarding drugs and fully understood them, then we would have a lot less problems in the world.  The first point is that all drugs are basically toxic to a person’s body.  Something as simple as OTC medicines can be fatal if somebody takes enough of it.  The second point is that all drugs have some type of side effects.  In this case, some side effects can be completely devastating, like anti-psychotic medications causing diabetes, antidepressants increasing suicidal thoughts (and causing impotence), and the no brainer – that painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs (Xanax, Valium, etc.) are ADDICTIVE!  Come on, people.  As long as you’re taking drugs to try and solve your problems, you’re always going to have new problems, and the old ones usually don’t go away either.

I communicate with people around the country nearly every day who are searching for help for loved ones addicted to alcohol and other drugs.  The thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many drugs that the family members are on too, thinking that they’re perfectly normal because their doctor prescribed them.  A definite recurring theme on the Drug-Free Alliance website is that pharmaceuticals can be every bit as dangerous and deadly as street drugs, and that the very information that is fed to the doctors who prescribe them is falsified by the ones who make them.  This isn’t just true for the heavy prescription drugs like painkillers and anti-anxiety medications, but many other types of commonly used drugs and over-the-counter products as well.  A good source fo drug-free information is NewsTarget.com.  Check it out, you just might learn something!

Welcome to the Drug-Free Alliance blog. It is way overdue for many of you who continue to check back for updated news.  It also allows us to post news and other tidbits inbetween full articles.  We will do our best to provide current, useful information on drug-free living regarding the topics we’re most concerned about, and your comments and discussion are certainly welcome.