Pharmaceutical Corruption : Drugs At The Innocent Age Of Two

With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).

The rise in drug prices is causing the public to ask why this is so and why there isn’t anything being done, or what the reason could be for sky high prices. Some of the reasons include pharmaceutical companies setting their drug prices

"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in

Sweeping the nation on a mass caliber is the opioid crisis. Stories have been depicted by every news channel across the nation on the crisis that has destroyed countless individuals lives. According Alanna Semuels's article, "Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?", she reports the fault of the calamity. Semuels points out that the perpetrator of this utterly horrendous plague is the doctors who have over-prescribed medication, as well as the pharmaceutical industry. This crisis has been slowly evolving over the past decades but is only now making its way into the mainstream media headlines. The pharmaceutical industry has been steadily infiltrated its' way into all arrangements of healthcare in the sole pursuit of gaining

Here in America, there is an ongoing tragedy ceaselessly unfolding right before our eyes. Beyond the calamities of gun violence, the loss of innocent lives through ruthless crimes and deadly motor vehicle accidents, there is a crisis occurring in the very homes of many Americans. There is a proceeding addiction to the pill bottles hidden behind bathroom mirrors, needles poking through the surface of fragile skin to get a “fix”, and prescriptions being written left and right with the intention to help but the potential to kill. Here in America, over 115 people die every single day from overdosing on opioids and this is a reality that has been nothing short of deadly since as early as 1990.

In the article, “Don’t blame addicts for America’s opioid crisis. Here are the real culprits” by Chris McGreal, America’s widespread opioid problem is discussed. Primarily, McGreal points the finger at multiple sources such as the FDA, pharmaceutical companies, and the government for aggravating the opioid problem. According to the author, “America’s opioid crisis was caused by rapacious pharma companies, politicians who colluded with them and regulators who approved one opioid pill after another” (McGreal). However, McGreal believes that there are multiple causes for the deadly opioid epidemic that exists today. Next, McGreal states that money is one of the main reasons for the epidemic of opioids. The author asserts that patients are given

We in America tend to take medications for almost any problem we have, from headaches to gastrointestinal pain, to more serious chronic disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder. While many of the uses of such medications may be necessary and legitimate, many are not, and due to this fact, many people become dependent on medications, mentally, and or physically. This problem is not simply the fault of the individual; in fact, the blame can also be placed upon the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies who produce the drugs. How often can one turn on the television to see advertisements for Claritin, Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, or even Zoloft or Ritalin? The pharmaceutical industry is motivated by monetary

Something is wrong with the focus on the "drug war" when 200,000 people die each year from prescription drugs, yet only 20,000 die from illegal drug use. Adverse reactions of prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death in America. In fact, people have a seven times greater chance of dying walking into their doctor's office than they do getting behind the wheel of their car! Every year approximately 200,000 souls die from prescription drug reactions with another 80,000 dying from medical malpractice (The International). Where is the FDA? Why do they continue to allow doctors to prescribe these drugs? How could they let it get to this point? What once was believed to be a

In the video Escape Fire, I was so flabbergasted by the numbers and health outcomes we as a society have let our nation become. One of the most heart-wrenching evidence is, even though our health care industry is so expensive our health outcomes are the worse. 75% of disabilities and dead’s are preventable, according to the film.

People all over the world, continue to be tendered prescription medication, which in many cases further complicate health issues with its myriad of side effects. In fact, statistics have shown that approximately 100,000 people around the world die as a result of prescription drugs annually (Smith, 2012). On the contrary, according

In the United States of America, there is prescription drug abuse epidemic that continues to be a growing concern. Prescription drugs cause a large amount of overdoses and result in an abundant amount of deaths each year. A government study conducted shows this epidemic is scarily on the rise, “A recent government study found a 400% increase in prescription drug abuse between 1998 and 2008” (Schreiner 531). The excessive use of prescription drug abuse is leading to nonmedical use of the drugs, and creating addiction. Furthermore society is paying an extreme amount of money in this battle. With this drug abuse on the rise, legislators must create a law preventing doctors and pharmacists from over prescribing prescription medications as well a law to require they both participate in drug monitoring programs to prevent drug abuse. Now is the time that doctors and the pharmaceutical industry must be held accountable for their role in causing one of America’s worst addictions. The over medication of prescription drugs in the United States must be brought to an end by legislators creating laws to stop

Even though people need their prescriptions, the abuse of them is getting out of control and we need to find a way to regulate it better,because it can destroy a family, cause some to become addicted, or even kill them. Prescription drugs are no joke, they can be worse than illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and even heroin. The only difference is a doctor can prescribe these types of drugs. The problem we run into with prescription drugs is there is not enough being done to keep the person from becoming addicted or them selling to others. In 2007 2.5 million Americans abused just painkillers (Drug free world). That is not even including the other two types. Now it is starting to affect teens, one out of every ten teenagers admit to abusing a prescribed drug(Drug-free world).

Legalization of drugs has been a very controversial issue in the United States for many years. Drugs being legalized can have both advantages and disadvantages on society. On one hand, certain drugs, such as aspirin has long been used as a common medicine to many people, to cure diseases and help people with their personal problems such as headaches, toothaches, to name a few. Some people even take the drug daily as a therapy to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes. On the other hand, legalization of all drugs could potentially lead to over use; putting the young generations at great risk due to their unawareness of the effects and damages some substances can cause. This issue becomes directly connected to the

Americans have come to rely heavily on medicine. There is a pill for every problem we can think of and we are allowed to ask for a specific drug from our physician and even demand it. In reality, all of these drugs and medicines can cause a lot more harm than treatment. “There has also come the appalling realization that adverse drug reactions-due in large part to well-intentioned but irrational prescribing-are now responsible for a million or more hospital admissions annually in the United States alone, tens of millions of days of prolonged hospitalization, thousands of preventable deaths, and the resultant expenditure of billions of dollars each year”(Silverman) . The instant we feel a pain or think we have some sort of social issue we do

On a global scale the interweaving and the pharmaceutical industry seem to do the opposite of this; skewing practise to over prescription of medication.