Pharmaceuticals

I recently watched a disturbing and tragic documentary called “Warning: This Drug May Kill You…” on Sky Atlantic.

It was about the lives of four families devastated by the opioid epidemic, currently facing the US. This documentary just happened to be on, following an article I read online just eight days prior. One of the victims of this tragic account, Brendan Cole, was prescribed opioids following an operation for the removal of a cyst. Four years later, at the young age of 23, he died of a heroin overdose. The programme stated that “91 people die every day from an opioid overdose” but they don’t tell you whether that statistic is a general number, or whether it’s from pharmaceuticals purporting to be “pain killers”.

The article I read online, concerned the outrageous current legal situation of a leading US Pharmaceutical company.

Misuse of Drugs Act 2001

One of their products is an opioid drug and is allegedly killing more people than Heroine and Cocaine combined.

Oxycodone, the actual chemical which is marketed as a brand name, is considered a Class A drug in the UK under the Misuse of Drugs Act 2001.

CNN reported that this company allegedly knew that they were selling a deadly drug and are now involved in 16,000 lawsuits against them.

To sell their product, the company publicly denied any acknowledgement of the truth of the dangers of this product.

The drugs are apparently highly addictive resulting in overdoses and deaths. Due to the number of these fatalities, the company then produced an antidote to overdoses… pushing the sales pitches to the Medical professionals as a “complimentary” product to the Opioids.

The company apparently maintained a register of Drs and Practitioners whom they suspected were giving out inappropriate numbers of Opioid prescriptions, yet they still provided the drugs and collected revenue from those Doctors.

This company is now considering filing for bankruptcy, which would limit its obligatory damages payout.

This is worrying, as we all know when companies file for bankruptcy, they can re-open for business almost straight away under an alternative company name; thus meaning a relatively uninterrupted revenue stream, and a complete lack of culpability.

Addiction and Pharmaceuticals

At the end of the television programme I watched, they concluded with the following facts and I quote:

“Opioid addiction is a chronic, potentially deadly disease that often includes relapse.

Long-term treatment that includes medications like buprenorphine (Suboxone), methadone and naltrexone (Vivitrol) can allow individuals to recover and function normally.

Opioids are effective medicines for short-term use and end-of-life care.

New government guidelines warn doctors that Opioids are neither safe nor effective for long-term daily use.”

Remember Omeprazole?

Also, you may remember a couple of years ago the scandal about Omeprazole – the popularly prescribed heartburn drug, which was proved to be more damaging than good.

The Telegraph published an article about this here.:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/03/heartburn-drugs-taken-millions-may-increase-risk-early-death/

These are just two examples of specific pharmaceuticals containing chemicals which are actually worse for us … Imagine what else is going into other over-the-counter drugs we buy?

Read The Label

Also, next time you are prescribed a drug, take out the leaflet contained inside the box and read it. Read ALL OF IT. What you will see is that actually, in some way, the drug you have been given is actually “possibly” going to cause the very symptoms you went to the Dr about in the first place…. Think about that for a minute.

Then read ALL the side effects of the drug. WHY? WHY? WHY? would you put something synthetic into your system that MAY cause all those effects, just to cure one symptom which this drug might even cause as well?

You tell me – does that make sense?