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Greetings,
It's been a crazy couple of weeks here. I'm still playing catch up on work. Instead of getting somebody to cover my work, I'm having to do my work that was supposed to be done weeks ago while we were gone plus the current load. Talk about work overload!
I'm sure some of you saying that big pharma wouldn't contribute to an illegal activity like the manufacturing of Meth. But they are hand in hand with the cooks. An article in the Mother Jones magainze - August 2013 caught my eye so I quickly glanced over it. Then I flipped a few pages back & came across an article titled "Merchants of Meth." The depths that these people will go to is unconscionable.
Up until 1976, pseudoephedrine was strictly a prescribed drug, it wasn't available over the counter. When a lawmaker Rob Bovett asked that the drug be put back behind the counter but could be bought without a prescription, lobbyist refused to allow this so the drug remained on the main floor of pharmacies. A limit on how many could be bought was eventually put into place but drug cookers could go thru lines & purchase as many as they needed for what they needed. This is called smurfing
Why is big pharma allowed to support the meth industry? How much money are they making off the meth dealers? It is estimated that big pharma makes $605 million off pseudoephedrine sales annually. The annual cost of the Meth epidemic, including law enforcement & child protection - $23.4 billion.
$32 million goes towards the costs of injury & death from meth.
$29 million in meth lab clean up fees.
21,000 children are affected annually by meth labs
4,154 are jailed annually as a result of meth
Look at the annual cost of the meth epidemic again - $23.4 billion. That is more than what big pharma makes off this illegal industry. 25 states have considered prescription legislation on pseudoephedrine but only 2 states have passed it. That is how much pull these lobbyist have in the state capitols.
I have a saying around here when we are selling something on Craigslist - Money talks, bullshit walks. (sorry if I offended anyone there) Big pharma likes to talk with their money into getting bills passed or not passing bills to pad their pockets even more. If a lawmaker can pad his pockets by voting or debating a bill a certain way then they'll do it. When I was out in Lincoln, NE this past March, I exposed the financial connection between Sanofi & the senator who keeps introducing these new vaccine bills. People like to keep their sponsors happy.
Here in Iowa, the cold meds that contain pseudoephedrine are put behind the pharmacy counter. When a person is buying some they have to produce an ID, sign a sheet & give their info, there is also a limit on how many they can buy. This information goes into a registry so those who are buying consistently can show possible meth lab activity.
Also, the makers of Anhydrous ammonia are putting an additive into anhydrous to make it useless for meth manufacturers.
In the State of Kentucky, a a group called Consumer Healthcare Products association spent $303k over a 3 week period. They represent the makers of over the counter medications. No other group has ever spent that amount of money in that short period of time.
Every time there is a bill introduced to combat the meth problem, the lobbyist for big pharma throw money at it to do defeat it.
Ultimately who are the losers in this game that is played out every session? The children of meth users & the meth users themselves. Take a look at the faces of meth -
http://fav-meth-head-of-the-day.com/faces-of-meth/
Until we see big pharma gagged, their bank accounts emptied & all of their licenses taken away, we'll continue to see problems like this.
Not only are they injuring & killing kids by the thousands. They are targeting the thousands of meth users in this country by keeping pseudoephedrine purchasing legal in the form of an over the counter medication.
When do we say enough is enough?
I'm hoping when I go to DC, which has been reschedule from Nov. 13th to Dec. 4th, to pass this message along - How long do we allow a drug company to dictate laws in this country?
The buck stops here & now. No more.
Until next time, stay warm my friends.
Lori
Sources -
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/meth-pseudoephedrine-big-pharma-lobby
http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/blog/1865/big_pharma_won't_embrace_drug_designed_to_prevent_meth_production/
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/26/226476602/big-pharma-and-meth-cooks-agree-keep-cold-meds-over-the-counter
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