Illegal Drugs, including cocaine and heroin, are responsible for an estimated 10,000-20,000 American deaths per year. Prescription drugs taken as prescribed in hospitals are the fourth leading cause of death in the US and Canada, after cancer, heart disease and strokes.They cause about 10,000 deaths a year in Canada and about 106,000 deaths a year and over two million serious injuries in the US. All drugs cause adverse effects. The only difference between a drug and a poison is dosage.Sixteen major drugs have been pulled off the North American market since 1997 for injuring or killing patients.Before Merck's Vioxx was pulled from the market, scientists at the FDA estimated that Vioxx caused between 88,000 and 139,000 heart attacks, probably 30%-40% of them fatal for an estimated 55,000 deaths.
Over-the-counter drugs also cause many deaths. Merck, paid billions of dollars in damages, but how many people went to prison over this mass-murder conviction? That would be NONE.Every year, more than 15,000 patients die in North America from ordinary aspirin and Ibuprofen. Tylenol is the cause of thousands of hospital admissions and hundreds of deaths annually in North America.
Big pharma spends upwards of $20,000 per doctor a year to create debts of gratitude,through their drug information at Continuing Medical Education conferences or meetings
held at expensive restaurants, resorts or on exotic trips sponsored by the drug companies. Doctors in North America accept $ 4 billion per year in free samples of the newest and most expensive drugs and use them to create debts of gratitude in their patients. Big Pharma companies are not required to report adverse reactions to their drugs using worldwide totals and only report the injuries and deaths that occur in each jurisdiction,a much smaller number. Safety information is viewed as “commercial secrets.” This makes it impossible for regulators to determine how dangerous the drugs truly are.
Pharmageddon
Death by medicine is a 21st-century epidemic, and America's "war on drugs" is clearly directed at the wrong enemy. Pharmageddon is the prospect of a world in which medicines and medicine produce more ill-health than health, and when medical progress does more harm than good and it is no longer a prospect but fully upon us. Those most at risk from dying from this new drug crisis are people you would least expect; the analysis revealed the death toll is highest among people in their 40s, but all ages, from teenagers to the elderly, and all walks of life are being affected. In fact, prescription drugs are now the preferred "high" for many, especially teens, as they are typically used legally, which eliminates the stigma of being a "junkie."
Nearly 20 percent of Americans have used prescription drugs for non-medicinal reasons, three-quarters of whom may be abusing them. Legal prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic, and is part of the reason why the modern American medical system has become the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.
In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related visits to U.S. emergency rooms nationwide,8 with more than half due to adverse reactions to prescription medications – most of which were being taken exactly as prescribed
The "war on drugs" has focused nearly exclusively on the illegal trafficking of drugs like cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, while the most powerful drug dealers of all -- the pharmaceutical companies -- are allowed to grow their businesses with the U.S. government's gold seal of approval.
