US Sales of Psychotherapeutic Drugs by year 1987 $2 Billion 1992 $4 B 1997 $8 B 1998 $12 B 2000 $23 B 2005 $42 B (estimated) A Nation of legal junkies?
Also added to the equation should be the rising cost of drugs. I personally believe them to be artificially induced and not market driven. To this aspect is an investigation which has just started in which a major drug manufacturer is accused of conspiring with a generic manufacturer to delay the release of a generic equivalent and so keep the prices artificially high.
It occurs to me that those who take these drugs should push to have Canabis legal. I mean $42 billion is a lot and probably 84 million people taking the drug (assuming $500 spending per year).
im a high school student and the large amount of other students on antidepressants, antipsychotic, ADD, or other psychological drugs is mind blowing. When asked why they take it or what it does for them they're clueless. Selling their meds is a big thing for the people who need a quick, fairly legal high. It's amazing how they are prescribed like nothing else. Why are we so dependant on these drugs??
Because, it is all in the mind. Chances are that those who take drugs grow up in a very strict family or half a family (single parent). There is more drug abuse in Mormon families than the non-Mormon kind of similar social standing. I think, soft drug use will slowly go down as families get somewhat liberal. Hard drugs such as LSD etc is a whole different issue. Overall - it is a social issue that should be researched with a open mind similar to our divorce rates...and truth should be told....otherwise we will get nowhere....
a reply Just a minor note on this point. I think that one of the many hurdles America has to overcome in order to legalize Marijuana is the fact that if it were legalized, the criminal justice system would no longer be the primary beneficiary of fines and court cost paid by people cited with and convicted of Marijuana use. Even if the charges are dropped or there is no conviction, one must still pay the court cost. If Marijuana were legal and simply taxed, then the proceeds from it would be a better posistion to have a more flexible role in exactly how it might be used; like mabye to improve a school or county road instead of building a new prison to house drug offenders. The government is going to make money off of Marijuana use whether it is legal or not. While keeping it illegal though, we are keeping the money made from it in the hands of the police and criminal justice system which is using that money to keep our prisons full while our schools crumble. At least with prescription drugs, the taxes generated from them can benefit society in a far more postive manner.
I have a deep hatred for high school kids who buy Prozac and other antidepressents from their friends and then go around acting like "wee! I am so high! the world is such a happy place!" For one thing, those drugs aren't in a person's blood enough in one dose and require weeks of pill popping before minimal (if any) results start to show. So those people walking around saying,"man, I just took a Zoloft and I'm feeling crazy" are just acting and if they do think they feel something it's a placebo effect at best.
drugs It's a good point though... DO all those people need the drugs?? Say half the people taking Prozac/Zoloft or whatever actually DO have a serotonin imbalance and can function significantly better on medication than without it: -does that represent an increase from the past? -was it in someway beneficial at some point but in todays world is a handicap? -have a huge number of people just been really really depressed to the point of reduced functioning throughout history? - is it an environmental effect (artificial lighting playing havoc with our brains as a completely made up and random example) Anyone Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I just have to wonder how any of my generation made it to maturity with out the drugs… The application of modern sales techniques to doctors and pharmacists is a large part of the problem. Go to a pharmacist and ask for a cough medicine and they will offer you the brand you most recognize, seen on TV.. the one with the highest coverage. You are being sold the most expensive product almost always. Unusually with the excuse of having to cover a higher advertising budget. Yes you might think it is the advertising to you, what you see on TV and billboards. But is the lobbing of government, of doctors and pharmacists, seminars, kickbacks, flights to exotic places to show just how you used the trade marked product to do your stuff. After the pharmacist shows you the brand name, ask him or her for a generic product. The ingredients are exactly the same but the price is about the 2/3 of the main choice.. Any wonder the drug industry is growing.. The Quack’s have found a new market.. Doctors. <b>I see they have got to you all as well..</b> PROZAC ® is a registered trademark of Eli Lilly and Company. Its not PROZAC but fluoxetine hydrochloride.. Don’t ask for PROZAC, ask for a generic brand containing fluoxetine hydrochloride.. The are also a number of other drugs with the same action.
except you do go "wheeee" when you crush and snort it, which is what alot of said kids do....different delivery mechanism, different effect. and in the past 3 years, two of the major pharmacutical co's in the US have been convited of illegal monopolistic price fixing. At least two that I heard about, there may have been more. and yes, the US likes to spend money to make ourselves happy. It seems to vasilate between drugs and material wealth, and as long as the drugs are legal, we tend to go for the drugs. At least the side effects of the legal drugs are fairly well publicised.
so true....swallowing and snorting are very different effects on the user's mind, but also on their exaggerations of their highs.
Much agreed kmguru. Look at how drug advertising has increased in the last 10 years. I'd also add the factor of our ever so pressing society. Maybe social demands are pushing humans past some of our natural limits.
I think that the reason so many people are on anitdepressants is that our society has every thing so ass-backwards. We put our emphasis on material wealth, we want everything right now, we don't really connect with one another, we are left apart, lonely, despondent. Our lives lack meaning. Take a look at the media. At what we are taught day in and day out through marketing and tv. We are taught that you must be cool, look a certain way, act a certain way, and own nice things and be successful - monetarily. We are not taught to connect with one another. We are only taught to alienate, judge. Survival of the fittest and shit like that. If we spent as much time and energy getting to know one another without judging each other as we do trying to be the social "best", we might actually find meaning in this existence. Plus we want what we want when we want it - always in for the quick fix, so drugs are easy. And, anitdepressants are legal, socially acceptable. I find it no surprise that the numbers are so high. We lazy. We're taught to be lazy - unless it's in the pursuit of something that will increase our social standing. OK now we're getting into my conspiracy theory part. The Western world is ruled by a few and those few have the majority of wealth in this country, right. In order for that to remain so, we - the public need to be distracted and placacted and pouring money into their pockets - therefore consuming. If we actually stopped consuming and maybe turning our attention to things a little more important, ie. the fact the we are raping and destroying the earth in order to make a buck and keep the rich rich, maybe getting haomeless people off the streets, I don't know, feeding the starving. Okay, I'm tired now, and I can feel my self getting sarcastic. I'm not perfect, I don't mean to preach. I just wanted to say that it's no wonder there's a whole lot of people looking for solace in a bottle. Our lives lack meaning. I am ranting. My apologies. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I agree with you completely. Though you are correct, you are most certainly moving into the territory which alot of people like to label as the "conspiricy nut" area. Doesn't mean it's wrong, doesn't mean it's right. I'd say that, just like everything else, it comes down to fear. The people with moneyare afriad of losing it, so they work hard to keep getting money. They keep getting money by enticing other people to give them money. They do that by either providing a product that the people need in exchange, or by convinsing them that they need a product that they have to offer. I don't see a huge conpiricy to rule the world, I see scared people trying to keep their worlds intact through forced structure. Those worlds are based on money, which is such a fragile basis for a life purpose, that you have to work really hard to keep it intact. Continue to present that image that you are happy because you have stuff - to loose that image is to admit that all you worked for for the last 30 years was pointless. people with no money who are trying to figure out what happiness is see you - all smiles, with your new toy (car, boat, GameCude, whatever), and decide that to be happy, one needs money. So they work hard to get money by selling the same idea to the next guy. It's a very sad system. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And a very easy system to fall into. A very easy system to disprove too. How many poor people commit suicide vs how many rich people commit suicide. Money!=happiness. Yet we still go "ooooooooooooooo!" when the shiney new BMW drives by. At least I go "oooooooooo!" I assume I'm not alone. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Thank you for your response. I think what frustrates me the most is that I see myself falling into that same trap sometimes. Looking at all the pretty shining things that money can buy - looks like happiness. I know it's false, but with sooo many messages to the contrary, it's difficult to see the truth. Besides I think it is easier for you to look for fulfillment from the external than through looking within.
