Wednesday, February 20, 2008

No recourse, of course

For decades, we've been kept in the dark about the risks of drugs because of FDA bias. Now that we finally know more about a few drugs, the government is pushing us to ignore the risks, take the drugs, and not complain when more people die.

The Supreme Court says we can't sue medical device makers if a wrongful death occurs, and apparently the Bush administration made it legal for states to prohibit lawsuits against drug companies for FDA-approved drugs. We already have the pandemic vaccine immunity law. What next?

I have this friend, we'll call her Kate. Kate has been taking antidepressants for years. When she heard about a petition to ban the deadly drugs, she got her panties in a wad. You see, Kate thinks her quality of life depends on the drugs, and she doesn't think we should take them away from her. It's more important that she feels like she will earn an A in her psychiatry 101 class in grad school than it is that my neighbor's daughter is not stillborn. Yep. I see the logic there. Kate says that if she stops taking her drugs, she can't function - at all! So I ask, if you need the drugs then why do you try to stop taking them... no reply.

I have this other story for you... it's about the petition against the MOTHERS Act. (See: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-dangerous-and-invasive-mothers-act) Unfortunately, the hero to so many people - presidential candidate Barack Obama, is a cosponsor of this bill. You see, Barack got all his advice from NAMI. That's pretty much all you have to hear to want to take a pit stop at the airsickness bag aisle of your brain's mental grocery store.
Listening to anything that the wonderful people over at NAMI have said is like agreeing with George Bush if he tells you to waste gas when it costs $3 per gallon, or buying a shirt with giant holes in the breast area. It's a bit counterproductive and stupid. And bad for everyone (ok except the breasty shirt holes idea, that might come in handy for nursing or something!).

When the NIU shooting story first came on the air, I was in the middle of dinner at our local pizzeria with my family. It was Valentine's day. I have to say I really wasn't shocked. I was sad, and just waiting for the news of which drugs the shooter had taken. It turns out, he stopped Prozac 3 weeks before killing all those people. Yet, he was still taking 2 other psych drugs!

People say, stay on your meds - but that's exactly what leads to deaths like Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith, etc. And Britney's manager is crushing drugs and putting them in her food to keep her quiet.

The "big-brother is quite alright", majorly stupid mentality of this country has got to stop.

Looking for any evidence of Barak's potential innocent ignorance on the MOTHERS Act, I decided to stop off at his website. It says on there that he supports mental health parity as one of his MAIN goals for the country. His estimated impact on the US economy for untreated mental illness is like $100 billion or something like that...

But he doesn't mention the cost of actual treatment of mental illnesses, which I think is a number like $2 trillion per year (is that worldwide or in the US? Not sure, but I think it's just us...). And more important is the cost in lives.

When you add it all up, everyone loses. Drugs that kill. Doctors that force. And treatments that harm and are incredibly expensive. Where does all this money go? Into further efforts to oppress us, take away our rights even more, and kill more people.

The impact in terms of lives is a cost that we can't begin to measure.

How much is my life, or my son's life, or my second baby's life worth to you, or to Barack Obama? I am guessing he would much rather trade my life any day just so he could be president.

Until Barack Obama is enlightened, I can't support his campaign. If you look into other candidates, you might find a few who are actually in favor of securing your rights, not just talking pretty to the masses, and with the corporate stamp of approval.