The GOP's Worst Nightmare

@blueveinedthrobber,

The Republican Motto was first voiced by Marx; Groucho, and not Karl: Why should I do anything for posterity??? What has posterity ever done for me???

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@blueveinedthrobber,

What the hell are these 'green' people trying to do? Put the big oil companies, pharmaceuticals, the medical establishment, etc. etc. etc. out of business? It's enough to make any Libertarian seethe.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

What the hell are these 'green' people trying to do? Put the big oil companies, pharmaceuticals, the medical establishment, etc. etc. etc. out of business? It's enough to make any Libertarian seethe.

Seethe away and drop dead too... I am tired of oil companies treating us like idiots selling us our own oil for huge profits and not even paying taxes; and I don't like the drug companies using us for guinea pigs because they do not want to do R and D, but spend our money on buying off the injured, buying off the courts, spinning the issues, advertizing, and damage control... It is time for the people to show business who is the ultimate boss, and that is what government is about...

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@Fido,

Quote:

I am tired of oil companies treating us like idiots selling us our own oil for huge profits and not even paying taxes

Seeing us our own oil? You know that all the oil in the world goes into a big bucket and it is selling it off that way. If we ran our own production pool, you might have a point. Since we are not allowed to drill and use the oil we find for the US only, I don't know what could be changed. Remember OPEC?

Quote:

don't like the drug companies using us for guinea pigs because they do not want to do R and D

We are only used as guinea pigs if you join a drug trial. Do you even know what R&D means? Research and Development, and the drug companies spend huge amounts of money on such things. They just don't throw some stuff together in a pot claim it fixes something and then push it out the door. Remember the FDA?

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@Fido,

You REALLY don't understand sarcasm, huh, Fido?

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@Baldimo,

Um... yes they do. Ever watch late night commercials? It's filled with lawyers attempting to start class action suits for horrible side effects long after the FDA has approved these drugs.
Think thalidomide et al..

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@Ceili,

Actually Thalidomide was never approved by the FDA for use in this country, though it had been approved andf fairly widely used in some European countries. I don't know about Canada..

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@georgeob1,

I was approved here. I know people who still suffer the side effects. This was just one example of a drug rushed into production. I believe they are now studying new ways to use the drug again. However, just last night I heard three separate commercials, one was for babies born with defects or just plain born dead - from I believe Paxil. These class action suits are because most of these drugs weren't fully explored. I have to agree that this is about money and people are often guinea pigs afterwards.
I read somewhere, or maybe I heard it on the radio, that the leading cause of death in hospitals is prescription drug related, not overdoses, bad combos, or drugs that should never be given to certain people, age group etc. Conventional drug mistakes...

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@Ceili,

I think you are being a little harsh. There wasn't as much knowledge then as now about the human genome and the potential for drug induced damage during pregnancy. There's a very difficult tradeoff between the potential benefit a new drug might offer and the time and effort required to ensure that all dangerous side effects are discovered before it is released for sale. Our FDA is more often criticized for taking too long to approve drugs in the pipeline than it is for missing side effects - though both types of error do occur. There are many drugs available in Europe that aren't approved here. Many are very beneficial.

Now with government involved in the payment for health care, I expect we will soon see the government discouraging expensive new drugs targeted at rare diseases for those with little life expectancy remaining. The cheapest way to raise average life expectancy is to ration or deny care to those with little of it remaining.

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@Ceili,

This is not to say that drug companies are not capable of simple mistakes, negligence and even gross negligence, but judging their performance based on the number of vultures advertising for Rx tort class members is hardly scientific or even sensible.

Class Actions, in the US at least, is very big business, and shady business at that. A fair number of the most successful and prominent class action attorneys have been convicted of fraud and/or disbarred.

Drug companies often settle the claims rather than rack up excessive defense costs and the law firms are the ones that profit. The individual class members see very little in the way of compensation.

I've no doubt that left to their own devices, drug companies will cut corners and so I'm not arguing against regulation or individual tort actions, but class actions are, by and large, a sham.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

I agree, you don't see this type of advertising here, on Canadian channels, it's always on American channels. My point is, that I don't believe most drug companies are altruistic in nature, they are there for the profits. And although I think ambulance chasers are the worst type of scum, there is some truth in the ads. These drugs often have side effects that are often worse than the disease.
I remember listening to a member of Parliament a few years ago, his teenage daughter was prescribed a drug for an eating disorder, not bulimia and the like, she had been throwing up, not by her own hand or spoon... The drugs she was prescribed should never have been given to a young girl. This was the fault of her doctor. Often doctors are not really aware of side effects, they don't or cant keep up with all the new RX info. He gave the stats for prescription drug deaths and the number was astounding. He was on a mission to change these devastating numbers.
I've just surfed the net and put in prescription drug deaths, over 3 million pages popped up. Some are obviously caused by overdose and abuse but frequently this is not the case, it's adverse reaction to drugs.
Watch any advertisement for new drugs and the list of side effects is often longer than the rest of the feel good tripe and smiley faces used to promote them.

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@georgeob1,

Harsh? Obviously you've never met anyone who has had to go through life with little or no limbs...
I'm not saying drugs aren't beneficial, I just don't believe drug companies are always in it for the benefit of mankind. If the FDA and similar organizations in other countries really cared, they'd legalize marijuana. Now there's a drug that's been studied to death, with little or no side effects and has been found to be very beneficial for many disorders and yet is still considered dangerous...
It doesn't cause death, or seizures or heart failure, or malformed babies...Things that make you go hmmmmmm

1 Reply

if it don't make me see ****... it's not a good drug.

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@Ceili,

Ceili wrote:

Harsh? Obviously you've never met anyone who has had to go through life with little or no limbs...
I'm not saying drugs aren't beneficial, I just don't believe drug companies are always in it for the benefit of mankind. If the FDA and similar organizations in other countries really cared, they'd legalize marijuana. Now there's a drug that's been studied to death, with little or no side effects and has been found to be very beneficial for many disorders and yet is still considered dangerous...
It doesn't cause death, or seizures or heart failure, or malformed babies...Things that make you go hmmmmmm

Do you believe that marijuana growers are in it for the benefit of mankind? Do you do your job for the benefit of mankind?

The fact is that long term use of marijuana is know to have adverse effects on some elements of brain function. Besides, just like tobacco the complex combustion products in the smoke cause lung cancer.

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@georgeob1,

the only reason marijuana is still illegal, is that there is no money in it for the big drug manufacturers.

they can't market something that folks can grow for themselves...

(and yes, many growers do it for the good of their fellow man)

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@georgeob1,

If I grew it, it would be. And yes, some are.

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@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

The fact is that long term use of marijuana is know to have adverse effects on some elements of brain function. Besides, just like tobacco the complex combustion products in the smoke cause lung cancer.

The fact is that irresponsible use of alcohol is known to kill off brain cells. Alcohol is legal under Fderal statute. Your second sentence is even more irrelevant: tobacco products are also legal.

The only reason marijuana is illegal is because the drug cartels have more pull with the legislature than the superannuated hippies who keep pushing for legalization. The people who become billionaires selling poor grade marijuana on the streets don't want to see it legalized. They'd be out of business if anyone could walk into a pharmacy -- with or without a prescription -- and buy it just like you a pack of cigarettes. And the price would be regulated by government guidelines (just like liquor) not by the vagaries of consumer demand.

When the government does get around to legalizing it (which, I suspect, will be in the not-too-distant future) some Congressmen will be kicking themselves for not having done it earlier -- it's a tax cash cow, for Pete's sake.

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@Baldimo,

Baldimo wrote:

Quote:
I am tired of oil companies treating us like idiots selling us our own oil for huge profits and not even paying taxes

Seeing us our own oil? You know that all the oil in the world goes into a big bucket and it is selling it off that way. If we ran our own production pool, you might have a point. Since we are not allowed to drill and use the oil we find for the US only, I don't know what could be changed. Remember OPEC?

Quote:
don't like the drug companies using us for guinea pigs because they do not want to do R and D

We are only used as guinea pigs if you join a drug trial. Do you even know what R&D means? Research and Development, and the drug companies spend huge amounts of money on such things. They just don't throw some stuff together in a pot claim it fixes something and then push it out the door. Remember the FDA?

Clearly, You have never had to look at a thalidamide baby... You cannot watch television without seeing lawyers trying to take advantage of the misery spawned by drug companies unwilling to make certain their drugs were safe and effective...

1 Reply

@Fido,

The ads you refer to are usually lawyers who are after a buck. The drug companies have done much more to help people then they have to hurt people. As someone noted above, thalidamide is currently used in other countries and they don't seem to have the same issues we did.

1 Reply

The GOP's Worst Nightmare

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