WHERE THE DRUG WAR SHOULD BE FOUGHT

Excerpt from recent LA Times article: Senate passes sweeping drug-safety bill
The FDA's powers and staff would be enlarged to more quickly scan the marketplace for risky medications.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly approved a landmark drug safety bill Wednesday, doubling the number of government scientists assigned to ferret out risky side effects in medicines already on the market.

The measure also would create a computerized network to scan medical insurance and pharmacy records for signs of trouble with new drugs, and significantly expand the Food and Drug Administration's power to require drug makers to reduce risks.

"This is unquestionably the biggest change in the FDA's regulatory authority in a very long time," former agency Commissioner Mark B. McClellan said. "It is really a new era for the FDA that will start after this law is implemented."

The Senate bill was drafted in response to highly publicized safety lapses — including the belated withdrawals of the painkiller Vioxx and the diabetes drug Rezulin, as well as the FDA's tardy warning about the suicide risks of antidepressants.

Rezulin, which was found to cause liver failure, was pulled from the U.S. market after being cited in more than 500 deaths. Vioxx was found to increase the risk of heart attacks....more


It is not surprising to me to hear that pharmaceutical (drug) companies are under attack for putting on the market substances that kill a conspicuous amount of people. The reason the “hard drugs” were criminalized is because unscrupulous pharmaceutical manufacturers were lacing their medicines with cocaine and heroin, and I say “lacing” not because people necessarily didn’t know that they were ingesting heroin but because they didn’t understand what that meant.

It is ironic that the war on drugs was originally targeted against corporation and yet has ended up as the war against the common man/woman. Diverting funds from the war on illicit drugs to science, would be an applaudable use of resources.