These days you can't watch TV without getting bombarded by a huge number of drug advertisements for any number of illnesses that just seems to increase as time goes by. Just leave it to the drug companies to come up with a pill for each and every so-called "problem" on earth, no matter how trivial or absurd it may seem. I wouldn't be surprised if they start advertising a pill for people who have no health problems at all. On second thought, I take that back, they already do — they're called supplements.
A recent statistic by the Center for Disease Control shows more than 44 percent of Americans take at least one prescription pill and that almost 16 percent take at least three. This officially makes the U.S. the most drugged nation on earth. The fact that this statistic does not include over-the-counter drugs, drugs not tested by the Food and Drug Administration and supplements, hides the true magnitude of this problem.
I've traveled the world enough to feel qualified to honestly say there are few countries that market drugs in the same manner the U.S. does. From vegetables in a pill to the hundreds of different sleeping aids to the barrage of sexual enhancement drugs — the avalanche of drug advertisements is never ending. Even though drug companies are required to mention drugs' side effects in their ads, they have found ways around this requirement. They either have the announcer read them at ten times the normal speed or they display them on screen in illegible fonts. This simply shows how far drug companies are willing to go to market their products and dope consumers.
Another thing I find troubling about this situation is that companies can market their products without having them evaluated by the FDA. The most obvious example of these drugs is weight loss products. All a company has to do for its drug to hit the market is declare its product "is not meant to treat any illness" and that it "has not been evaluated by the FDA," which can be done in the same sneaky aforementioned ways. Even though the bulk of the advertisement might completely contradict those two statements, as long as they are mentioned, there is no legal foul play. The fact that these untested drugs often have severe side effects, like Ephedra's causing high blood pressure and seizures. However, this seems completely trivial to the FDA.
The most troubling aspect of this entire situation, however, is the role of prescription-happy doctors who enable this phenomenon to grow and flourish and facilitate their patients' irresponsible consumption of these drugs. One of the things I discovered when I came to this university is that some students resort to mind-stimulating drugs such as Adderall in order to study. One of those students I know said all he had to do to get the drug was go to the hospital and tell the doctor he had trouble concentrating. He said after taking the pills he studied for five hours straight, cleaned his entire apartment twice and still felt the urge to do something else.
Another example is how antidepressants like Paxil, Prozac and Lexapro are as easy to get as skittles and M&Ms. A 2005 statistic by the CDC showed these drugs were the highest prescribed drugs in the country, totaling 113 million prescriptions; that's a little over one-third of the country's population. The reason for this huge number is not the rise of depression in the United States but, as Dr. Ronald Dworkin states in his book "Artificial Unhappiness: The Dark Side of the New Happy Class," the influx of doctors who believe they should medicate unhappiness. He mentions, for example, a woman who had marital problems and, instead of being advised to seek counseling, was prescribed an antidepressant. Her marriage collapsed, and she was in both emotional and financial ruin. This quest for artificial happiness has proven disastrous time and time again. This is why we should stop attempting to drug away our health problems and instead face and treat them through counseling.
The only way we can solve this problem is to put the safety and health of the public above the special interests of drug companies. The FDA should make clear outlines for prescribing any type of medication, and doctors should be held accountable when they overstep these boundaries. No drugs should be allowed into the market unless tested and approved by the government. Drug companies shouldn't be allowed to get away with their roundabout ways of applying the regulations on drug advertising. And finally, we the consumers should practice caution and have a healthy skepticism of what we are offered in order to protect our own wellbeing.
Ammar Al Marzouqi ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in computer engineering.
