The Poet's Eye
     commentary by Lightning Rod

The Poet's Eye is skeptical without being cynical,
innocent without being naive and critical without
being judgemental.

Dope Is Dope
for release 01-28-05

Whether it comes from terrorist drug lords in Columbia or Mexico or whether it comes from Glaxo or Merke or Pfizer, dope is dope. I don't care if you get it from homey down on the corner shaking a handful of rocks or from your favorite croaker with a script pad that never sleeps, it's dope.

Americans spend an absurd $200 billion a year on prescription drugs. That's approximately three times what all the crack heads in the world pay for cocaine.

In 2003 the Fortune 500 drug companies made profits of 14.3 percent of sales, the median for all other industries was 4.6 percent for that year. Any dope dealer knows that it is a fabulously profitable industry. For the past twenty years, it has been the most profitable industry in the world.

Sure, you hear these fairy tales about how the drug companies are tirelessly doing research and development and R & D is vewy vewy expensive and that's why you are paying through the nose for the drugs you need. But it's because they have your health in mind, doncha know?

Rubbish.

What they have in mind is the same thing any dope dealer cares about--profits. That's why the cartels spend roughly three times as much of revenues on promotion and advertising as they do on research. The next time you see one of those slick commercials on the evening news that rhapsodizes about how the beneficent and valiant researchers at Glaxo or Bristol-Myers Squibb are coming up with new miracles every day that will save your life or make for a 'longer lasting experience' or cause you to win the Tour de France six years in a row, consider this: In 2002 the FDA approved seventy-eight drugs only seven of which contained new active ingredients classified as improvements over existing ones. None of these were developed by American companies. Seventy-one of them were 'copycat' drugs aimed at large proven markets. Now, that's innovation for you.

While the cartels tell you that all their money is going into R&D, the fact is that most of the drug research from which they benefit is done by government, universities, and small biotech companies. They spend their real money on slick, feel-good advertising and buying legislators and FDA officials. Any cursory viewing on any tv channel will tell you that the cartels own the evening news. They spend so much money on advertising that the news organizations feel obligated to broadcast industry press releases disguised as news stories. Whole diseases have been invented this way.

When an evil Columbian drug lord or an L.A. street dealer sells you dope at a hundred percent markup, you can understand why. It's a risky business. You are paying for the risk. But he doesn't try do tell you it's because of R&D. When the CEO's at Lilly or Johnson & Johnson make a hundred million a year selling you dope that you probably don't need, you have to wonder who the real drug lords are. You can always spot the dope dealer on the block. He's the one that wears the gold chains.

If Pfizer or Wyeth could figure out a way to patent marijuana or cocaine, those substances would be legal so fast it would make your head swim. But since they can't profit from the sales of medicinal pot, for instance, they use their lobby power to keep it illegal. In the dope business, that's called turf wars.

Any dope dealer knows that the best way to remain in business is to pay the Man. That's what the cartels do as well. They pay the Man. In this case the Man is not the cops in the local narc squad, it's the FDA and the Congress. The benefits of paying the Man are great. The FDA and patent office hand out virtual monopolies on drug sales. The Congress just granted the pharm industry a giant windfall in the form of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Guess who it benefits?

I won't even get into Vioxx, which may have killed thousands with FDA approval. They want to sell you cock enhancers and at the same time sell you cox inhibitors. And you buy it. Go figure.

The Poet's Eye needs a drop of Visine. Ooops, that's made by Pfizer. Excuse me, I only buy my dope from honest street dealers.

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