Sex, Drugs & Rock-and-Roll: The Corporate Version

Why were we unshocked to learn in the New York Times that Big Pharma is hiring gorgeous ex-cheerleaders to convince America's doctors to prescribe their products? When listening to a Pharma ad on TV--you can't miss them, since they now account for about a half or more of all primetime TV advertising--have you noticed how sultry, how alluring are the voices (usually female) extolling the virtues of the latest budget-busting drug to ease your heart burn, attack your toenail fungus, or ease your jumpy legs? Just listen, next time. You'll hear it. The sound of the most wondrously beguiling human voice that God has ever created, telling you "T A K E... T H I S... D R U G."

Am I the only one who has noticed the amazing similarities between Corporate Drug Pushing and the old fashioned kind? Used to be that the high priced drugs were the ones that did super serious work like fighting cancer and rare diseases. Recently I paid (well, my insurance company paid) $900 for one three-month dose of pills to combat toenail fungus. (You've seen the ads, with the little yellow gnomes diving under your nails.) It didn't work, I'm here to tell you. It occurs to me that maybe it didn't work because it was counterfeit. Prescription drugs have now become so expensive that the incentives for crooks to counterfeit them is turning into a billion dollar underground market. But guess what? The consumer has no way of knowing if his or her prescription drug is a counterfeit. I tried getting information from the FDA (that great Korporate Lapdog which exists only for the welfare of Global Drug Companies) to find out where I could have my pills tested. No response. I then asked an outfit that's in the business of testing natural products, and they wouldn't do it. The consumer who suspects that his or her prescription may be a sugar pill has NO RECOURSE.

Ah...but the new drug pushers really have it sweet these days. They've bought and paid for our politicians, who in turn have given them license to rob us all blind. Whole industries (think of General Motors) are going belly up because of skyrocketing health costs--a huge chunck of which represents pills like my thousand dollar, non-effective, fungus pill.

But the docs keep prescribing them. And no wonder. With all those hot saleswomen--those sweet and sexy cheerleaders doing their song and dance for Big Pharma. Oh yeah. It's Sex, and Drugs and Rock and Roll all over again. Only this time there's no joy in it for anyone. We hippies used to lament how the "establishment" was always "co-opting" us--you know, stealing our music, our words, our messages, and then twisting them into something altogether sinister. The new twist on Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll is just about as sinister as you can get.