Drug Abuse

my latest WoolyMammoth.Org essay
Guest post by Suzann Darnall

I will state up front that this is more of an emotional rant than a researched article. Although I have done some research on the problem at other times and I have spoken to several people about their recent problems. It is something I very much feel needs to be said, repeated, and shared. We have a dreadful drug abuse problem in this country and something needs to be done about it. And, no, I am not talking about people using recreational drugs, doctor shopping to get illicit prescriptions, or even just doctors over-prescribing medications. The drug abuse I am concerned with is the absurdly high prices being charged by pharmaceutical companies on many medications.

Big Pharma practices, in my opinion, border on racketeering in many cases. Just recently I heard about Tamiflu costs and it was ludicrous. One person paid nearly $140 for their prescription, while another paid only $10. I know some of that is due to the various medical insurance plans people have, but I am quite sure that neither the pharmaceutical company nor the medical insurer is taking a big loss on the prescription. So, it seems to me that someone is raking in a ridiculous amount of profit somewhere.

Also, some pharmaceutical companies are literally price-gouging patients on life-or-death medical necessities like Epipens and insulins. This is absurd since most of the companies doing unethical things like this have often not even expended the time or resources on the original research, so claiming a need to recover costs for that is outrageous. Especially since so much medical drug research is done through grants, fellowships, and other sources of outside funding, therefore costing the companies little to nothing. As well as all of the research being done through universities and other institutions, which again cost the companies little to nothing.

I know there are additional problems with our medical system in the United States right now, but I think a lot of the financial burden could be fixed by pharmaceutical companies either having to give up their near-racketeering practices or allowing easier access for patients and providers to purchase drugs from other countries. One really big problem in American drug options is the lack of competition that allows Big Pharma to set the prices as they please and no need for them to care if they kill a few patients along the way ‘cause somebody cannot afford the meds.