Clearing a Path for Big Pharma's Marketing Machine

http://www.breitdrescher.com/library/the-new-freedom-initi.cfm

The New Freedom Initiative
Clearing a Path for Big Pharma's Marketing Machine

The pharmaceutical industry's contributions to our national health
during the past fifty years can't be denied. Antibiotics have turned
infections that were once fatal into mere inconveniences. The Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (the precursor to AIDS) was considered a death
sentence no more than ten years ago. Now, with the help of
pharmaceutical advances, the once inevitable progression from HIV to
full blown AIDS can be held at bay indefinitely. Thanks to drugs like
Lithium and Prozac, schizophrenics and those suffering from bipolar
disorder can now keep their conditions in check and lead productive
lives. Even more minor physical grievances (such as impotence and hair
loss) can be treated with a pill. For major and minor antidotes alike,
the pharmaceutical companies that are responsible for these innovations
have deservedly made billions of dollars over the years.

But despite such progress on both a fiscal and humanitarian level, it's
also clear that the big pharmaceutical companies have been corrupted by
their success and are engaging in reckless behavior in the pursuit of
profits. More than ever, today's pill makers concern themselves with
market-share and high visibility, as if they were selling DVD players,
video games or cars rather than medicines that irreversibly affect human
mental health and biology. They aggressively market new medicines using
flashy commercials, sponsorship of sporting events and the paid-for
testimonials of doctors. They want people using their products, whether
they really need those drugs or not.

And to top it all off, now they would like to have a word with your
kids.

Columbia University has initiated a program called "TeenScreen," which
is ostensibly a teen suicide prevention program, but is in reality a
marketing cattle call with the objective being to get as many children
on psychotropic drugs as possible. Parental involvement is deftly
side-stepped by using what is called a "passive permission form," in
which parental consent is implied if the student brings the permission
slip home and the parents fail to send it back. Students as young as
nine years old are lured in with coupons for movie rentals and free
pizza and are asked by "experts" a series of extraordinarily
teen-specific questions such as:

* Has there been a time when you felt you couldn't do anything well or
that you weren't as good-looking or as smart as other people? * How
often did your parents get annoyed or upset with you because of the way
you were feeling or acting? * Have you often worried a lot before you
were going to play a sport or game or do some other activity?

When the answers to these questions are answered with inevitable "Yes,"
"Very Often," and "Very Very Often", the "expert" recommends treatment
with the aid of pharmaceuticals. If this sort of marketing were taking
place with marijuana or cocaine, prison would be the result. Columbia
University has refused to divulge the sources of its funding for this
program, although the TeenScreen Program in Tennessee was funded by
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

In witnessing Columbia University at work, one can imagine what
Americans of all ages can expect now that President Bush's "New Freedom
Initiative" has been unveiled. The initiative encourages comprehensive
mental health screening for what the report tellingly calls "Consumers"
of all ages (as opposed to "citizens" or "Americans"), including
pre-schoolers.

The NFI recommends that the studies be "Community-Based" rather than
"Institution-Based," meaning that the money would have to come from
sources other than Federal dollars. It is doubtful that most States or
Municipalities have that sort of revenue, so that means that the money
would have to come from other sources. The State of Tennessee had no
difficulty in locating a sponsor.

Such an open-ended recommendation from the White House might seem hard
to believe, but when you consider that the Pharmaceutical Industry has
donated over $52 million to Republican candidates since the year 2000,
the pill gets a little easier to swallow (although it doesn't taste any
better.)

Its one thing to offer free samples of cola, laundry detergent or
breakfast sausage in order to expand your customer base. That's
capitalism. That's the American Way. But playing politics so you can
"hard-sell" mind and behavior altering pharmaceuticals as if they were
just another product is a low way to make a buck.