By 1990, Lilly's profits from Prozac were more than a million dollars per day. This is not the first time the pharmaceutical industry targeted a natural product to prevent it from competing with their patented drugs. Poisons permeate the food web, ultimately residing in our bodies, from breast milk to brain cells. The costly antidote needed to repair our battered immune systems and confused hormones is conveniently provided by the same folks we trusted in the first place to improve our lives, the chemical-pharmaceutical complex. Much of the population over 60 is dependent on prescription drugs, many taking several hundred dollars worth every month.
Pharmaceutical companies offer doctors numerous incentives, from free samples to luxury vacations.
Profits and prices of pharmaceuticals are both rising faster than other segments of the market. Aggressive advertising reinforces the lie that we need drugs to breathe, sleep, digest, or live without pain. Addiction is common, and in the U.S., abuse of prescription drugs is almost twice that of cocaine. In 1991, the GAO issued a detailed report on 198 drugs sold in America. An additional 2.2 million people are injured by drugs, and these are drugs that are properly prescribed and administered.