Big Tobacco racketeering charges mirror pharmaceutical industry crimes

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Wednesday, December 08, 2004 commentary:

 

Big Tobacco racketeering charges mirror pharmaceutical industry crimes

The United States Justice Department charges that under the Racketeer Influenced

and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), cigarette companies have deceived the

public for decades in an effort to sell their products. Few would deny the

deceptions, except perhaps the tobacco companies themselves. But what's most

intriguing about this effort to prosecute Big Tobacco for racketeering is that

the racketeering charges almost perfectly describe the behaviour of Big Pharma

(drug companies) today.

 

 

Consider: the charges against Big Tobacco are based on what the Justice

Department calls the " seven pillars of fraud, " according to the New York Times:

that the companies denied the damaging health effects of smoking; promoted what

they described as independent research, which they financed; denied that smoking

was addictive; denied that cigarette makers manipulated the level of nicotine in

their products; promoted cigarettes that were called " less hazardous, " against

scientific evidence that they were not; marketed to children as young as 12; and

suppressed evidence to keep documents out of the public realm and litigation.

 

Let's look at these more closely to see how they resemble the actions of Big

Pharma today:

 

The companies denied the damaging health effects of smoking

Today, drug companies deny the damaging health effects of taking prescription

drugs. As literally hundreds of thousands of Americans are killed each year by

prescription drugs, including at least 27,000 by Vioxx (or 56,000+ if you

believe senior FDA researcher Dr. David Graham), the drug companies deny their

products are dangerous at all. Even after drugs like Rezulin are recalled, no

drug company admits they caused any damage to the health of anyone.

 

Promoted what they described as independent research, which they financed:

The drug companies are doing the exact same thing. They're funding so-called

" independent research " that is actually highly-distorted science, carefully

designed to minimize the dangerous side effects of drugs while exaggerating (or

outright inventing) apparent benefits. Clinical trial researchers, for their

part, know that if they don't produce positive results for the drug companies,

they'll never find work in the industry again. Here's another example of fraud:

many so-called " peer reviewed " articles published in medical journals are

actually ghost-written by drug companies themselves, even while the names of

other doctors (who receive $10,000 checks if they go along with the scam) appear

as the " authors. "

 

Denied that smoking was addictive:

For their part, the drug companies have denied that antidepressant drugs cause

children to commit suicide and think violent thoughts. Yet the evidence has been

clear for years. In fact, one drug company actually buried their own evidence

showing a strong link between SSRI drugs (antidepressants) and suicidal thoughts

in children. Still today, nobody talks about the fact that the two Colombine

High School killers were taking antidepressant drugs when they slaughtered their

classmates with automatic rifles. Nor that Phil Hartman's wife, who killed the

famous comedian and then took her own life, was also on SSRIs. There are

probably tens of thousands of violent acts (including suicides) committed each

year in the United States alone that are caused by antidepressant drugs, yet Big

Pharma denies everything.

 

Denied that cigarette makers manipulated the level of nicotine in their

products:

Similarly, the drug companies deny that they created fictitious diseases like

ADHD and " General Anxiety Disorder " in order to sell mind-altering drugs to

people who have absolutely no medically-measurable symptoms of disease

whatsoever. The common diagnosis of these diseases has no scientific basis. They

were invented and promoted by the psychiatric industry and drug companies in

order to financially enrich both.

 

Promoted cigarettes that were called " less hazardous, " against scientific

evidence that they were not:

The drug companies have done exactly the same thing: Vioxx, for example, was

promoted as a " safer " anti-inflammatory drug. All COX-2 inhibitor drugs were

pushed heavily to physicians based on distorted science, funded by the drug

companies of course, who claimed the drugs were " less hazardous " than other

anti-inflammatory drugs which are linked to gastrointestinal bleeding. But now

we know, following the Vioxx scandal, that COX-2 inhibitors actually cause heart

attacks and strokes, much like cigarettes do. We also know that drug companies

and the FDA were fully aware of this fact several years ago, and yet sought to

deceive the American public for as long as possible in order to keep selling

drugs.

 

Marketed to children as young as 12:

Today, children as young as three years old are being put on antidepressant

drugs. Drug companies are actively pushing drugs like Ritalin and antidepressant

drugs to teenagers, children and even infants! And it's the same marketing

strategy as Big Tobacco: if you mess up these kids' brains at a young enough

age, you'll have a customer for life! And one of the fastest ways to create a

psychotic adult is to dose a child with Ritalin and SSRI drugs for as long as

possible. That's exactly what's going on today, and the drug companies continue

to push for the heavy use of mind-altering drugs in our nation's youth.

 

Suppressed evidence to keep documents out of the public realm and litigation:

The drug companies have done this on numerous occasions. The Wall Street Journal

recently published internal emails from Merck, detailing how the company was

fully aware of the heart attack dangers posed by its Vioxx drug more than four

years ago, and yet the company buried the information and even designed new

studies in a way that would conceal the cardiovascular risk. Other drug

companies have been caught burying evidence showing the suicide dangers of

antidepressant drugs. And these are just the episodes we caught -- it all

appears to be business as usual for Big Pharma: hide the bad news from the FDA

and the public for as long as possible in order to keep selling dangerous drugs.

 

 

It's time for a criminal investigation of Big Pharma

If these seven pillars of fraud describe the criteria by which the U.S. Justice

Department is going after Big Tobacco, then Big Pharma should be next in line

for federal prosecution. Their crimes are almost identical.

Without a doubt, tobacco companies have no place in a civilized society. Their

products kill people, and they are deceptively created and marketed in a way

that ignores public safety in order to generate profits. But prescription drugs

are no different. They are deceptively created and marketed to virtually the

entire population, even while they are harming the very people they claim to be

helping.

 

It's time for the Justice Department to charge the pharmaceutical industry with

racketeering. Because the activities of drug companies, combined with the

criminal actions of the FDA, are nothing short of a criminal racket designed to

deceive the American public in order to generate profits. It's classic RICO

behaviour. In fact, it would be difficult to find a more relevant example of

racketeering than what's happening today in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

 

Physicians promoted tobacco and drugs

If prescription drugs are so dangerous, you might ask, then why are so many

physicians still strongly in support of them? The answer is that not too long

ago, physicians were strongly in favour of cigarettes, too! In fact, a quick

search through historical print ads in mainstream magazines like TIME showed

physicians actually endorsing cigarettes. Smoking was good for your health,

doctors insisted. And they argued over which brand of cigarette helped you the

most!

It just goes to show you that doctors can be trained to push practically

anything to the public, as long as there's a buck involved. It could be the most

dangerous product ever created, and yet physicians will happily stand behind it

and even prescribe it to patients. That's not an exaggeration: it's historical

fact. (The AMA isn't too proud of that, so you won't find it mentioned in the

AMA's history books...)

 

Today, physicians are prescribing another dangerous class of products to

consumers: prescription drugs. And they are causing just as much death and

suffering as tobacco products. Simultaneously, they're generating substantial

profits for powerful corporations, just as cigarettes once did.

 

But more and more physicians are wising up. It took time to educate physicians

about the dangers of smoking. Today, no doctor in their right mind would

prescribe cigarettes to patients. As doctors learn more about the deception of

the drug industry and the dangers of prescription drugs, increasing numbers of

them will turn to alternative medicine, herbal medicine, nutrition, prevention

and other modalities that aren't hyped by a criminal-minded industry like Big

Pharma.

 

In time, physicians will look upon prescription drugs in much the same way

tobacco products are viewed today. Eventually, even the Justice Department will

get involved, and we'll finally see criminal prosecutions of drug company

executives who are, in fact, responsible for the killing of countless Americans

in their quest to generate profits for shareholders. What is happening today is

nothing short of a chemical holocaust. It is a crime against humanity, and just

like the crimes committed by Big Tobacco, the Big Pharma racketeering crimes

will not be tolerated forever.

 

Overview:

 

 

After nine weeks of testimony but with months to go, the federal judge presiding

over the trial of the government's conspiracy suit against the tobacco industry

invited lawyers for each side on Thursday to sum up their cases so far.

The two 90-minute presentations reflected an enormous gulf with which she will

have to deal in deciding whether, as the government charges under the Racketeer

Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, cigarette companies have engaged in

fraud and deceit for half a century to sell their products.

Armed with a slide-show presentation to highlight testimony helpful to his side,

Mr. Brody maintained that the government was well on its way toward proving its

allegations, reflected in what the Justice Department calls " seven pillars of

fraud " : that the companies denied the damaging health effects of smoking;

promoted what they described as independent research, which they financed;

denied that smoking was addictive; denied that cigarette makers manipulated the

level of nicotine in their products; promoted cigarettes that were called " less

hazardous, " against scientific evidence that they were not; marketed to children

as young as 12; and suppressed evidence to keep documents out of the public

realm and litigation.

The industry lawyer, Mr. Bernick - and later his colleague Dan Webb - sought to

show that the government was ignoring countervailing testimony from some of the

same witnesses it cited.

But Mr. Bernick pointed to another part of the testimony, in which Dr. Brandt

said of the companies, " They wanted good science. "

Mr. Webb was especially forceful in challenging the government's effort to show

that the companies, portraying evidence on the effects of second-hand smoke as

inconclusive, were still trying to deceive the public.

 

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/politics/19tobacco.html?oref=login

 

 

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About the author:

Author Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with over 4,000 hours of study on

nutrition, wellness, food toxicology and the true causes of disease and health.

He is well versed on nutritional and lifestyle therapies for weight loss and

disease prevention / reversal. View Adams' health statistics showing LDL

cholesterol of 67 and outstanding blood chemistry. Adams uses no prescription

drugs whatsoever and relies exclusively on natural health, nutrition and

exercise to achieve optimum health. Adams' books include the Seven Laws of

Nutrition, The Five Soft Drink Monsters and Superfoods For Optimum Health. In

his spare time, Adams engages in pilates, cycling, strength training, gymnastics

and comedy improve training. In the technology industry, Adams is president and

CEO of a well known email marketing software company.

 

 

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