by Connor GilliganIf you live in the United States, you most likely work under the assumption that the prescription drug ads you see daily in the media are a normal thing. But are they? This answer is: no, they are not normal to the rest of the world. The shocking and bizarre fact is that only two countries in the entire world—New Zealand and the United States—allow Direct to Consumer drug advertising. Most European countries did away with public drug advertisements in the 1940’s and many countries never allowed it in the first place due to public safety concerns. Despite the obvious risks that come with advertising prescription medication, the United States allows the pharmaceutical companies to advertise their drugs to the public in any form of media that they please. This is, undeniably, the reason why pharmaceutical companies spent a combined $5.2 billion on advertising in 2015. That number may shock you, but it is not the only thing you need to worry about. What we should be concerned with is: why are Americans so easily persuaded by these ads and why are they consuming drugs, potent enough to need prescriptions, at such an alarming rate? Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the American public is constantly looking for the easiest and quickest way to solve physical and emotional problems. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that the pharmaceutical companies are able to advertise their "miracle drugs" on television, in magazines, and most dangerously, on the internet, and thus reach deep into everyone’s consciousness. As a society, we want everything to be simple, quick and easy. What fits this description more than taking an assortment of pills to solve any and all problems that we face in our daily lives? Instead of exercising, keeping a regular sleep schedule or eating healthily to combat problems like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, insomnia, back pain, anxiety, depression, or heart disease, we take the easy way out by ingesting drugs—most of them prescription medicines. This is why America is the most heavily medicated country on the face of the earth. Believe it or not, we don’t even make up 5% of the global population, yet we consume around 50% of all the pharmaceutical products in the world. It should come as no surprise that the American populace consumes nearly 80% of all opioid drugs and almost 100% of all the hydrocodone in the world. Maybe this huge dependence on powerful, potentially addictive painkillers is the reason U.S. pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars every year to advertise their drugs directly to the American public. The drug companies, labelled Big Pharma by activists, spends billions of dollars a year to ensure that we, as a society, stay heavily medicated in order to deal with our problems. But is it the companies’ fault? In all honesty, it isn’t. After all they are a series of corporations and the goal of any corporation is to make money—and they are doing that brilliantly. Then who is truly to blame? In reality, it is us, the American public, who are so easily influenced by these prescription drug ads that we spend over a combined $20 billion a year. If we didn’t buy, the pharmaceutical companies would no longer be advertising—and selling--these drugs. The real question here is: why are we buying into this and why are we so easily influenced by what we see in the media? I believe it is because we are persuaded that everything we see on T.V. is true. Advertisers for these multibillion dollar companies have become very skillful and know exactly how to use consumer beliefs to their advantage. Offered “infomercials,” some of us are regularly aware that products are not as reliable or beneficial as we are told, but we buy them anyway. And it doesn’t stop there. Much of the population believes anything they see or hear on the news, whether or not there are facts to back up the claims. Perhaps we are too indolent to research those “facts” for ourselves. Actually, facts are pretty scarce in much prescription drug advertising. Many ads contain limited information about the product itself. Instead commercials usually contain eye-catching and often unrelated images that paint a picture of general wellbeing after consuming the drug. All of this is done in order to distract us from the lack of information about the drug itself as well as to downplay the lengthy and frequently disturbing list of potential side effects. The problem is that we don’t take the time to research the drug before we go to our doctors to demand this new product. And the worst part is: many doctors are getting money or other perks from the pharmaceutical companies so they don’t hesitate to prescribe these new and often partially-tested drugs. So why is the U.S. so easily manipulated? When people are unhappy with their current situation they seek change but instead of taking individual initiative to change their predicaments they look towards an outside source for a fix. Some turn to alcohol or illicit drugs to dull the pain of daily life in this country. But what about the others, the majority, who feel that they will be stigmatized for using illicit drugs and alcohol to dull the pain? These people often turn to prescription medication, which seems respectable thanks to the medical validation which seems to result from advertisements in the media. We do not think about the fact that certain drugs are legal only because they are made by a pharmaceutical company. They contain the same active ingredients as their illegal counterparts. We have essentially been sold a lie by Big Pharma. Often advertised drugs such as antidepressants cause severe withdrawal symptoms, and in some cases death, when the medication is discontinued. The withdrawal symptoms from opioid pain medication may be the foremost reason as to why we are witnessing such increases in opioid addiction and death in recent years. Drugs are now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States; with over 50,000 drug related deaths in 2015 alone. This is more than car accidents and gun crimes—including firearm-related homicide and suicide. These numbers have been on the rise for the past several decades and show no sign of slowing down anytime soon. This is especially true when it comes to the white middle and working class. Middle-class white Americans are much more likely to be prescribed deadly and addictive medication, especially opioid pain relievers, compared to their black or Hispanic counterparts. This is creating a rise in opioid related death rates among the white working-class and especially in middle-aged white women. This opioid epidemic is an issue that needs to be addressed by the country at large if we are to start decreasing these numbers. What does it say about us as a nation that we are willing to blindly take medication with such terrifying side effects and such hazardous health costs? Does this prove that we are a nation of followers willing to continue to consume these dangerous, in some cases deadly, medications? Are our lives really that bad? Is it the fact that we are merely looking for the easy way out? Or is it the even more alarming option: that we will blindly follow whatever we are advised to do? What does this mean for the future of our country? In a follow-up article I will answer the questions I have asked in this article, as well as a few more interesting facts about Direct to Consumer advertising. I will explain why the FDA is allowing these pharmaceutical companies to advertise their drugs in the way they do. In addition, I will present more information about New Zealand’s Direct to Consumer advertising and why they allow it. And most importantly I will lay out what the rest of the world has to say about the American Direct to Consumer advertising and the impact it has on their opinion of us as a nation.
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