Quote:Generally speaking, my interactions with the anti-pharmaceutical crowd are limited to those who've never really needed them. On the other hand, while spending time in my local infusion center I find that those people are overwhelmingly in favor of them.

I fall into both categories, actually. I'm going to be on several medications for the rest of my life for a certain condition, and I would most assuredly die without them. On the other hand, my doctor and I have experimented with other "new" medications in the past that we've both felt accomplished nothing other than costing me more money, one of which actually had a pretty sharply negative effect. To say that I think all pharmaceutical companies are evil or profiteers would be wrong, but they're not exactly altruistic either. When the patent on a drug is about to expire, they'll often just change a few molecules around or merge it with another about-to-expire patented drug to get a new patent in place with no real advancement. Nexium and Caduet both come to mind immediately as examples of that.

 

I am also a big proponent of legalization of marijuana. It doesn't cure anything, but it sure does have some positive side effects. Moving to Texas and losing access to pot has already been a challenge for me.

---