Death, Destruction, Lies, Deceit, Bribes, Corruption

All the makings of a good movie or a great novel? Where do you think writers get their inspiration? I say one week as a fly on the wall inside Big Pharma would give them enough material for a lifetime!

Big Pharma execs and attorneys themselves would make the best authors and screen writers. Not only do the have the knowledge of all of these vile events (and many more) but think of the imagination and forward thinking they must also posses.

From a business standpoint, it is almost admirable and awe-inspiring; the way Big Pharma controls the industry and the world to protect their cash cows. I said almost - if it wasn't for the fact that these loathsome and wicked acts are all too real. People become very creative when it comes to money; and money, of course, is what fuels this hideous beast known as Big Pharma. It stretches out like a multi-tentacled monster controlling, altering or completely blocking every harpoon hurled its direction. Money causes and in-turn enables the beast to infiltrate everywhere, everyone and everything.

Imagine fighting an opponent that knows your next move even before you do. That has anticipated every path that you may use to harm it and has closed those paths down. That has intertwined itself and infiltrated every mean with which you may hope to get any form of a victory.

Yes the beast has thought of that. Whether you are looking for the ultimate goal of destruction, some sort of recourse or just some honest answers from it, the road blocks are already in place.

The beast’s tentacles reach from the White House to your house and everywhere in-between. To the news media, to your government officials, to the school systems, to your doctors, to your pharmacists and to your medicine cabinet. Plus many of its tentacles have off spring that bi-furcate to perform double duty.

The tentacle that encases the FDA, for example comes in the front door promising miracle drugs and a better way of life while, at the same time, coming in the back with inaccurate test results, threats and bribes. The FDA is being used! They are a front for drug dealers with more cash to go around than any third world cartel ever had. If anyone questions Big Pharma, the FDA has placed itself to protect them and even take the fall if need be. Like some over zealous secret service agent taking one for the president they stand between anyone who would dare threaten their leader. Big Pharma just produces it. All the FDA has to do is approve it for use and be the front man. Forget the fact that approval was based on incorrect reporting of the facts; that many members of the FDA have ties that should be considered a conflict of interest or that Big Pharma is paying for all this! Big Pharma runs the FDA. It's no secret. All it takes is money.

The tentacles have a grip on modern medicine too. Not just psychiatry either. We're talking about general practitioners, nurse practitioners and counselors who have all been empowered with mind altering psychotics. There are also the drug distributors, drug reps, salespeople, and pharmacists too. Big Pharma has everything from free lunches and promotional material to cash for prescribing their products more. They hide the truth with false reports, fixed studies, mislabeling of adverse reactions and non-reporting of negative test results. They also use their influence with the FDA and clever advertising to create the perceived need for every person to take their drugs. Most anyone who goes to the doctor today will walk out with "FREE SAMPLES" of the SSRI Antidepressant of the doctors choosing (in other words the one that has courted and wooed the doctor the most in any manner necessary).

How convenient for them to market a drug labeled "Anti-Depressants" that actually cause depression! They also cause a large number of other horrific side effects such as suicide, homicide, diabetes, heart disease, mania and akethisia! The purported cure is making us sick! Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) Anti-Depressants by definition and by Big Pharma's own admittance raise levels of the "feel good" hormone Serotonin in the brain. Excess serotonin has been proven to cause mental disorders not prevent them! Through all the tests and trials and experiments on people, SSRI's have yet to be proven effective in treating depression. Effectiveness is not a concern of Big Pharma, however. They have positioned their drugs to sell and sell big whether they work or not. In fact the list of off-label prescriptions is growing so rapidly, Big Pharma is assured that this Beast they have created will be nearly impossible to defeat. As many as 75% of the prescriptions written for SSRI's were for treatments not approved by the FDA. SSRI's are being prescribed for such things as pain, insomnia, anxiety, shyness, menstrual discomfort, dementia, restless leg syndrome, eating disorders and many others (most if not all of which are just made up) with little or no proof of effectiveness. In addition, a sub-market is being created for hundreds of other drugs that are used to counter the side effects of the original drug!

It's also extremely convenient for Big Pharma that these drugs are so very difficult to stop taking! Once on them, the worst thing you can do is stop abruptly. Too many times we hear in the news how the person who shot those people, drowned their child, murdered their parents or set themselves on fire recently stopped taking their medication. Big Pharma’s answer is don't stop! What type of sick and twisted company will take someone’s tragedy and spin it to promote the very thing that caused the problem?

Even our children are under direct attack by the tentacles of Big Pharma. When they go to school they are subjected to hundreds of other people who are on these medications. Any student or staff member on SSRI's has the potential to be a ticking bomb. What's more, when the ticking stops you don't know if they will implode or explode. Now our children are even being screened in the schools for potential disorders which, of course, are automatically treated with SSRI Anti-Depressants and other medications. 90% of our kids who have gone through the screening process walk out with a prescription! "Teen Screen" is supported, financially and otherwise, by Big Pharma in an effort to create more paying customers. Their goal is to screen all school age children; millions of which will end up on psychiatric drugs!

Big Pharma is also trying to create patients in the womb! Another would be victim is the pregnant mother and her unborn child. The latest of the beast’s efforts to control the world is "The Mothers Act" Bill which would have Government mandated testing of as many pregnant women and new mothers as possible for depression and then treat them with antidepressants! This is despite the myriad of studies showing a link between antidepressants and violence, abortion and birth defects. Being pregnant or a new mom is stressful enough without being on a medication that has been proven to make people "crazy"! There are worse things than depression! On December 8, 2005, the FDA issued a public health advisory to report that women who take Paxil in early pregnancy are at an approximately 2-fold increased risk of having an infant born with a cardiac defect compared to the general population. Another study finds that infants exposed to SSRI's in late pregnancy showed a 6-times greater risk of developing the lung disorder known as persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), a condition that, despite treatment, results in the death of approximately 10 to 20 percent of affected infants.

Alert the public you say? Why not just tell them the truth about what Big Pharma is doing? They surely will not allow this to continue once they know, right? The beast has thought of that too. As always, we've been beaten to the punch. There's another tentacle that has already alerted the public! And they're telling us more nearly every day about the dangers of SSRI Anti-Depressants. They tell us this horrific news and reveal unconsciousable side effects but they do it with smiley faces and cartoon characters to create a rosy public perception. They use direct to consumer advertising to boost this perception to a point where the drugs are revered. So many organizations, such as ours, "The COPES Foundation", "The International Coalition for Drug Awareness" and many others are continually making attempts to educate the public of the horrors of Big Pharma and the caustic chemicals they promote but they ALREADY KNOW! They know because their best bud, Big Pharma, told them so! They don't see the mealy beast for what it is. They feel the tentacle around them but think it's comforting! They think it protects them! They don't know they are victims! Victims of Deceit, of Corruption, of Death and of Criminals with Forward thinking.

Big Pharma has high ranking politicians, high powered lawyers, decision making officials in psychiatry, coveted news media and others in positions of power in place to defend it when needed. These tentacles seem to act separately and independently until called upon and then seamlessly become a part of the beast putting in or taking out legislation as need be; thwarting any attempts of litigation with counter suits, invasions of privacy and threats; inventing new illnesses and spewing the lies and propaganda of the drug companies to the unsuspecting public.

Don't they care that people are killing themselves and others because of these medications? I think they do. Not for the normal, humanitarian reasons however. We see it as the loss of a loved one. The loss of our daughter, someone’s mother, someone’s sister. They see it is a loss of revenue! They care because each person who dies is one less potential customer. One less person to feed the thriving beast.

What is to be done? Do we keep throwing stones just to see them be swatted away? Do we continue to tell people the information they don't want to hear? Do we alienate our friends and family by imposing this pile of information on them? Do we talk to legislators and the news media (those that may have not gotten wrapped in tentacles yet)? YES to all of the above. What options do we have? We won't sit idle. Others may but we won't. Remember what I said? People become very creative when it comes to money. The key to this is people. People have the power. Unfortunately, people are not as strong as we would like them to be. We've learned they can be a down right disapointment. But maybe things will be different. We will be here to support each other. We will not fade away! We will work together against the beast. I have to believe we will make a difference. I KNOW we WILL make a difference. For Sarina, for our family, for your families and for the world. I was going to say I've learned not to expect too much from people but that would be inaccurate. Now, more than ever, I expect so very much from all of us. Give me and the world a reason to hope. A reason to believe. WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN!

Brian Milke
Father of Sarina Angel
COPES Foundation