F: Is for the Federal Death Association!

Our government is suppose to protect us or so they say, but it has become whoever pays the big bucks get a patent and those who don't well......You know the rest. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates roughly a quarter of the U.S. economy, food, dietary supplements, drugs, biological medical products, blood products, medical devices, radiation-emitting devices, veterinary products, and cosmetics in the United States. The FDA influences every American life including our pets. Despite a long-standing reputation for operating above politics, since the Bush administration it has been plagued with problems of a political nature: advisory committees accused of conflicts of interest; a partisan approach to the Plan B contraceptive drug; the recent finding that marijuana has no medical benefit, despite evidence that it does; and the sudden and mysterious resignation of Lester Crawford, who served as commissioner for only two months. Americans spend $30 billion a year for drugs to treat hypertension and heart disease, and obesity costs the nation over a $100 billion. Yet apart from occasionally updating food labels, the FDA does almost nothing to improve our diet.

There is a new bill sneaking its way into our lives, HR.2900 and S.1082. On Wednesday, July 11, 2007 the House passed HR.2900. This action demonstrates that the House of Representatives, much like the Senate, is utterly controlled by Big Pharma and has abandoned any responsibility to defend the interests of the voters. This new law grants more power to the FDA and deeps the financial ties between the agency and drug companies. The law effectively surrenders America to a system of medical tyranny. Nothing in the new law protects consumers' access to dietary supplements or natural medicine. Drug companies now have complete control over the U.S. Congress, and through a campaign of intense lobbying and financial influence, they have managed to easily water down a law that once proposed to end the American monopoly on pharmaceuticals and ban advertising on new drugs, now it does the complete opposite. This bill is like paying the mob for protection. It is a fake safety legislation that provides the FDA with unprecedented new power to stamp out competition and give all the power to a company called Big Pharma. The FDA has turned into a quasi drug company with unprecedented new regulatory power to control all our health options in America. How many deaths and injuries will it take for a comatose and medicinally-overdosed public to wake up? A careful look at the history of the FDA shows that it protects their own vested interests at the expense of human health. Both the House and Senate think its completely fine that the drug industry pay shake down fees so the new drugs get approved faster and if they made a little mistake a few years down the road just recant. They've done thier jobs. Who cares if people get sicker or die. Hey what if the medical community forces them on unsuspecting patients, the FDA told them too. Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, a longtime Bush family friend is at the head of this debauchery. Recent reports state that he is more concerned with drug approvals than with drug safety. In 2006, Time named him one of 100 "People Who Shape Our World". He stated " I wield enormous influence on American lives". He served in the US Navy Medical Corps with the rank of lieutenant commander from 1968 to 1971, so you would think he would of checked into the tainted water to our soldiers in Iraq (see the documentary: Iraq for sale: War Profiteers). This organization under von Eschenbach is selling out the future of America's health to a tiny but powerful group of ultra-wealthy corporations that now virtually rule this country. There is nothing in the new law worth celebrating unless, of course, you are the CEO or major shareholder of a Big Pharma corporation, in which case you will be stunned at just how cheaply and easily U.S. lawmakers can be bought. Welcome to the United States of Big Pharma and that is one disturbing F.A.C.T.