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Big Pharma Ads Are Everywhere

Big Pharma ads are everywhere
__Suffusing my TV.
They fail to give me confidence
__that they are right for me.
They start with all the maladies
__their medicine is for.
Then give the possibilities
__of dangers I abhor.

The list of all the side effects
__are laid on us real thick.
The hypochondriac would say,
__“It’s enough to make me sick.”
One says to stick a needle in
__my eye each month or so,
says it could hurt my retina,
__and leave me blind also.

One says it might cause headaches and
__may give me a high fever.
Another: damage my gall bladder
__perhaps destroy liver.
One tells you check to make sure you
__don’t have tuberculosis.
One warns you to beware if you have
__coronary thrombosis.

One says stop taking it if breathless
__or feel light in the head.
One seems to say stop taking it
__if you are pronounced dead.
After listing all the problems
__these drugs could soon create,
They say talk to your doctor then,
__ask for a med update.

I will not give the names of them
__for I could get in trouble.
I’m sure their legal beagles would
__then leave my life in rubble.
They try to spin it positively;
__ignore their legalese.
They think the doctor will prescribe
__whatever it is you please.

.

.

LTC Roy E. Peterson, US Army Military Intelligence and Russian Foreign Area Officer (Retired) has published more than 6,200 poems in 88 of his 112 books. He has been an Army Attaché in Moscow, Commander of INF Portal Monitoring in Votkinsk, first US Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia and Regional Manager in the Russian Far East for IBM. He holds a BA, Hardin-Simmons University (Political Science); MA, University of Arizona (Political Science); MA, University of Southern California (Int. Relations) and MBA University of Phoenix. He taught at the University of Arizona, Western New Mexico University, University of Maryland, Travel University and the University of Phoenix.

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4 Responses

  1. Mark Stellinga

    A delightful riot, Roy. 🙂 We’re definitely on the same page here. And every few days an amazing weight control product is introduced that always, only because it’s required by law, sneaks into the super-fine print at the bottom of the ad their explanation that “with a proper diet and regular exercise” their revolutionary product will help you thin down! How about that! A clever and well done indictment of Big Pharma. Gotta run – time to take my meds!

    Reply
  2. Warren Bonham

    Great Big Pharma exposé. I’m certain you won’t be surprised to hear that they spend the most every year lobbying our politicians in Washington.

    Reply
  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    Big Pharma is a conspiracy of greed-driven thieves.

    They have discovered (and carefully patented and concealed) cures for several diseases and conditions. They will not put them into production because they do not favor cures on principle. They would much rather provide “treatments” which palliate symptoms but which are required to be used by the patient on a permanent basis. This means that the patient becomes a regular source of income for them.

    Reply
  4. Paul A. Freeman

    My grandad, who had Type 1 diabetes (brought on by the sudden shock of being told by a hospital doorman his wife had just died in childbirth) and was a great fan of the Canadian Sir Fredrick G. Banting, who was instrumental in the discovering the importance of insulin and how to synthesise it.

    Quoting from a website: ‘On 23 January 1923, Banting, Collip and Best were awarded U.S. patents on insulin and the method used to make it. They all sold these patents to the University of Toronto for $1 each. Banting famously said, “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world.” He wanted everyone who needed it to have access to it.’

    Look how that worked out.

    Thanks for bringing big pharma to the for, Roy.

    Reply

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