Big Pharma & Moral Decline in America

We have the pharmaceutical industry to thank for an amazing array of drugs that alleviate suffering, repair damaged bodies and minds and prolong life.

I myself popped a Lisinopril and a Plavix, along with an aspirin, this morning, which has been a daily regimen since I suffered a mild stroke several years ago. I also take Methotrexate, which originally was a cancer drug, once a week to minimize the effects of rheumatoid arthritis.

These drugs work marvelously, have no side effects of consequence for this otherwise healthy, diet conscious and exercise inclined old fart, and are relatively inexpensive.

My homage to Big Pharma notwithstanding, it is a dangerously underregulated industry that repeatedly commits the most outrageous ethical lapses, some of which constitute outright criminality, and is representative of the real moral decline of American society.

I do not shock easily when it comes to the hijinks of drug companies, but The New York Times did a fine job of blowing my mind the other day with an investigative piece on how drug companies routinely pay doctors to dispense experimental drugs who have been disciplined or convicted of crimes.

The takeout by Gardiner Harris and Janet Roberts focused on Dr. Faruk Abuzzahab (photo), a Minneapolis psychiatrist who gets paid handsomely by pharmaceutical companies to oversee the testing of drugs on patients despite a record of reckless disregard for the welfare of his patients, five of whom died in his care or shortly afterward.

For their part, the drug companies refused to comment. Natch.

The family values crew has yammered endlessly about the moral decline of American society. Their focus is, of course, on same-sex marriage, reproductive rights, smutty library books and Hollywood violence.

But I would suggest that it is behavior like that of arrogant Big Pharma -- beholden to obscene profits built on slash-and-burn business tactics and reprehensible actions like those revealed by The Times -- that truly represent moral decline.