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[TRUISM]

Prescription Thugs
Stuart H. Garber, D.C., Ph.D. -President, California Homeopathic Medical Society-06/23/2016 09:53 am ET
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A couple of weeks ago I went to San Diego to speak at the California Chiropractic Association’s annual convention. It was my pleasure to share the stage with documentary filmmaker Chris Bell. His latest work, Prescription Thugs, focuses on the epidemic of the over-prescribing of prescription drugs and death from prescription drug overdoses.

It is an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry as ‘legal’ drug pushers. Having lost one brother to this tragedy and then finding himself heading down this same road, Chris was compelled to tell his story. Chris interviews me in this important film. It validates my long time campaign to help people live a healthier and happier life without the side effects, dangerous and sometimes lethal side effects, of many prescription drugs.





This graphic from the Centers for Disease Control shows, deaths from drug overdoses exceeds deaths from traffic accidents, guns and falls. The majority of these drug related deaths are unintentional. As with Chris and his brother, the biggest culprits are opioid pain killers. The numbers are staggering.

These other statistics from the CDC are real eye-openers too:

• In 2014, almost 2 million Americans abused or were dependent on prescription opioids.

• As many as 1 in 4 people who receive prescription opioids long term for non-cancer pain in primary care settings struggles with addiction.

• Every day, over 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids.

Pain killers may be a big part of the problem but hardly the only part. The other day I was speaking with a recent grad about drug abuse on college campuses. I asked him what the most popular drugs are these days, thinking he would say marijuana, ecstasy and, of course, alcohol. Without missing a beat he answered Adderall and Xanax. My mouth dropped open.

Both of these are prescription drugs, Adderall for focus and Xanax for anxiety. He said most of the kids are prescribed them by their doctors. Not unlike the business executives in the 1950’s and 60’s whose doctors were prescribing them “downers” because they were having trouble sleeping due to work stress. Then, when they complained to the very same doctor that now they were having trouble getting up in the mornings (I wonder why?) came the “uppers.” And now we are giving modern versions of these same drugs to our children!

The doctors who prescribe these drugs aren’t intentionally trying to harm their patients, quite the opposite, yet these are the only tools they have. And the pharmaceutical companies encourage (probably too gentle a term) them to prescribe more and more, for everything from pain management to insomnia to mood disorders. It’s not enough for us to just insist that doctors be more judicious in how they prescribe, there needs to be a major paradigm shift in how the health care delivery system approaches these issues. Health care consumers also must demand a better way.

The doctors in the audience at the CCA convention I was speaking to, being natural and drugless healers, already get it. Nonetheless they have patients who are taking dangerous drugs prescribed to them by other doctors, and are desperate for alternatives to offer their patients. Their patients too are desperate to find alternatives that can help them - without side effects.

Patients are becoming more aware and are no longer willing to accept short term symptom relief at the expense of long term consequences. Thankfully we do have good natural solutions available to help. The trick is getting the word out. For more information visit www.drgarbers.com or email me at [e-mail].




Blessings to All

TRUTH