November 9, 2012

18 Crazy Facts Which Show That No Nation On Earth Is More Doped Up On Prescription Drugs Than America Is

Anyone that comes to visit America may notice that most of us walk around like a bunch of zombies. Well, the truth is that this is because about half of us are completely doped up on prescription drugs. In America, we don’t just take pills if we are sick. In this day and age, the pharmaceutical companies have come up with a pill for just about everything. If we are feeling a little sad, we are told to just pop a pill. If we are feeling a little bit of pain, we are told to just pop a pill. If our children like to run around and play, we are told that giving them the right pills will settle them down.

Every single year, prescription drug use in America increases, and there are dozens of different pharmaceutical companies that are making billions of dollars off of our “legal” addiction to drugs. The funny thing is that many of these “legal” drugs are only just the slightest bit different from many of the “illegal” drugs that are being sold out on the streets. But because they have “government approval”, the big pharmaceutical companies can relentlessly peddle them to the American public. Many of these drugs are very damaging to our health, many of them are very damaging to our ability to think and many of them are extremely addictive.

The following are 18 crazy facts which show that no nation on earth is more doped up on prescription drugs than America is….

#1 According to the CDC, the percentage of Americans that say that they have taken a prescription drug within the last month has risen to almost 50 percent.

#2 The percentage of Americans that say that they have taken two or more prescription drugs within the last month has risen to 31 percent, and the percentage of Americans that say that they have taken five or more prescription drugs within the last month has risen to 11 percent.

#3 If you can believe it, the CDC also says that approximately 9 out of every 10Americans that are at least 60 years of age say that they have taken at least one prescription drug within the last month.

#4 According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 25 percent of all kids and teens in the United States take prescription drugs on a regular basis.

#5 One brand new study has found that more than 20 percent of all American adults are taking at least one drug for “psychiatric” or “behavioral” disorders.

#6 A recent Government Accountability Office report shockingly discovered thatapproximately one-third of all foster children in the United States are on at least one psychiatric drug.

In fact, the report found that many states seem to be doping up foster children as a matter of course. Just check out these stunning statistics….

In Texas, foster children were 53 times more likely to be prescribed five or more psychiatric medications at the same time than non-foster children. In Massachusetts, they were 19 times more likely. In Michigan, the number was 15 times. It was 13 times in Oregon. And in Florida, foster children were nearly four times as likely to be given five or more psychotropic medications at the same time compared to non-foster children.

#7 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.

#8 Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

#9 The total number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled between 1996 and 2005.

#10 According to the CDC, approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.

#11 It has been reported that approximately 200,000 Americans a year are killed by prescription drugs.

#12 According to the Los Angeles Times, drug deaths (mostly caused by prescription drugs) are climbing at an astounding rate….

Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, years for which more detailed data are available. Deaths more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69, the Times analysis found. In terms of sheer numbers, the death toll is highest among people in their 40s.

#13 According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 36 millionAmericans have abused prescription drugs at some point in their lives.

#14 A survey conducted for the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that more than 15 percent of all U.S. high school seniors abuse prescription drugs.

#15 The CDC says that spending on prescription drugs more than doubledbetween 1999 and 2008.

#16 Prescription drugs cost about 50% more in the United States than they do in other countries.

#17 Each year, tens of billions of dollars is spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the United States alone.

#18 There were more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies that made over a billion dollars in profits during 2008.

But of course prescription drugs are only part of the reason why most of us in America walk around like a bunch of zombies.

Sadly, many of us are addicted to other kinds of drugs as well….

*The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.

*According to a recent Gallup poll, alcohol consumption in the United States has hit a 25 year high.

*In this country, many of us are also highly addicted to entertainment. In fact, the United States is tied with the U.K. for the most hours of television watched per person each week.

So if it seems like many of us in America can’t think real clearly, now you know why.

A song by Chris Rene that was been viewed more than 9 million times on YouTube asks this question….

“Hey, young homie what you trippin’ on?”

Well, it turns out that almost everyone in America is “trippin” on something.

We have become a nation of addicts.

Instead of stepping up and dealing with life, many of us would rather just “check out” and find something that will make us “feel better” right away.

The saddest thing of all is what we are doing to our children. We are raising an entire generation that just thinks that it is “normal” to be doped up on prescription drugs.

Yes, a lot of people are becoming very wealthy by peddling all of this junk, but at what cost?

As noted earlier, every single year prescription drug use in America increases. At what point will we become so doped up that we won’t even be able to function properly as a nation any longer?

 

Source: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/18-crazy-facts-that-show-that-no-nation-on-earth-is-more-doped-up-on-prescription-drugs-that-america-is

Little Brooke, 7, Suffers The Side Effects Of Ten Anti-Psychotic Drugs… And She’s One Of Millions Of Over-Prescribed Foster Kids

  • Government report finds foster children are 13 times more likely to be heavily medicated
  • Ke’onte, 12, testifies to Congress he was drugged into a stupor as a foster child

Brooke is 7 years old and weighs just 45 pounds.

But over the course of four months, a medical clinic being paid with state dollars prescribed her a cocktail of anti-psychotic drugs that her family doctor says could be dangerous even for an adult.

The drugs didn’t fix her temper tantrums and bad moods. Instead, they made her problems worse. And when she tried to go off of them, she became almost uncontrollable.

Brooke is just one of millions of foster children across the country who have been prescribed unprecedented levels of powerful mind-altering drugs in an often misguided attempt to control the emotional problems these kids experience after watching their families break apart.

Brooke

 

No solution: The heavy doses of dangerous drugs didn’t make Brooke’s problems better… they made them worse

ABC News reports that foster kids are 13 times more likely to receive ‘mind-altering’ psychotropic drugs than other children. Taxpayer-funded clinics have even prescribed the drugs, which are often approved only for adult use, to infants.

Brooke was already facing an uphill battle to having a healthy childhood. Her mother was a drug dealer and a prostitute. Brooke was placed in a foster home at an early age, removed from her broken family and given to the care of strangers.

The freckle-faced redhead counted 10 drugs that she was prescribed to control her temper tantrums and bad moods.

But they didn’t help, so doctors at the clinic in Florida continued increasing her doses.

When foster mom Lisa Ward objected to the heavy medication, she was told that if she didn’t follow the instructions of the state-sponsored doctors, Brooke could be taken away from her and placed with another foster family.

Happy endings: After Brooke got off the medications, things turned better for her. Her foster mother adopted her and she’s learning to deal with her problems

Finally Ms Ward paid to send Brooke to a private doctor. What he saw horrified him: ‘The first thing we’ve got to think about, “Is the medicine causing this?”‘ asked psychiatrist Dr Luis Quinones.

But now, after a painful process of weening herself off the drugs, Brooke is better. Ms Ward and her husband adopted the 7-year-old and she has a new solution her her problems.

‘What’s another choice over a tantrum? What’s a good choice?’ Ms Ward recently asked her adopted daughter.

‘To hug you,’ Brooke replied.

The problem has reached the ears of legislators in Washington, who heard testimony from some of foster children affected by this trend.

Foster care scandal: Ke'onte, 12, tells Congress that he was wrongly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADHD and given four different medications that left him in a 'stupor'

 

Ke’onte, 12, tells Congress that he was wrongly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADHD and given four different medications that left him in a ‘stupor’

A 12-year-old boy bravely told how he was medicated into a near-stupor as he was passed between foster care homes.

The seventh grader, known only as Ke’onte, told Congress that being given the mind-altering drugs was ‘the worst thing anyone could do to foster kids’.

He revealed that he could barely eat while on the medication and was so exhausted ‘it felt like I would collapse wherever I was in the house’.

‘I think putting me on all these stupid meds was the stupidest thing I’ve ever experienced in foster care,’ he said.

 

Medicated: The Government study found children in foster care were 13 times more likely to be on anti-pyschotics and anti-depressants than other children

 

Medicated: The Government study found children in foster care were 13 times more likely to be on anti-pyschotics and anti-depressants than other children

Ke’onte’s plight came to light as a Government Accountability Office report was released that found the federal government had not done enough to oversee the treatment of foster children with powerful drugs.

The study found cared-for children were up to 13 times more likely to be prescribed anti-psychotics and anti-depressants than other children.

Ke’onte, who was adopted in 2009, said he had tantrums as a foster child and was inaccurately diagnosed as bipolar and having ADHD.

‘I’ve been in the mental hospital three times during foster care, and every time I had to get on more meds or new meds to add to the ones I was already taking,’ he said.

He was on four different types of medication during his four years in six foster care and the drugs made him feel irritable, gave him stomach aches and affected his appetite, reports ABC.

‘I remember having a bowl of spaghetti and had three bites and then I was done,’ he said.

He has since been taken off the medication and given therapy, and is thriving.

He plays clarinet in the school band, competes in cross-country and has had roles in the school play.

He said: ‘In therapy, you talk about the deepest thing and it hurts, but you can deal with it better the next time.

‘I’m not only more focused in school… I’m not going to the office anymore for bad behavior and I’m happy.’

 
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069367/Keonte-12-tells-Congress-drugged-4-years-foster-care.html#ixzz1fSrqrtAJ