Corruption In High Places

It looks like we are having a bout of corruption supported by big pharma.

VICE has found that many of the researchers who have advocated against legalizing pot have also been on the payroll of leading pharmaceutical firms with products that could be easily replaced by using marijuana. When these individuals have been quoted in the media, their drug-industry ties have not been revealed.

Take, for example, Dr. Herbert Kleber of Columbia University. Kleber has impeccable academic credentials, and has been quoted in the press and in academic publications warning against the use of marijuana, which he stresses may cause wide-ranging addiction and public health issues. But when he’s writing anti-pot opinion pieces for CBS News, or being quoted by NPR and CNBC, what’s left unsaid is that Kleber has served as a paid consultant to leading prescription drug companies, including Purdue Pharma (the maker of OxyContin), Reckitt Benckiser (the producer of a painkiller called Nurofen), and Alkermes (the producer of a powerful new opioid called Zohydro).

Honor dies where interest lies.

The article cited was brought to my attention by Jason Calley.


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4 responses to “Corruption In High Places”

  1. Randy Avatar
    Randy

    Along the lines of the Feds saying cannabis has no medicinal value while at the same time approving synthetic cannabis for use.

    On a bigger picture, the whole issue of access to drugs, any drugs, illustrates how we’ve lost sovereignty over our own lives and bodies. Doctors control what drugs we are allowed to take and we can only get them on their orders. And drug prohibition has made self-medication and determination crime. We kid ourselves when we claim we live in the “Land of the Free”. We actually live in the “Land of the Ruled”.

  2. captain arizona Avatar
    captain arizona

    move to colorado or washington.

  3. Richard Noggin Avatar
    Richard Noggin

    Yeah, but smoking an oxy on top of a bowl of weed. Man, that kills the pain.

  4. M. Simon Avatar

    Richard,

    Our whole notion of “addiction” is flawed. Drugs do not cause addiction.

    People in chronic pain chronically take pain relievers. And the pain? PTSD mostly – for which there is no cure.