ARE YOU A CRESTOR MAN?

Not too many years ago, cigarette advertisements dominated the television airways extolling the joys of smoking, how it was the "in" thing to do but completely ignoring the fact that smoking these things would eventually give you lung cancer and cause you to cough your lungs out.

Congress stepped in, placed a ban on cigarette advertising on television and now our airways are smoke free.

I am hesitant to suggest this since I do not condone government intervention into our private lives, but it is time for Congress to step in and put a quietus on prescription drug advertising.

Now think about it a moment -- if you watch television at all, how many prescription drug ads do you see on a daily basis?

Plenty of them! You cannot watch TV for an hour without being saturated with advertising for prescription drugs.

Now think for a moment -- which one of us can respond to these ads, go to a drug store and buy the product of our own initiative?

Not a one of us, unless we have a medical degree and are licensed to write prescriptions.

Yet each of these commercials - particularly the ones in prime time -- cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The ads can't be targeted to physicians who can authorize their purchase so drug companies employ salesmen for that.

I went to my doctor's office yesterday for labwork and could hardly get in the door for the drug salesmen (all female) waiting to see the doctors.
So evidently the drug companies are using sex to try and peddle their wares. Each saleswoman was dressed in the latest chic -- tailored pant suits that looked like a man's business suit -- pulling their bags on wheels full of samples and gushing to one another from beneath hairdos that looked like they had been styled by Martha Stewart with a hand mixer.

So you know the cost of this was nearly as high as the television advertising.

And who is paying for this? Those who use the prescription drugs and largely this consists of senior citizens who cannot really afford them.

The worst offender today is Crestor -- a cholesterol lowering pill -- and it is undoubtedly the most stupid commercial I have ever heard.

"Tell your doctor you want to try Crestor," the shill says, "and be sure to let him know what prescription drugs you are taking?"

What?

If you are taking prescription drugs your doctor does not know about you need to be dodging the DEA because they undoubtedly have a warrent for your arrest for drug trafficking.

So lets stop the insanity -- call or write or email your state and federal legislators today and urge them to immediately begin work on stopping this madness in the same way they stopped cigarette advertising years ago.