Nexus - 0209 - New Times Magazine-pages

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has gotten stuck several years earlier, but by high-pressure sales- men of industrial complexes, whose purpose is not the people's health (a healthy population means a dead pharmaceutical indus- try) but ever growing profits. CONSEQUENCES Due to a "safe" painkiller, Paracetamol, 1,500 people had to be hos- pitalised in Great Britain in 1971; as usual, a good number of them the rabbit, one of the favourite laboratory animal. A porcupine can eat in one lump without discomfort as much opium as a human addict smokes in two weeks, and wash it down with enough prussic acid to poison a regiment of soldiers. The sheep can swallow enormous quan- tities of arsenic, once the murderer's favourite poison. Morphine, which calms and anesthetises man, causes maniacal excitement in cats and mice. On the other hand our sweet almond can kill foxes, our common parsley is poison to parrots, and our revered penicillin strikes THE DIFFERENCE? another favourite laboratory animal dead - the guinea pig. The list can be lengthened at will, but these few instances should suffice to show that there couldn't be a a more unreliable test for new drugs (that aren't needed in the first place) than animal experimenta- tion. The so-called health authorities and researchers are fully aware of this fact, but they continue serving the were further damaged by the therapy imposed upon them while in hos- * pital. At about the same time, in the United States, Orabilex caused kidney damage with fatal outcomes, MEL/29 caused cataracts, Methaqualone caused severe psychic disturbances leading to at least 366 deaths, mainly through murder or sui- warmed-over dish to the media and HUMANS = . : , the public: Do you want us to test 1. Plaque (fatty deposits) are deposited in the blood vessels (leading to stroke Germany's Thalidomide, new drugs on your children? and heart disease) 4 which caused at least 10,000 In fact, all synthetic products are 2. 72+ year life span and consume drugs and chemicals in minute doses over a malformed children, was merely lifetime the first of a quickly growing list 3, Imuran (Immunosuppressive) does not cause birth defects in humans of “teratogenic” (malformation- 4, Can only obtain Vitamin C through the diet causing) drugs, that have dra- 5, Lysodren (cancer chemotherapy), causes kidney damage in humans 4 matically increased the number 6. Continual pregnancy in humans leads to nutritional depletion and disease | of birth defects ever since the 7. Can stand chlorine in much larger doses compulsory animal tests as an 8. Manufacture Vitamin B in the liver alleged safeguard against that 9. Myambutol (TB antibiotic) does not cause birth defects in humans kind of mishap have been harmful, and all new drugs are being tested on you and your chil- dren, all the time, because the ani- mal tests which - it bears repetition - have just an alibi function, could give no answer, or, worse, have given misleading answers as to their effect on human beings. This 7 10. Eliminate drugs from the body in 72 hours. Increases danger of drugs in imposed. rile ha ae . the aged | In 1972 the aerosol spray. In fact, the therapeutic disas- | 11. Thymidine does not shrink tumors in humans Isoproterenol, packaged in Great ters, steadily on the increase 12. Catapress (anti-hypertensive) does not cause retinal degeneration in Britain, was foond by Dr. Paul today, did not exist before the humans D Stolle of aa Hoy kins imposition of the safety-tests done | 13, Can tolerate direct sunlight for much longer periods ge eee pias secrete Ger on animal. They are a direct | 14, Humans can stand chloroform in much larger doses oa a result of widespread animal 15. Obtain Vitamin D through the diet = > 2 wim Ap t-pogepecan had killed world-wide as many experimentation. 16. Moban (tranquilizer) does not cause breast tumors in humans : THE POISON PUSHERS | 17. Humans come from a wide variety of genetic, environmental and lifestyle rhe ma entiane endian Ota : backgrounds, all unpredictable. Environment, diet and lifestyles responsible = , Without a large number of fPesacnd hina discus Stilboestrol caused cancer in always new synthetic medicines 18, Humans have a gall bladder - digest fats differently young women. In the fall of with mysterious or magic sounding 19. Excess protein responsible for kidney damage in humans 1975, Italy's health authorities names to fall back on, most of 20. Thalidomide (tranquilizer) causes birth defects in humans seized the anti-allergic today's physicians wouldn't know 21. Mectazine (for travel sickness) does not cause birth defects in humans Trilergan, which had caused the how to ply their ade. And yet at 22, Coumarin (blood thinner) does not cause liver damage in humans very viral hepatitis that the medical school they only get limit- ed instruction in pharmacology, because the teachers themselves can't keep up with the steady flow of new products that invade the market to spreading steadily since then. researchers had been promising to eliminate once and for all many years ago, but which has been replace those that must be withdrawn when it is no longer possible to In early 1976 the Salvoxyl-Wander laboratories of Switzerland's conceal their uselessness or harmfulness. Sandoz complex withdrew their Flamanil, advertised to fight rheuma- The young doctors start learning their profession only when they tism, but had tamed out to cause loss of consciousness. leave medical school, and direct contact with patients starts. At the A few months later, Great Britain's gigantic ICI (Imperial Chemical same time begins their real pharmacological education, which will Industries) announced that it had started paying compensations to the accompany them through their career. This education is conducted by _ victims (or their survivors) of its cardiotonic Eraldin, and resorted to the flood of brochures from the drug manufacturers, and their travel- _the usual alibi that the drug had been introduced on the market only ling salesmen, who pay them personal calls at regular intervals, bearing _—_after 7 years of "very intensive laboratory tests" - meaning on animals, gifts like gold fountain pens or invitations to duck-shoots - besides which had given the poisonous medication a clean bill of health. By satchels full of samples of "new" drugs which they advise to try out on then, countless consumers had suffered severe damages to the eyes and the patients and then to report (against renumeration) their findings. digestive tracts, and many had died. This shows clearly that the laboratory experiments have taught them In the summer of 1977, the Swiss multinational, Ciba-Geigy had to nothing. withdraw from the American market its Phenformin, which had been In other words, the budding doctor does not receive his medical palmed off on diabetics for 18 years: it was no longer possible to con- education from his teachers at medical school, whose knowledge ceal that its collateral effects had caused about 1,000 deaths annually. HUMANS DEM ND Wee re tawne name wee spreading steadily since then. In early 1976 the Salvoxyl-Wander laboratories of Switzerland's Sandoz complex withdrew their Flamanil, advertised to fight rheuma- tism, but had turned out to cause loss of consciousness. A few months later, Great Britain's gigantic IC] (Imperial Chemical Industries) announced that it had started paying compensations to the victims (or their survivors) of its cardiotonic Eraldin, and resorted to the usual alibi that the drug had been introduced on the market only after 7 years of "very intensive laboratory tests" - meaning on animals, which had given the poisonous medication a clean bill of health. By then, countless consumers had suffered severe damages to the eyes and digestive tracts, and many had died. In the summer of 1977, the Swiss multinational, Ciba-Geigy had to withdraw from the American market its Phenformin, which had been palmed off on diabetics for 18 years: it was no longer possible to con- ceal that its collateral effects had caused about 1,000 deaths annually. NEXUS¢23 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1992