LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Shedding Light On

Epidemic Of Fraud

I would just like to say "thank you Dr. Maglio" for the excellent article. It is disheartening to see pharmaceutical companies virtually buy the integrity and traditional valuesof our country.

The vast majority of our elected representatives accept bribes called campaign contributions and the news organizations I'm sure don't want to lose the advertising cash cow that big pharma has become. The results are reflected in the headlines.

With massive profits and Madison Avenue brainwashing the doctors, our safety is certainly at risk.

Narcissists and their notorious lack of conscience have certainly taken over psychiatry when they were willing to put children on medication they knew did more harm than good. Their unscientific labeling, in order to make up a "pseudo-scientific" diagnosis to bill insurance companies is a con that ranks up there with big tobacco's health claims for smoking in the 1950s. That cancer now spreads through all of medicine.

It would be bleak indeed were if not for those courageous individuals willing to think for themselves and stand up for the values of human decency and against sophisticated sociopaths.

So once again "thank you" for enlightening the public on this epidemic of fraud.

Tony Miller

Fresno, Calif.

Who Will Be First?

I am writing to you from Canada - Winnipeg, Manitoba, to be exact. Why? I have just read the article by Dr. Domenick J. Maglio, and I must say Florida, or any part of the U.S., is not alone in this situation. It is a North American and worldwide problem. My hat is off to the doctor for bringing this "drugging" epidemic to the attention of all of your readers.

Nursing homes allowing healthy elderly people to be given antipsychotic drugs just to "keep them quiet" or "under control." Children prescribed drugs, yes, antipsychotic as well as the "usual" like Ritalin, for normal behaviour problems or not has become the "norm" not only in the States but in Canada.

It is inhumane; there is no other way of looking at it. Doctor Maglio has brought this situation to the forefront.

The dangers of these drugs are played down, but if one actually researched the true and full side effects of these pills, one would think extremely seriously before popping these pills into their child's, parent's or their mouths.

The doctor should be praised for bringing to light this very serious problem that all Americans as well as Canadians face. Not only are people taking dangerous and unnecessary drugs for whatever ails them, it is costing billions and billions of dollars. Someone has to pay for the pills - your insurance, out of your pocket, the cost of the deaths that are caused by these drugs, the damages to a person who ends up in a hospital. The list goes on.

We can, and we must, take note of doctors like Dr. Maglio. We can and must remember that allergy testing, blood work and full medicals have to be looked at first. We can and must change the trend before it is totally out of control. But who will be first, the U.S. or Canada?

Thank you for printing this article.

Hilary Hurry

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Insane Solutions

Thank you for stating the obvious.Most medications are substitutes for a healthy lifestyle emphasizing nutrition and exercise. All illegal drugs are used to solve physical or social problems. Insane solutions can never bring about a sane society.

Sharon Hillestad

Clearwater

Kudos To Maglio, Hernando Today

This opinion by Dr. Maglio pinpoints the sentiments of many health care workers today.

I see the debilitating effects of prescription drugs on people every day. Because I am trained as an R.N. to see these effects, it has become more apparent to me that we have become a drugged society. I see it in our everyday world when the increase of car accidents occur, mistakes at the grocery store by the checkout cashier, the customer service people on the phone unable to handle a problem... These are all symptoms of a drugged, dysfunctional society that now has become dangerous because their thinking has become impaired.

Can you tell which person is feeling the adverse effects of an antidepressant and is feeling homicidal? Nurses for Human Rights deplores the use of psychotropics on children and elderly for the same reasons stated in Dr. Maglio's opinion. Well done to Hernando Today for printing this and bringing it to light.

Kenneth W. Thomas, R.N.

Director

Nurses for Human Rights

Clearwater

Criminal Intent

Very well spoken!

Drugging children and the elderly is criminal.

Carl Watts

Tujunga, Calif.