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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It 75
should have sought to put and end to the international drug trade. This should have been done
with both the gospel and with training in the cultivation of alternative cash crops.
Prescription and Over the Counter Drugs
The twentieth century brought a virtual revolution in chemotherapy, with almost
universal reliance on drugs and chemical agents in the treatment of diseases. The introduction of
sulfa drugs in the 1930s, closely followed by the discovery of penicillin and the extensive use of
antibiotics after World War II, led to the establishment of the modern pharmaceutical industry.
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The Complete Guide to Prescription & Nonprescription Drugs lists 428 different classes
of drugs. Among these are over 5,000 brand name drugs and over 700 generic name drugs.
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Americans consume vast quantities of both the prescription and nonprescription drugs. Nearly
half of all Americans “take at least one prescription drug daily.” In 1999 Americans spent $125
billion on 2,587,575,000 prescription drugs. That’s 2.6 billion prescriptions.
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As a result of all
these prescriptions each year millions of Americans are injured and killed.
Raymond Francis, an M.I.T.-trained scientist, says “The problem with prescription drugs
is very simple… they do nothing to cure disease. All they do is suppress the symptoms of disease
by disrupting normal cellular functions. Abnormal cell function is the very definition of disease,
and since prescription drugs cause our cells to malfunction, then… Yes, drugs cause disease, but
we obscure this fact by calling these diseases 'side effects.' Ironically, the 'side effects' are often
more dangerous than the disease being treated in the first place.”
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Prescription drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in America
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The death toll
amounts to 106,000 Americans annually from prescription drug side-effects. Please note that
these are deaths from properly prescribed drugs. Another 70,000 die each year from incorrectly
prescribed medications.
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An additional 2,216,000 are hospitalized or permanently disabled by
prescription drugs each year. These figures do not include those who were disabled for weeks or
months with side effects such as “dizziness or sedation that causes automobile accidents or falls
or broken limbs, side effects that require emergency interventions, and side effects that prolong
hospitalizations or force people to miss work.”
Not all prescription drug reactions are reported; therefore, the actual number of deaths is
much higher and unknown. Dr. Jay Cohen, in his book Over Dose, estimates that the total
number of adverse reactions is at least 5 million each year.
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If true, this could mean that actual
deaths could be double. A 1999 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA) estimated that only 1 in 20 prescription drug reactions are actually reported. Raymond
Francis, who besides being a scientist is a registered nutrition consultant, author of Never Be Sick
Again, and host of the Beyond Health Show, says that the JAMA article reveals that “tens of
millions are injured and an estimated 400,000 are killed every year by these dangerous poisons,”
(prescription drugs).
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According to the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) another 1.3 million Americans
each year are injured by prescription drug errors. An expert in mortality statistics, professor
David Phillips, estimates that these errors result in an additional 7,000 American death per year
from prescription drugs.
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Based on the above statistics, a total of 185,000 to as high as 479,000
die as a result of prescription drugs in the US each year.
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