20 Signs That The Pharmaceutical Companies Are Running A 280 Billion Dollar Money Making ScamMichael Snyder In America today, the number of people hooked on legal drugs absolutely dwarfs the number of people hooked on illegal drugs. And, sadly, the number of people killed by legal drugs absolutely dwarfs the number of people killed by illegal drugs. But most Americans assume that if a drug is legal that it must be safe. After all, the big pharmaceutical companies and the federal government would never allow us to take anything that would hurt us, right? Sadly, the truth is that they dont really care about us. They dont really care that prescription painkillers are some of the most addictive drugs on the entire planet and that they kill more Americans each year than heroin and cocaine combined. They dont care that antidepressants are turning tens of millions of Americans into zombies and can significantly increase the chance of suicide (just look at the warning label). All the big pharmaceutical companies really care about is making as much money as they possibly can. The following are 20 signs that the pharmaceutical companies are running a $280 billion money making scam #1 According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug. An astounding 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs. #2 According to the CDC, approximately 9 out of every 10 Americans that are at least 60 years of age say that they have taken at least one prescription drug within the last month. #3 The 11 largest pharmaceutical companies combined to rake in approximately $85,000,000,000 in profits in 2012. #5 According to Alternet, last year 11 of the 12 new-to-market drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration were priced above $100,000 per-patient per-year. #6 The CDC says that spending on prescription drugs more than doubled between 1999 and 2008. #7 Many prescription drugs cost about twice as much in the United States as they do in other countries. #8 One study found that more than 20 percent of all American adults are taking at least one drug for psychiatric or behavioral disorders. #9 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world. #10 Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are. #11 A shocking Government Accountability Office report discovered that approximately one-third of all foster children in the United States are on at least one psychiatric drug. In fact, the report found that many states seem to be doping up foster children as a matter of course. Just check out these stunning statistics In Texas, foster children were 53 times more likely to be prescribed five or more psychiatric medications at the same time than non-foster children. In Massachusetts, they were 19 times more likely. In Michigan, the number was 15 times. It was 13 times in Oregon. And in Florida, foster children were nearly four times as likely to be given five or more psychotropic medications at the same time compared to non-foster children. #12 In 2010, the average teen in the U.S. was taking 1.2 central nervous system drugs. Those are the kinds of drugs which treat conditions such as ADHD and depression. #13 The total number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled between 1996 and 2005. #14 All of those antidepressants dont seem to be working too well. The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 rose by close to 30 percent between 1999 and 2010. The number of Americans that are killed by suicide now exceeds the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents. #15 According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 36 million Americans have abused prescription drugs at some point in their lives. #16 A survey conducted for the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that more than 15 percent of all U.S. high school seniorsabuse prescription drugs. #17 According to the CDC,approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United Statesbecause of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs. #18 According to the Los Angeles Times, drug deaths (mostly caused by prescription drugs) are climbing at an astounding rate. Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, years for which more detailed data are available. Deaths more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69, the Times analysis found. In terms of sheer numbers, the death toll is highest among people in their 40s. #19 In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined. #20 Each year, tens of billions of dollars is spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the United States alone. The American people deserve better than that. Every year, the United States spends more on health care than Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia combined. In fact, if the U.S. health care system was a separate nation it would be the 6th largest economy on the entire planet. For all the money that we spend, we should be the healthiest people in the world by a wide margin. Instead, life expectancy is higher in dozens of other countries and we have very high rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. For much more on the colossal failure of our health care system, please see my previous article entitled 50 Signs That The U.S. Health Care System Is A Gigantic Money Making Scam. So what do you think about the pharmaceutical companies that are making billions of dollars by getting the American people addicted to their super-expensive legal drugs? Please feel free to express your opinion by posting a comment below This article first appeared here at the American Dream. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 