Pelican
UWA Student Newspaper

Everyone's on Drugs, Man!

1. Introduction
2. The Modern Medical Paradigm
3. The Good ol' Boys

Introduction

However, there is another side to this issue that the public, the media and government view very differently to recreational drug use, namely the widespread use of pharmaceutical medicines. The fact that the issues surrounding these drugs are almost universally omitted from any discussion relating to 'the drug problem' is testament to the view that if something can be bought from a pharmacy, it must be safe and/or beneficial to pop in your mouth and swallow. Undoubtedly, the development and production of various drugs has afforded humans many benefits, from helping us get to sleep or alleviating headaches to the eradication of some diseases altogether.

So influential are the successes of pharmaceutical development on the public consciousness, such as the World Health Organization's (WHO) announcement in 1979 that smallpox had been officially wiped out, that modern medicine is widely regarded as a quest for the Holy Grail that, given time, will alleviate all suffering (anyone ever heard of soma?). So much for a clear message denouncing drug use the 'war' that is being waged by western governments on illicit drugs rages in an uneasy coexistence with the 'war' on pain and disease in which drugs are employed as the primary weapon. It is perhaps no wonder that current policy fails miserably in its attempt to curtail drug use when such a mixed message is being propagated. Of course, to reduce the problem of substance abuse to governmental amnesia would be overly simplistic. But just as the complete demonisation of recreational drugs and users does nothing to solve the problems associated with their abuse, unquestioned faith in the healing power of pharmaceutical medicines all but disguises another set of abuse issues.

The Modern Medical Paradigm

In the 1870s, through the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, conventional medicine underwent a radical transformation. The microorganisms responsible for certain symptoms had been identified as the cause of specific illnesses, and as a result, success rates in treating disease improved dramatically. New medicines became available that vastly increased a sufferer's chances of recovery and survival, a trend which has continued exponentially to this day and shows few signs of slowing. In this light, it is no wonder that people place a great deal of faith in the healing power of various drugs. If you're feeling sick, just pop a pill and you'll feel much better. It's as simple as that. So powerful was (is?) the effect of 'drug success' on the public mentality that the physically and mentally negative properties of pharmaceutical medicines have been separated from the drugs themselves we refer to them as 'side effects'. But in some cases, these side effects can create more problems than the symptoms they are supposed to be treating. Chemotherapy in cancer patients is probably the strongest example, as it has been known to actually cause cancer. Not to say that people are going to go out and 'get hooked on chemo' of course, but it serves to outline the way we view drugs-as-treatment; as long as you are alive at the end of the day it is worth putting up with the side effects. No argument there.

However, the problems do begin to surface when prescribing treatment for non-life threatening ailments. Faith in the efficacy of drug treatment can incline a person to take a drug for something that they perhaps do not need to. This in turn, depending on the drug, may expose them to unnecessary side effects, and the holistic effect of a drug on a person is overlooked in order to achieve an outcome that may be achievable some other way. It is estimated that up to 20% of prescriptions written by Australian doctors are for unnecessary medicines, that is, patient recovery is not contingent upon the consumption of such drugs. So why are they being prescribed at all? It all comes back to the public expectation, perpetuated by the medical establishment, that drugs will solve all of our health problems. It is not just health issues that people associate with pharmaceutical medicines. More and more superficial uses for drugs are being discovered all the time; even adolescent acne is treated with prescription antibiotics. Herein lies the danger. Evidence is mounting that the over-consumption of various drugs (especially antibiotics) has resulted in the evolution of new strains of disease that are proving to be resistant to conventional treatments, in much the same way that the overuse of pesticides lead to resistant insect strains. As a result, the so-called 'extinct' diseases are starting to fight back. (Eight cases of smallpox were discovered in Russia earlier this year) Even still, faith in the scientific and medical establishment has hardly been shaken; the next 'magic bullet' against disease must be just around the corner, eh? (See: "The Human Genome Project" Pelican, ed. 5, July, 2000.)

The Good ol' Boys

The Australian Federal Government is currently revising legislation that prevents pharmaceutical companies from marketing their products directly to the public. Under the current laws, these companies are only allowed to market direct to medical practitioners, who have the choice whether or not to recommend such products to their patients. If the pharmaceutical companies have their way, these laws will be relaxed and we can expect a bombardment of advertising telling us about the latest miracle cure for this or that. In the U.S., where there is no law preventing such advertising, the pharmaceutical giants spend as much on advertising, promotion and marketing as they do on research and development they say that they're not advertising their products, rather informing the public. Regardless, you do not spend that much money on an 'information campaign' unless you expect to sell a great deal more product. (And you can bet that the 'informative shorts' will say as little as possible about the side effects of their best sellers.) By leaving discretion in the hands of G.P.s, at least some independent expertise stands between the profiteers and an unsuspecting and possibly vulnerable public. This type of advertising can only serve to exacerbate an already growing problem and besides, these companies make enough money to buy any of the third world countries that they're holding to ransom by not making their drugs affordable.

Given the obvious benefits of pharmaceutical medicines, some may regard the abuse issues surrounding their use as an acceptable price to pay. But just how high is this price? If a continuation of this positivistic tradition results in greater difficulties in treating threatening disease then what have we actually accomplished? The validity and acceptance of natural and traditional therapies is becoming a reality, amongst both the public and medical professionals, and the efficacy of such therapies in treating most ailments is receiving constant experiential vindication. In a study of Perth G.P.'s by Katharine Hall and Billie Giles-Corti, 75% of the respondents had referred patients to alternative, non-pharmaceutical forms of treatment. This is not to say that modern-conventional medicine is in danger of losing out to alternative medicine, at least in the short term, but a true 'information campaign' would provide people (public and professional) with access to the types of therapies that would be best for each individual. Only when society wide attitudes shift away from blind faith in conventional medicine and the arrogance and arch-capitalism of the pharmaceutical establishment has been brought under control will the widespread abuse of legal and powerful drugs be a solvable problem.

by Nik van Allen

Credits for this Edition

Editors: Gawain Davies and Henry Skerritt Arts Editor: Gabrielle Holly Film Editor: Simone Mossenson Music Editor: Fancy Dave Bower Eardrum Bleeder Editor: Marty Blum Sub-Editors: Alistair Duncan, James Devenish, and Nick Tapper Cover Art: Christopher Mann, Phd Student, Australian Neuromuscular Research Institute, QEII Medical Centre. Design: Paul Killbot, Emma Wynne, Fancy Dave Bower, Gabrielle Holly, Simone Mossensom, Marty Blum, Gawain Davies, Cliodhna Quigley and Henry Skerritt Artwork: Edward J. Grug III, Chris Stokes,Annemarie Blades,James Anstey,Tom Cleave and Victor Wycocomo Photography: Christopher Mann, Davros, Ben Larson, Gawain Davies, and Gabrielle Holly Contributors: Tim Huggins, Edward J. Grug III, Ryan Batchelor, Ivor King, Grug, Matt Langfield, Jeremy Jones, Matt Geary, Grug, Christopher Mann, Nicola McDougall, Grug, Elena Jefferies, Paul Killbot, Grug, Cliodnha Quigley, Nick van Allen, Grug, James Devenish, Giovanni Torre, Davros, James Hos, Grug, Robert Forrest, Michael Winlow, Alison Jensen, Justin and Damon Wolfe, Christine Goh, Grug, Saraa , Imogen Saunders, Kael Driscoll and anyone that we may have forgotten or spelt incorrectly.