On the cover of this weeks Georgia Straight ->http://www.straight.com/a...83/pill-pushers?rotator=1


Former drug salesman Shahram Ahari, seen with his nephew Sasha, says that he likened his work schmoozing with doctors to training in spy agencies.

This is an interesting read, in a nutshell pharmaceutical reps wine, dine and essentially bribe you doctor to prescribe more of their brand of prescription meds against the best interest of their patients, and at an incredibly ballooning cost to the taxpayer, which is quite simply, completely out of control.

I believe it's time to put forward legislation that stops pharma bribes of your GP in their tracks.

Some excerpts of the article are below:

The practice of detailing has come under growing scrutiny in B.C. Two-thirds of doctors in the province say drug reps visit them at least once a month, according to a 2006 survey by the B.C. Medical Association. Forty-two percent of general practitioners are visited several times a week.

According to the office of the B.C. auditor general in 2006, costs ballooned from $372 million to $801 million from 1996-2005. (The B.C. Ministry of Health predicts that figure to further rise for 2008–2009, to $1.016 billion.)

“The medical associations are largely MIA when it comes to monitoring and trying to improve prescribing,” Cassels said in a phone interview from Victoria. “They [doctors] oppose restrictions because of the close ties a lot of them have with the companies. A lot of doctors don’t want to bite the hands that feed them.”

Ahari, for his part, said “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. It’s the patient who pays,” he said.

very interesting...

it's great to see it front and centre for sure.
the more patients that understand what sort of backroom deals are going on between pharmaceuticals and their GP's the better.