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Welcome to the New Black Market
by Andrew G. Eggleston Sr.
whitesage12@hotmail.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

I am what they call a "disabled person" because I have a condition or two that prevents me from doing certain kinds of work and because I have medication to take daily. Occasionally this does interfere with my life slightly, for example I had three hospital stays this winter/spring for pneumonia. It was a bit of a rough year, but this is not uncommon, ask any diabetic you know and they'll tell you we have rough years and easy years.

However, this places me in unique perspective to the whole "Medical Reform" idea. Now I have seen medical reform, when I was a boy the doctors were practicing medicine with stone knives and bearskins (thank you Spock). The advancements I've been able to observe/participate-in have been wondrous! We have been able to purify human serum for use on humans rather than using Horse Serum, we have advanced the science of antibiotics a hundredfold, and medicine had begun to embrace that strange concept of treating the person, not the illness. However I believe that what we are facing with Barry O's medical reform is simply the same rancid meat, repackaged to look appealing.

I have no love for the FDA so I'll tell you right up front this is not at all an objective opinion; however I shall try to maintain a semblance of objectivity.

The Socialists who think we are unable to read and follow directions are going to incite more prohibition and controls over We The People; they're removing our right to choose. The Food and Drug Administration is ostensibly our first line of defense against the snake-oil salesman and the Dr.'s Mengele out there. However, they have also been responsible for the prohibitions placed upon reputable scientists and doctors, and for unduly delaying the distribution of medicines that could have helped tens of millions of people. In my own experience, a medicine that was available for use in the European Union 14 years ago for people with my health issues, is only just now in clinical trials here. My grandfather was unable to get medication that would have eased his symptoms of Parkinson's disease, because the FDA had not approved it for general use. I think it is a safe statement that the FDA is responsible for more deaths than say Adolf Hitler. And speaking of "the little corporal" it was he who said; "What good fortune for governments that the People do not think." Because when We The People stop and think about what the government is doing, we have a tendency to want to start erasing laws and putting bureaucrats back into the unemployment line—where they could easily find work in the housekeeping or food service industries.

Now I digress? I guess I'm as bad as a friend of mine that way.

This week one of the FDA's many Advisory panels recommended that select medications be banned.

Article here.

This week it was Vicodin and Percocet, two opiate-acetaminophen (Tylenol) combinations that have brought relief to hundreds of millions of people safely and effectively for many years. However once those in pain (physical or emotional) have found a solution that they like or can tolerate, which takes-away or masks their pain, keeping them from it is like asking a slavering dog not to take your steak while your in the bathroom! People will find a way to medicate themselves!

This week's boondoggle was four boondoggles all hidden behind the ragged curtain of preventing liver failure and accidental death. The votes were; 20-17 to ban opiate-acetaminophen (Tylenol) combinations, 21-16 to lower the maximum daily dose printed on acetaminophen bottles (but would not say what the level should be), 24-13 to lower the maximum single dose for acetaminophen from 1000 mg to 650 mg, and 26-11 to make 1000 mg acetaminophen tablets available only by prescription. Only the last two on this list passed by a 2/3 majority.

Dr. Lewis S. Nelson, chairman of the FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee stated for the cameras; "It seems to me that problems with opiate combinations are clearly more prevalent, there are many deaths that relate to problems with prescription opiate combination acetaminophen products, whereas the number of deaths clearly related to the over-the-counter products are much more limited."

And yet the committee still interfered with the over-the-counter medications anyway.

The FDA is only under advisement, however they almost always enact legislation that they are advised to enact.

So you know what I say... "Bring on the pain!"

Now I'm not very pleased that these Thirty-Seven doctors and advisors want us in pain, or that they have the ability to change our lives without our say so. I do believe that 233 years ago we as a country rebelled against England because of similar prohibitions and such that were enacted without the consent of the governed, never mind that the whole process is completely unconstitutional and therefore prosecutable. This also makes our neighbors in Canada and Mexico, where these drugs are available over-the-counter, very happy as they will see a sharp increase in sales. Isn't it nice to see our government helping our neighbors and hurting us? Add this to the announcement that the FDA will now be inspecting cigarettes for "the safety of the consumer" and I'd say that the FDA just jumped up to number two, behind the BATFE as the most harmful agency in the government.

Because if you don't think this will create another whole aisle of products for the Black Marketers your not getting the whole picture. Ban it on Sunday and it will be available on the Black Market on Monday morning. I know because I used to be one of those people who "knew where to get?" whatever poison someone wanted. The drug dealers and drug runners are celebrating this "Independence" Day, because the government just made their business even more profitable.

On reflection, I wonder if that was the plan all along. Because the govt. can't sell it's "War on Terror", then they're likely to fall-back on their tried and true "War on Drugs" for a fundraising opportunity; keeping people afraid for their children's lives, and make honest people the target for more violent and drug driven crimes—after you take away all their guns of course. It's time for us to come together, despite the fact we may not like one another, against the true criminals in our society, those who make law without cause and encourage the continued rise in criminal behavior and the initiation of force against you. "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."—Albert Einstein

To find out more click this link and read "The Moratorium" by my trusted friend L. Neil Smith.

You see... Patriots don't sleep; we just get stoned on Percocet (I had a minor operation this week) and keep on working towards real liberty and freedom.

A note to the reader: When I ran a search for the article in question, I nearly got physically ill! I could write an entire article just on the article titles alone! Run a search for FDA under MSN Heath & Fitness—if you can stomach it!

This and all other articles by me may be reproduced or distributed without permission as long as proper credit is given for my drug induced ramblings.

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