An Unaffordable Drug Induced High/Low

11/21/2005

Paul Munnis

Certainly when we look at strategic industries for America, pharmaceuticals is one of them. We have let this nonsense of global trade hog-tie us with a dependence on foreign drug companies to meet American needs and we are over a barrel because of it.

Consider the following: an inability to produce enough vaccine to deal with a pandemic, Americans having to go to Canada to purchase affordable drugs, a Medicare system that is told that by law it cannot negotiate for lower drug prices for its people, a Medicare Prescription Drug plan that panders to drug companies and is too difficult for lawyers to figure out how to use. These are symptoms of acute dependency and a nation little control over an industry that is critical to our society.

We need to deal with this issue in broad terms.

If we feel that drugs are vital to America than we need to manufacturing them here in America and not import them. A condition of sale of drugs in America should be that they are made in America. If we feel that we want cost controls over drugs then we need to implement them. If we want social policies for Americans to be able to obtain reasonably priced drugs then we need to legislate them. These are just for starters.

America needs to re-examine a whole range of issues dealing with drugs as we cram our prisons with illegal drug dealers, support a huge crime bill over illegal drug use and possession, and subsidize pharmacists at increased costs to our nation. Even as we do this we have methane fires breaking out in our communities, kids being hooked on illegal drugs and we are spending countless amounts of money on drug rehabilitation programs.

We get a sense that America has no clue on what we are doing with the drug industry, drug policy, or drug legislation. And, if it’s not as aimless as we are claiming above, then worse yet, it is corrupt to the core.

As a strategic industry we need to manage it as such. That means zero foreign dependency, adequate manufacturing capacity, an ability to expand or contract the industry to meet supply and demand needs, plus cogent policies for dealing with break-ins to drug warehouses, hijacking of trucks, and illegal production by home chemists. The whole supply and distribution chain must be treated as a high security operation and made both efficient and safe. That means revising the laws that regulate the industry in America.

As we face the challenges of modernizing America to deal with a new millennium this is a key challenge that we need to rise to meet.

It also means voting into office a Congress that gets its head out of the air and comes back down to earth to do its legislative job. That will mean having to think out the new legislation instead of letting industry lobbyists write it for them.