Overdrugged: Higher Than "Normal" Pharmaceutical Use.

Americans don't realize how excessive their reliance on drugs has grown. In the U.S., there is a Walgreens or CVS on the corner of every major intersection. By contrast, pharmacies can be rather scarce in other countries.

Is it then any surprise that drug abuse is so rampant in a nation where drugs are so common and readily available?

Is it possible that our high cost of health care is at least partially linked to maintaining such a plentiful pharmaceutical infrastructure? Probably no one would dispute that the infrastructure of high-technology medicine is largely responsible for runaway costs of healthcare.

Physicians are thoroughly indoctrinated in prescribing drugs. There is so much that could be done with nutrition, yet very little focus is given to nutritional training in medical school. Results from drugs are more dramatic for an impatient society, and profits are easier from patented pharmaceuticals.

Now evidences of pharma kickbacks have made the news. Reports have surfaced about the direct correlation between fees paid by the pharmaceutical industry to physicians and the drugs and procedures the physicians most prescribe.