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.

A Nation of Missionaries

Over the past decade, speculation has grown that the United States is loosing it's industrial and technological edge on the developing world. Recent statistics bare the reality that those speculations were well founded and the fulcrum has already tilted against us.

While attempting to invision a United States without even a technological or intellectual advantage, it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps our best bet is to become a nation of missionaries -- carrying to the world our message of capitalism and freedom. I'm not sure that we have a gospel that other countries don't emulate better than the preacher. But then I guess that's probably true of any given church: there are members that are brighter-shining examples of the church's doctrines than the person who propounds from the pulpit.

Britain has skated through the past century or so on a similar basis. Can it be said that it has been successful? Considering that Britain had far fewer resources to start with than the U.S., my opinion is that we should fare even better in the role. The one thing that Britain has going for it that we do not is self discipline.