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Everywhere you go, people are pushing drugs and pharmaceuticals. At the drug store, they’re telling you to get your flu shot. On TV, you’re being bombarded by ads promoting prescription medications. What’s the reality behind these drugs?
In this episode of Using Your Power, David Andrew Wiebe and Maveen Kaura explore the sometimes dark world of pharmaceuticals.
For more by Maveen Kaura, check out Discoveryourlifetoday.com.
Transcription: Pharmaceuticals
David: Welcome to using your power. I’m David Andrew Wiebe and joining me as always.
Maveen: I’m Maveen Kaura.
David: Good to see you again Maveen. We’re recording this episode in the same room as we always do.
Maveen: Yeah sure. Episode 4. In your business room or the dungeon or whatever you want to call it.
David: The Lab.
Maveen: The Lab. Yeah, I like that.
David: I think that’s a good one. How are you doing Maveen?
Maveen: I’m doing very well. I got my tea with me David and I’m ready to record another episode with you and delve into our topic, whenever we’re ready.
David: Good to hear. Well, it’s a beautiful rainy fall day in Calgary. Those words often don’t go together. So, I just thought I would acknowledge that. So, as we record this it’s kind of a nice day outside. Today we’re talking about pharmaceuticals. Pretty deep and pretty charged topic, I would think.
Maveen: Yeah it is something that’s in the news and comes up as kids going to school. They’re able to get their hands onto pharmaceuticals more and more. The industry itself is making billions of dollars. So when I brought this to you I thought it would be something that both of us could talk about and we both enjoy.
David: Yeah, I think so too. There’s so much to talk about so it’s hard to know exactly where to start when it comes to pharmaceuticals.
Obviously, we want to talk about prescription drugs. That’s probably one of the main subjects but we might also get into vitamins or other things that may not be considered pharmaceuticals in the traditional sense such as over-the-counter drugs and things like that too. I mean pretty much anything that you can buy at the store could be considered a prescription drug on some level. Whether it’s Tylenol or Ibuprofen. Anything that is a drug, often contains some kind of chemical that may not be great for your body.
I think so many people now are prescribed medications because they have a perceived issue with anxiety depression or some other clinical condition or they’ve just self-diagnose themselves and they believe that they deserve to have those drugs. If you watch the commercials, especially in the States, it seems like every turn they’re trying to sell you some drug.
Maveen: Absolutely. You know if you stayed up and watched any late-night TV, you have the ability to watch these infomercials or commercials, where they try to sell any sort of drugs that will help the solution that you’re looking for. So, you’re looking for some sort of pain solution, they got it. You’re looking for some sort of happiness solution, they have it. Any sort of uppers and downers. The pharmaceutical companies have found a way to make it and then sell it to you.
David: So, why do you think that? If somebody selling something through a commercial, it would suggest that they’re probably making money on it, would you say?
Maveen: Absolutely. David, I think one of the biggest things is, we as a people we do have addictive personalities and drugs, like sugar for example, can be addictive. Heroin is addictive and now I’ve read studies that say sugar is potentially more addictive than heroin. When you look into pharmaceuticals they probably have very similar feel for when you’re taking them on a daily basis. Just like you know those hard drugs commercials told us to stay away from in the eighties.
David: Right. Now the thing you said about sugar is pretty interesting because we wouldn’t often think of sugar as being some a drug or let alone like a pharmaceutical. I think everybody knows or everybody’s heard of the term sugar high. We do kind of get high off sugar. It gives you that temporary boost of energy but then that hard crash.
Maveen: Well that true David. Also, when they do a double-blind tests or blind tests or what not, they always have a placebo. What is that placebo?
David: It’s a Sugar pill.
Maveen: You got it. So, they’re even using that sugar as a part of their test.
David: Yeah that’s a good point. So, sugar pills are sometimes prescribed. Usually unknowingly to the patient maybe because they think their sicknesses is more severe than it is. A doctor prescribes a placebo and says, “Hey this will help you out.” The mind accepts that the drug will help and it ends up helping. I think there are studies out backing that up, if I’m not mistaken.
Maveen: Oh, for sure. I haven’t read every American Journal about medicine for prescriptions but there are many different studies that they’ve done, since they started you’re making these prescription medicines. Since people have been taking it’s funny more and more people are taking prescription medicine and ever before. Recently, I read numbers were harder drugs, like marijuana and cocaine were dropping at one point.
David: Who is selling these prescription drugs? I think the idea or the impression that we get, it’s generally the healthcare industry, the doctors or on some level it is our best interest that these things are being sold to us. Who do you think is actually selling prescription drugs to us?
Maveen: Well I think you need to go back. First ask, why are you even taking prescription drugs? I think most of the times people start taking these pain killers because they need them. Sometimes you do need something to take the pain away. Especially if you have been in a car accident or you’ve gone through some sort of traumatic surgery. The doctors will typically give you something. You did say doctors. I do think the doctors give them to. I think initially they started off with the right intentions trying to help you ease that pain as you are recovering from whatever your symptoms were. As we move forward, I do believe we’re talking about late night commercials.
Chris Rock had a wonderful skit years ago. He made a point of it and it made fun of it at the same time. Saying the commercials went something like this, “Hey are you sad? Are you happy?” Maybe you would relate and say well maybe I am sad. Maybe I am happy. “Are you male? Are you female?” And you say, well I male. I’m happy. Maybe this drug is for me. They continue to try to find that one symptom that you could relate to and say, “I need that pill.”
David: That’s like a sales technique isn’t? Where you get somebody to say, ‘Yes’ a bunch of times and then they’re more likely to say ‘yes’ when you go to closing the sale.
Maveen: That true.
David: I usually recognize it when people are doing that. When they’re looking for a ‘yes’ at the very end and when they’re trying to sell me the product and they hear ‘No’ they are taken back. They don’t know what just happened. The thing is I’ve recognized your sales technique. I know how that works.
Maveen: Exactly. The doctors are trying to make money. They’re salesmen as well. They are supposed to be there to help you. I do believe there’s a small percent of doctors out there that are trying to take care of the general public. These doctors, I think may have gone all overseas unfortunately. And fortunately to help the doctors without borders kind of things, they are people overseas trying to get them better. Then that just leaves us doctors and again we’re talking about North America. A lot of the industry here is based on money.
David: Yes, definitely. I think the interesting point that you made earlier was that some people kind of need the prescription drugs whether it’s because of pain or in some people have like a serotonin deficiency and that’s kind of the pleasure chemical in your brain. So, when you don’t have enough of that you are depressed and that would be a definition for clinical depression. Most people and will experience depression in their lifetime. Circumstantial depression or maybe you experienced lows and highs and you’re sensitive, like I am. I experience tremendous lows and tremendous highs. I do find my point of stability. I’ve had to find that over the years. If you want to function as part of society.
It’s interesting, I do want to come back to this this money thing. Somebody is obviously making money on these prescription drugs. The kind of business is one where people pay you month after month after month to refill their supply. Telecom companies work the same way. I’m not disparaging businesses that do that I think it’s a great business model when it works properly and if your offering value to your clients. I feel like there’s nothing more desirable for doctors or the healthcare industry or the people who are selling these drugs but to have people go on a subscription plan of some kind.
Maveen: For sure, David. Even having the ethics behind what you’re doing. If you look at doctors they can be compared to the typical drug dealer. What is the real difference? They’re both charging you money for a product. They’re all being given this product or buying this product from a different supplier. One being the drug lords and in some of the South American countries. For the doctors, they’re being supplied this medicine from you know just a pharmaceutical companies themselves. I put medicine, in quotation. A lot of times we do say the medicine is helpful but with any sort of Medicine what happens is that you get side effects. So, they put you on a second medication to deal with the side effects. Now that medication may have a side effect, so they get you a third medication to help you with the symptoms.
David: Aren’t they just multiplying their income?
Maveen: They’re multiplying their income. They’re keeping you sick. They are keeping you under their grip, realistically. Month after month the insurance companies are paying for the drugs. So, the pharmaceutical companies are being paid by the insurance companies to keep you drugged up. That is the big picture.
David: I think you’re right when you say that there are good doctors in this world. We have natural paths that offer solutions that you may not be presented with at the doctor’s office. I think emergency care is absolutely needed. To me that part is not in question at all. Part of it is education. How are doctors trained as they go through school? I think it’s become so procedurized.
What do you prescribe this person if they come in with this particular illness. Anti-biotics. They’re trained to automatically think of the drug that’s going to “solve” the situation. In reality, it’s just causing more side effects, more problems and more things that are going to make that person sick, maybe not worse. We think of antibiotics and the consequences of using them. They become less effective over time so. It seems this cookie cutter training that doctors go through isn’t actually to our benefit.
Maveen: Your 100% right David. Even one of the things you just said, you take an antibiotic and it’s supposed to help cure one symptom. Anything you put into your body, once you take it and ingest it, your body want to break it down. Let’s say the antibiotics is supposed to help you with a lung infection. Your body, although maybe healed from that lung infection, another part of your body doesn’t want that pill inside of it. So, it will fight that drug that you’ve ingested to fight that lung infection. For example, your liver is going to detox your whole body and your kidneys also detox your body. There are other parts of body that can be hurt while you’re trying to fix something else.
David: Yeah. That not great. In addition to medical doctors we have to think of another category of doctors, which is psychiatrist. I believe fully in psychology or counselors or people who can provide you with tools to help you. I don’t know that psychiatry is rooted. I respect the profession. I don’t know if it’s rooted in the same intentions, in other words, I think it’s called their, DMT EIGHT. They look in the book and make an assessment of what the condition is. Then they prescribe a drug to that person, whether it is depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or something like that. Sometimes it’s absolutely justified and that person may not be able to function normally without the drug. I think there’s also this tendency or this proclivity to give away all these drugs to people that are self-prescribed and may not necessarily need them. They’re just may be going through a difficult time or they are convinced that there is something wrong with them and that’s their out or that’s their excuse.
Maveen: One of things that you made me think about was when you said, they open a book and find the cure. That is what lawyers do. They have all these cases that have been fought and won all over, Canada or United States or anywhere else in the world. They can always go back to that one case and say you know this is how it’s similar, so the outcome of that case could also be similar in in our own case. There’s ways that they can go back and look the same thing and look for patterns. Your right with psychiatrist their goal is to help the person adjust. So, if it means to give drugs to be happier or get over something, a death or sort of abuse. They’ll give that drug to them to help numb the pain or help them feel happier when they’re depressed. Overall if you’re not really dealing with the death or the abuse in your own ways, then the drugs just mask the pain for a long period of time.
David: It masks the symptoms and doesn’t heal it. Another thing that I find pretty fascinating, which is related in a way, is this whole thing about prostate checks for men. There are now studies showing that this is pretty controversial and may work the way we think it does. We say, “Check Now, prevent early. Find out now whether or not you have prostate cancer.” We know that from birth we have cancer in our bodies and prostate cancer is something that we always have just in different levels or so I’ve heard.
Maveen: You’re not a doctor are you David?
David: No, I’m definitely not a doctor. I think what studies are now showing is that this whole thing if checking for prostate cancer, can increases your chances of having prostate cancer. It’s bizarre.
Maveen: I like that example because it makes me think. Let’s say you’re feeling a little sick. You go to work and you tell one person, “I’m feeling sick today.” Then eventually people will day, “you’re feeling a little feverish today.” Even if you don’t even have a cold you can tell somebody that. The more people keep saying that to you’ll start believing it and eventually you’ll start feeling feverish.
David: I think there’s a name or term for this whole phenomenon, where medical students will be reading about or learning about particular sickness and they themselves will begin to feel symptoms.
Maveen: I can see that.
David: I don’t know but that speaks to me to the power of the mind because we can convince ourselves into believing a lot of different things, whether it’s that we need drugs or we don’t need drugs. We’ve been treated unfairly or we have a disadvantage to anybody else, that’s on planet earth. So, we adopt this victim mentality. It’s pretty amazing the ways in which we kind of use and abuse or even negate our own power.
Maveen: You are 100% right, David. You’ve made some really good points. One of the things is when you’re not using your own power, you’re letting other people decide what you’re going to digest or ingest. So, if we go back to the thirties and forties, you and I were not around but our parents around at that time. Potential our grandparents are around.
I can’t say if doctors were any different from the doctors we have now. Although the medicine is a lot different and the pharmaceutical are much different, Canada and the United States were built partly on the misery of people taking pharmaceuticals, in my opinion.
David: That’s an interesting point. I feel like an interconnected industry, to pharmaceuticals is food because people are saying you have to eat more food to get the equivalent nutrients we used get. That might be because of the synthetic foods or the non-natural sources that we now derive some foods from. It could also just be the fact of our eating habits where we go too fast food or eat a bag of chips. As we know there’s so little nutritional value. It’s not necessarily taught in school.
Maveen: I don’t think chips made the food group did it?
David: No. My dad used to joke the about the styrofoam food group. The whole food group thing is another thing. I guess we kind of went into that before but another thing that’s funny to me is that the food groups were paid for by the dairy association. You think they might have a vested interest in having dairy as a important category that is part of your nutritional plan. I certainly do. I’ll leave that to your judgment. The connection between food and pharmaceuticals is if you’re not getting the nutrients you need, if you’re not healthy, if you’re just not getting enough vitamin D or Sun. You can now “supplement.” I think in generally vitamins and supplements are a good thing but there’s also not-so-good ones which depends on the chemicals they’re made out of. If they’re just cheap vitamins oftentimes they’re made from oil.
Maveen: It makes me of what we used to hear growing up. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. I think we all grew up hearing that and hearing that vitamins C is found in oranges at the highest concentration. I think all those foods are paid for and those industries are paying the doctors to say these things and paying nutritionists to say these things. So, we as a nation keep consuming them.
You know you made a good point we’re growing these apples or different foods but we continually grow them in the same soil we’ve been growing them, for years. For the most parts I believe we’ve probably taken most of the nutritional value out of that soil. The apple we used to eat 20 years ago is definitely not the same apple we eat today. They need us to supplement with vitamins. Like you said they are synthetically produced in labs. From that lab, how do you know what you’re really getting? Take a vitamin every day isn’t that the same idea as taking a pharmaceutical pill every day? I know when I take a vitamin and then a couple hours later I go to the bathroom and take a pee, it is bright yellow. Well I have just peeped out most of the vitamins I just ingested.
David: You’ve brought another important point to the fore front which made me think of another source that is interconnected, which is the media. What is the media saying about food? What is it saying about supplements? If you answered nothing then you clearly aren’t watching carefully enough because as we described earlier there’s so many commercials where they talk about specific pharmaceutical drugs for specific conditions.
Every day in the newspaper it goes something like this, they found out like coffee’s not healthy for you anymore. Then next year they say coffee is now healthy for you. People just repeat things that they hear or see in the newspaper and think they’re being smart. When in reality we’ve been flip-flopping on these issues. If you pay careful attention to what’s going on, we’ve been flip-flopping on these issues forever and I don’t think anybody is going to 100% ever agree on what’s healthy and what’s not healthy. I would say just shut that out. Get rid of it. Stop listening to that crap because it’s utter nonsense.
Maveen: I’ve heard of the low-fat diet, the no fat diet, low carb diet and the high carb diet. All sorts of diets the protein diet, the no protein diet. It comes down to what you feel is right for your body. Everybody’s body type is different. There are different diets that include he blood type diet, the Atkins diet and we can go on and on of all the different fads that have come. These are all about making money and in the big picture, just like the pharmaceutical industry. It’s all about making money and getting you hook to believing something that will continually work for you. I’m sure I have fallen victim to all of this. Eat a high carb diet. Who does not what a bowl of pasta every day. We have all fallen for that. Just find the right diet that works for you.
Looking back at pharmaceuticals for a second, what’s your experience with pharmaceuticals?
David: I’ve never been prescribing drugs nor have I ever taken any prescription drugs. I even had a period where I went through an anxiety disorder. It’s not 100% healed and I don’t know that it ever is. It’s more than manageable to where I’m very high-functioning. I don’t even like the term high-functioning. I’m functioning, thank you very much. There are different reasons why I might have anxiety and that could be routed partly in the media and the lives we live. In the way we perceive. How others view us and what we think others expectations are for us. When you examine that, you find out that people don’t have a lot of plans for you. You should probably make your own plans for life. I have never taken prescription drugs but I have taken drugs. For example, for headaches, ibuprofen, Advil and Tylenol, I have probably taken them all. Whatever drugs that I got at the doctors, I got when I was a kid in Japan. This is because that’s usually when we have the flu, influenza or cold and I might have been suffering with. I do remember taking that kind of stuff. How about you?
Maveen: David, as we grow up we are subjected to drugs that we don’t realize we’re taking. You know, when you’re getting your shot as a kid, that’s another big thing right now. A lot of people say wonder if they should give their child shots. Should I not give them anything. We don’t know what’s in it. There’s a place for pharmaceuticals. They did cure polio. In some instances, I’ve heard that has come back in certain places. It’s not necessarily always going be cured, it can genetically mutate and come back as a different form.
Going back to my personal experience, growing up I did get my shots in school. You are getting them in school! That’s where the pharmaceutical companies are first getting to us. When you were sick, as a kid, your parents would take you to the doctor and get you antibiotic or penicillin.
I don’t know if you remember or not but they used to give you this banana flavored syrup when you’re a kid and when you’re sick. You would take that was that antibiotic. You remember, right? Even though you think you haven’t taken it you’ve taken them. Growing up and going into high school you would get a headache and your buddy had Tylenol or ibuprofen. I guess we can’t use certain names potentially. They would have the pill and you would ask for but you one or two. One time I popped 23, just to see what happens. Not that it was good and I never recommend anybody do that. What happen to me was that my liver hurt. I don’t know if anybody’s felt their liver hurt. I had to drink a lot of water and flush it out. It wasn’t like going to the hospital anything but it was crazy. Then growing up and taking my vitamins which is an over-the-counter pharmaceutical. Taking those every day at the time> Even through the network marketing business we were in, vitamins were one of the things they told us to buy because it provided a high business volume and a point volume, toward your business. Even that to me is a drug pusher. Buy this because it gives you this.
In 2004 I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. At that point that it’s something you need to get treated with drugs because there is no real cause and there’s no known cure for it. There are pills you can take.
David: Other than diet?
Maveen: The biggest thing found was diet and meditation and understanding what cause my stress, that was part of it. Being on the medication for almost five years, is when I asked, why am taking Prednisone and Imuran? Those are the things that are keeping my symptoms at bay. How would I ever know if I’m actually cured, until I stop taking it. Going to my doctor and saying, “hey I want to get off this stuff.” Even the doctor was saying well we don’t really want you to get off this stuff because we don’t know if you have a relapse.
David: They always say that.
Maveen: For me, I wanted to know if I was cured? Was all the things I was doing outside of the medication, working. Once I was off the medication, here’s an interesting thing the doctor told me. He said I had enough medicine in me to last in my system for nine months. I had been taking stuff for five years and now my body absorbed so much that I had nine months of medicine in me. Even if I got off the meds, I would still continue to get the same effects of that medicine.
David: Does the body ever get rid of what goes into it?
Maveen: That’s a good question. I think you should answer that.
David: I’m not sure. I’ve talked to nutritionists that say once someone dies and they take them to the morege, they cut him open. They will see things like undigested vitamins and things like that. I don’t know if that’s 100% of the case all the time but sometimes they do find that and maybe vitamins or drugs don’t necessarily have the desired outcome that we are looking for.
The other thing you mentioned about shots, I think that’s a highly controversial subject and definitely, I did get shots growing up and remember that now. I was just recalling it as you were about to mention it.
I generally don’t agree with getting shots. I know people that get the flu shots every single year and some of them still get the flu, which tells me, I don’t know about its effectiveness and there are people who died from shots every year. People die from a lot of things, don’t get me wrong. People may die from asphyxiation, car crashes and a variety of different things. There documented cases of people dying from getting these vaccines.
Maveen: People are overdosing on pharmaceuticals all the time, not just vaccines. The interesting thing about vaccines, like you were saying, although you get that flu shot it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got the shot for the right strain. They’re the flu or the virus will mutate just like a cancer cell does.
David: What else is in there? Who are you trusting your body with? That’s a huge question I believe when it comes to vaccines.
Maveen: Ultimately, you’re trusting the doctors, the pharmaceutical companies and potentially the government which allows them to treat you.
David: We kind of live in scary times. It is sort of like the beginning of the end because pretty soon everybody’s personal data will be in the cloud if it isn’t already. Now we’re going to have chips implanted in our right hand. We’re kind of years away from this happening but it’s also something that’s been predicted in various fictional works. As well as the Bible. I can’t tell you whether or not the Bible is fiction or nonfiction but it’s a book, it’s out there and it is one of the highest selling books of all time, surprisingly!
Maveen: I think what you’re talking about with the chip in the hands is called, “The Mark of the Beast.”
David: Yes it is in the Bible.
Maveen: Potentially we are on the way there. I did read an article one time, that someone in Europe had gotten that after 9/11. There are people out there who are moving the agenda forward and pharmaceuticals is part of that agenda. Whatever that agenda maybe.
David: The agenda seems to encompass various industries we talked about. It’s healthcare,
Pharmaceuticals, media, potentially the government or other people that are in power. I don’t want to make too many allusions to the Illuminati or cults or a “higher power” here on earth, but we don’t really know do we?
We don’t look into these things on a daily basis and we don’t think about them. If we’re getting shots then probably we don’t care. We just trust our healthcare providers to give us the service that we’re trusting them to give, which I’m not convinced they are.
Maveen: David, you made a great point. If I wasn’t about to give you a quote right now and I said this quote wise by Plato. Have you read all the works by Plato?
David: No I have not.
Maveen: But, if I tell you the quote is by Plato. Didn’t I just lend credibility to myself?
David: You probably did.
Maveen: You trust me don’t you? If I tell you that quote you’ll be like, “that’s a great quote by Plato.” Just like if you trust your doctor because that doctor has your best intentions. Don’t worry take this medicine. I just got some from my supplier. He who brought in because they happen to be making there tours. You take it because you say the doctor gave it to, only because your parents told you to trust the doctor.
David: Who are the suppliers? Are they also in lab coats like doctors are? Are they in sterilized environments or are they just dirty guys in a warehouse? Do you know what I mean. Forgive the term or the way I said it but it could be these random in a warehouse packing it all in and shipping it all out.
Maveen: Absolutely, you said media early. Just to the point you just made, there are people on places like craigslist, potentially on there selling pharmaceuticals because it’s easy to list what you’re selling anywhere. I can tweet it, if I wanted to. I could put it on my Facebook and say, “Hey does anybody have this medication, my leg hurts or whatever excuse. Any excuse will do when you’re looking for drugs. Just like any excuse will do for a crack addict, a heroine fiend or any drug that you’re addicted to.
David: Well that’s a whole conversation about endorsements as well. I think one way to use your power, is to endorse the right things. We’ll have to get into that at some point. But you’re right. You see celebrities on Twitter endorsing certain products and they get paid every time that happens. Do I look at that and say they shouldn’t do that? NO, but I don’t have any celebrities in my feed either.
Maveen: That’s a great point and it’s about mind control, in my opinion. The celebrities constantly telling you what to do, how to think and telling you about the stuff they’re using. I’ll enjoy rap music, I don’t listen to as much as I used to. I like to stick to some of the older stuff verses some of the newer stuff because I’m not into these drugs these kids are doing. Molly, don’t care. Smoking lots and lots of weed. Not into that. Back in high school everybody tried it. I still do every so often, I’m not going to lie. It not something I’m doing all the time. Even with that said, with all the government control now on marijuana. How is that impacting us. How many different things are they changing in the strain itself because nowadays there’s probably hundreds of different strains I’ve never even heard. How is that affecting you?
David: To an extent I don’t think the government cares that much about legalizing or not legalizing, as long as people use it, “responsibly.” Not smoking and driving or not smoking and going for a walk.
I think it’s one of those things that they would love to leave as a perpetual debate, going back and forth because I don’t know that they care that much because it could be a potential source of profit.
Maveen: It is definitely a huge potential for profit. Some of the other non-pharmaceuticals that come to mind are cigarettes. What about alcohol? It’s probably the same companies who have a similar vested interest in pharmaceuticals because you know they keep you addicted, just like cigarettes is an addiction.
You want to get off smoking, now they have this thing called, “vaping” and with vaping there’s so many ways you can vape with different flavors. I’ve have friends who vape and say, “hey give this a try.” I’ve tried it to see what it’s all about and I just can’t understand. All I’m doing is breathing in flavored air. Maybe it doesn’t have as many toxins as a cigarette but it’s just substituting one addiction for another addiction.
David: Well I’ve secondhand vaped. Differently never firsthand. It is a pleasant smell. That’s all I need. I don’t need to breathe that in.
Maveen: What we don’t even know what kind of damage we are actually doing to our self with the second hand smoke.
David: I’m not advocating second-hand smoking or secondhand vaping or secondhand no breathing in drugs. I don’t think that’s any better.
Maveen: I believe it was Bill Clinton or George Bush who said they tried it but never inhaled.
David: One thing I wonder, most things in moderation are okay, but you know you see celebrities and smoking cigars. Even somebody like Michael Jordan has a cigar room in his $10 million home. I saw the high-def video of Michael Jordan’s home because he was selling it. Amazing home, but yeah he had a cigar room.
Maveen: You make a good point because even people like Jay-z, for example, are seen smoking cigars in videos. It gives it that prestigious look and feel. I think that’s what pharmaceutical drugs can do for you, when you are on them. When you when you first start taking them, like I said earlier, you are taking them because you want to deal with some pain but as soon as that pain starts numbing. You can’t even feel why you’re taking this stuff anymore. You know you might feel some sort of pleasure and now you want to continuously stay in that pleasure mode. Just like drugs do. Just like cocaine and marijuana does, like smoking a cigar does, having a cigarette and even having a drink of alcohol. These are all things that add dopamine to your brain and make you happier and feel so good about yourself. As soon as that feeling goes down, what do you need more of more of?
David: You need more of the drug.
Maveen: Right you need more of the drugs. When you get more of the drugs, you take them and you start feeling good and then when you run out of it, what do you get? More drugs from your doctor, you get the prescription filled and you pay for it. To me just a way to keep you under control through all these different ways they keep you addicted.
David: Totally agree there are so many things that are controlling in this world. I think we talked about many of them, if I can add a few, religion and school, those are a couple that immediately come to mind. I think, the very things that we think free us, sometimes are keeping us under somebody else’s thumb, somebody else’s values, somebody else’s morals. I think that’s kind of an unfortunate thing. What I will say about drugs is you know it’s an option if you’re not feeling well. It’s not the only thing you can turn to if you’re not feeling well. Although it might be something to look in to. Maybe you do have a chemical imbalance or clinical depression and you do need to augment your serotonin. In many cases drugs are just one of many options you have, to feel better. Exercise, diet, sleep, rest, adjusting your work schedule, taking time to enjoy life, slowing down or meditating. There are so many options and you won’t see results if you start today. You’re not going to see results tomorrow but if you keep doing it, over time, it’s like the book, Slight Edge, you begin to see the results.
Maveen: One of things you made me think of was, how many people have we lost to pharmaceutical abuse? Over the last couple years we’ve lost people like Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse to alcohol abuse and pharmaceuticals. Actors, actresses and musicians, you name it. Politicians like the former Mayor of Toronto was on drugs. Same as the Mayor of Detroit. These guys are people we are entrusting to run our cities. Music and entertainment wise these are the people we look up to. Then we find out the people we look up to are you know dying from things that the doctors are giving to them. Michael Jackson’s doctor wrote a book on his experience prescribing medicine and to Michael Jackson.
David: The bottom line there is nobody safe. Anybody could end up addicted to some kind of drug. Maybe sugar or alcohol, we all have various vices and addictions depending on who we are. We have to recognize them for what they are. It can end up being a dependency and when it becomes a dependency then it’s hard to quit or wean yourself off some something that’s causing harm to you, your body, your relationships and other aspects of your life.
Any other thoughts Maveen?
Maveen: As we start wrapping up David, one of the things I was thinking was the reason I brought this to you was because I watched a movie called, “Prescription Thugs” by Chris Bell. Great documentary, it gave an idea of the life of a wrestler and the life of a football player. The different things that they did to get drugs because it was that high that they wanted to keep achieving. They made it sound easy to get pharmaceuticals from doctors. You can tell your doctor literally anything. I feel depressed, and they’ll give you something for it. They might run a couple of tests. It’s not hard to lie in tests as we know from school. You can get through anything and if you want that certain drug you’ll find a way to get it. When I was watching that movie it opened my eyes to certain things that I wasn’t always thinking about or talking about.
David: Even if it’s just on a subliminal level you recognize the things that are happening. I totally hear that and it can be applied to so many different areas of life as well.
We are not healthcare professionals. We are not doctors and we don’t have PhD’s in medicine. I think many of the things we talked about are important but we would urge you to seek out professional help if you’re suffering with some condition or if you want to find out more about what’s good. What can I take? What should I not take? what should I avoid? Should I be on prescription medication anymore for my particular condition?
Those are the kind of things that we would love for you to think about but the decision is ultimately yours.
This is how we’re choosing to use our power, how will you Use Your Power. We are Using Your Power and you can check us out online at usingyourpower.com
