The Great Pharmacy Conspiracy

[lumberjim]

They knocked down the Morgantown Hotel. We joked, "they'll probably put up a pharmacy."

They did.

What the hell is it with all these pharmacies?

If you drive down rte 30 from Downingtown to Coatesville (4 miles, maybe?) you'll pass at least 4 different pharmacies. 3 have been put up in the past 5 years. It seems like pharmacies like CVS and Eckert are exploding in our area. Is it happening where you are?

Ok, so that's one piece of the puzzle.

Next piece:

Originally Posted by TV commercials

Ask your Doctor if Lavitra is right for you. Ask your Doctor if Ciallis is right for you. Ask your Doctor if Lobotomax is right for you. Ask your Doctor if Morpilzforme is right for you.

Next piece:

Originally Posted by The Evening News

People are dying from ebola virus, west nile virus, resistant staph infections, bird flu, etc...

Next piece:

Originally Posted by 25 year old yuppie doctor

You need to be vaccinated against 23 things before your second birthday, or we can no longer see you in our practice. Have you ever seen a child die from mumps? [lie] well I have. [/blatant lie]

My conclusion:

They are installing the necessary infrastructure with which to control the masses with fear, health care premiums and pills. In years to come, we will have become so conditioned to taking a pill for what ails, that we will have no real objection to taking the '*blue pill' once they release it.

Originally Posted by nerdy matrix essay

*
Morpheus contacts Neo just as the machines (posing as sinister 'agents') are trying to keep Neo from finding out any more. When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."

Am I nuts? (because of this theory)

[lookout123]

you may be on to something.

or you could look at the demographics in the area that you are talking about. How many are approaching/in retirement? how many are in their breeding/child bearing years?

Those that are going into retirement will be needing pills for this and that. surprisingly many folks seem to get busier once they retire so while they are in the pharmacy to pick up a supply of their blood pressure medicine and "blue steel", so as to avoid another stop on the way home they will gladly pay the extreme markups for milk, pop, and bread, and "oh look, they have those delightful slippers, too..."

The younger breeder types hate having to go to walmart/grocery stores, find a parking spot, fight the crowd inside, and stand in line for cough medicine and children's motrin so they'll go to the pharmacy and pay a little more for the convenience. "and oh look, i can pay a 40% additional markup to have my pictures developed here..."

it's all about profits and niche markets my friend.

[ZenGum]

I'm also thinking profits, niche markets and a graying population.
I don't think it is about preparing us for the blue pill, or soma, or whatever, but I do take seriously the idea that the pharmaceutical industry is encouraging fear of disease and natural decay in order to sell more products. I don't like it, but that's business and is to be expected under a capitalist system. If you're smart, you won't buy into the crap. Just let the other 90% buy in.

[lumberjim]

mayhap the doctors and pharmacists are filling a gap left by a failing church. the new religion? medical science, and 'the perfect self'

[lookout123]

i think they are just playing to the hope held by many people. it seems as if more and more people want to defeat the aging process and want to live forever. "i'll take this vitamin, i'll wear that insole, i'll rub that on my scalp, mmmm that enema will keep me clean..." why people want to live forever, i'll never understand, but they do. pharmacies sell the products that these people think they need.

in your line of work do people REALLY REALLY need* that extended warranty and a super duper undercoating when statistically speaking they'll only keep the car a little under three years anyway? probably not, but they buy it because of the "what if?" factor.


*i'm not saying you shouldn't sell it, just using it as an example.

[smurfalicious]

it's the same here... freakin pharmacy on every block.

pills are expen$ive. and they need to be in order to fund :

• a store every square mile
• advertising
• the educations of the physicians who will one day prescribe their drug(s)
• vacations and other "gifts" for the physicians to write the scrips

And a bandaid is a lot easier to apply than fixing the problem. No, don't cut out the fried chicken wings and beer... just take your cholesterol pill every day to keep the numbers down.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by smurfalicious

pills are expen$ive. and they need to be in order to fund :

• a store every square mile
• advertising
• the educations of the physicians who will one day prescribe their drug(s)
• vacations and other "gifts" for the physicians to write the scrips

And a bandaid is a lot easier to apply than fixing the problem. No, don't cut out the fried chicken wings and beer... just take your cholesterol pill every day to keep the numbers down.

To be fair, R&D for a new drug is a long, slow and uncertain process. They need to fund that too. But the "illnesses" they choose to develop drugs for is another controversy. We now have pills to give 85 year old men hard-ons, but no new treatments for malaria for decades.
The bandaid point is a good one. And for a Pharma company, they would rather sell you a treatment than a cure. You get cured, you don't come back. Temporary alleviation of symptoms, now that's good business practice.

[tw]

Originally Posted by lookout123

i think they are just playing to the hope held by many people. it seems as if more and more people want to defeat the aging process and want to live forever.

Never forget where profit margins are so massive. Remember George Jr's Medicare reform bill that protected those 40% higher drug costs in American and made illegal the same drug from any other country.

And then "Head On" - the miracle skin creame that eliminates headaches, infection, skin aging ... $7 for something that costs maybe $0.25 to manufacture. All those drug store exist because we *need* them age defying miracles.

[lumberjim]

AH....now THERE'S that slightly nutty vibe i was going for.

[HungLikeJesus]

Maybe there's a correlation between TV watching and individual health care expenses.

I think the question warrants a multi-year, multi-million dollar government study - or at least a Cellar survey.

P.S. One doesn't need pills if one is HungLikeJesus.

[Sundae]

Your pharmacies are different in the US.
When I worked for the NHS (National Health Service) in Leicester we found we had problems with some of our health initiative schemes because only the wealthiest pharmacies wanted to take them on. And the schemes were designed to help the poorest residents.

Stop Smoking for example - people in the average to well paid areas would buy their own nicotine replacement products, whereas we were pushing pharmacy schemes to supply them on prescription to people on income support. Same with Emergency Hormone Contraception (aka Morning After Pill) - the PCT wanted to supply it in areas with high teenage pregnancies, but it required a private consultation room, which was only available in the pharmacies in better off areas.

Sheesh. I have to say I've never met a poor pharmacist. I used to read Pharmacy Weekly as part of my job and it was awful to read the frequent tips on tax-dodging (legally) when I had a second job in order to get by. The cliche is to say I should have listened more in school, but I did. They don't tend to let people with English degrees run a pharmacy.

[Aliantha]

yep, it's because of all the oldies. What do you think the average age of customers in them? Also, look at how quick most people are to go to the doctors these days and come out with a wad of prescriptions.

Yep, I think if you're a chemist these days you're likely to be doing very well for yourself for the next however long. Probably till all the oldies die off at least...and the world comes to an end.

[Clodfobble]

Are the Walgreens, CVS, Eckerd's, etc. open 24 hours in your area? Because that's where they really get me. We fill all our prescriptions at the grocery store (which we haven't had to do at all in over a year,) but I've used our Walgreens several times for stupid things I needed at 10:00 at night.

[TheMercenary]

Walmart and the Publix (food store) is giving away perscriptions at $4 each for generics.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

They knocked down the Morgantown Hotel.

Is there is also something about destroying historic structures and replacing them with throw away buildings that were designed for Florida strip malls?