The Cure for "Drug Marketing" Overdose

Adults, children and youth alike are exposed to drug commercials on TV.

You have seen them yourself.

Following a slump, the pharmaceutical industry has shifted its priorities toward marketing, particularly since the FDA first allowed companies to directly target consumers five years ago.

According to data collected by Alan Sager, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, the number of research and development (R&D) employees at companies making patented drugs declined between 1995 and 2000, while the number of people working in marketing shot up 59 percent.

"Drug companies trumpet the value of breakthrough research, but they seem to be devoting far fewer resources than their press releases suggest," says Sager.

Moreover, drug companies have learned that when they can't create a new drug to treat an existing illness, they can create a new illness to treat with existing drugs.

Glaxo SmithKline's multimillion-dollar promotion of anxiety disorder as a national problem enabled the company to make billions more selling Paxil--a drug most experts believe is needed by only a small fraction of the people who take it.

Faced by such marketing onslaught, how would our youth view drugs - as being good or bad?

After all, they see happy, healthy-looking people promoting drugs; images of nice environments and better living.

What impression do they get from such marketing?

The best cure for "Drug Marketing" overdose is to educate kids in the truth about drugs.

What better way to do so than in the classroom?

Here kids are a captive audience.

It is the one place where information is given out steadily; good or bad, kids get a lot of information from their teachers.

At Friends of Narconon we are helping teachers give our youth the correct information about drugs.

Our successes are many and the results are truly unprecedented.

Let's arm our youth with the truth about drugs like never before!

SPONSOR A SCHOOL TODAY and help us CHANGE MINDS & SAVE LIVES!

It only costs $200 to sponsor a school with our drug education videos and materials.

We have videos for Primary Schools, Junior High and High Schools.

Each video can reach over 3000 students during its life (only 7 cents per student!).

A public version of our school videos (which includes additional footage and material) is available on DVD for $47.

Contact Donna Miller at Friends of Narconon.

CALL: 1-800-882-6862.

Sincerely,
Robert Hernandez, CCDC*
President, Friends of Narconon, Intl.
*Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor

P.S. If you'd like to sponsor a school, just click here (or copy and paste into your browser):
http://www.friendsofnarconon.org/drug_education/school_sponsorship_program/

If you'd like to make a donation right now, click here (or copy and paste into your browser): http://friendsofnarconon.org/

©2006 Friends of Narconon, Intl. All Rights Reserved. Narconon, the Narconon logo, and the Narconon "Jumping Man" logo are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.