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Pharmaceutical Corporation Lies
One Reason For My Continuing Insanity
I have not previously written about this factor...
it is giving me nightmares.
In 1990, I helped a 60 Minutes producer (Isadore Roesemarin) do
a segment on aspartame/NutraSweet, the artificial sweetener.
When Searle Pharmaceuticals got NutraPoison approved, their
president was a man by the name of Donald Rumsfeld. They then
sold the company to Monsanto. A 30-year-old named Clarence
Thomas was then Monsanto's lawyer. A congressman by the name
of John Ashcroft had received the greatest number of political
donations from Monsanto. That's just a bit of trivia and
not the primary point to be made here...
At that time I carefully went through Searle's research. They
had submitted 112 studies to the FDA for approval. The FDA
designated 17 of those studies to be "pivotal." By naming
a study "pivital" it had to be available to the public in its
entirety. So...I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for
the 17 studies. One of them was performed at the University
of Wisconsin on Rhesus Monkeys. After day 300 of that one-year
study every single one of the monkeys (low dose, medium dose,
and high dose groups) developed grand mal epileptic seizures.
Although I totally reject animal research, I recognize
that the performance and review of such research is THEIR
game. THEY set the criteria. When lab animals suffer
adverse affects, THEY are responsible for telling the truth.
In this case, THEY ignored the truth. I discovered the truth.
One month before the report aired, I met with a man by the
name of Michael Friedman, a high level FDA bureaucrat. I shared
the results of the study with him. FDA had approved aspartame
by concluding that there were no adverse affects on laboratory
animals. I found that FDA had erred. Friedman had my information.
I also found an ex-FDA employee willing to testify regarding
internal FDA pressures to ignore the facts and approve NutraSweet.
There was fraud and deceit at FDA. The public was about to be
intentionally poisoned.
When the actual 60 Minutes piece aired, they left the testimony
of the FDA employee on the cutting room floor. Furthermore,
Friedman, armed with my information, was interviewed and said,
"There were no adverse affects on lab animals." He lied and
I was angry and disappointed. The man represented pure evil
to me.
Three months later he was named FDA Commissioner.
Six months after that he left FDA to become the new
president of the NutraSweet company.
Now, I get to the real point of my story.
While I was addicted to Oxycontin, the FDA fined
the manufacturer, Purdue Pharmaceuticals, $634 million
for deceptive practices... for not revealing that
Oxycontin was more addictive than heroin. This week
after weaning myself from this powerful drug, I learned
that the acting president of that company is the very
same Michael Friedman.
I live in a world of conspiracy theories, and I do
too much research for my own good. The paper trails
seem impossible for investigative reporters to
follow, while they are marked with day-glo paint
for me. Call it my curse. I do what I do for the
public, I guess. I keep no secrets. I immediately
write about them. Perhaps, in a conspiracy theory
world, that is what keeps me alive. I do not really
give a damn any more about my safety. Their crimes
against mankind are so serious that I must do what
I do.
My Woodstock generation.. .we were going to change the
world, remember? Remember our phony ideals and how
everybody we know sold out and became our own parents?
Am I just wasting my time?
Robert Cohen
i4crob@earthlink.net
