Aug 24, 2009

DRUG BUST Alan Cassels How do you calculate your net worth, the value of your company or your chequing account balance? You don’t have to be an accountant to understand that these amounts are determined by looking at both columns in the ledger – your assets and liabilities and your credit and debit. In Double-Entry accounting, your assets are listed...

Dec 1, 2014

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine. – Dr. William Osler You may have heard about Stanley Milgram, the American psychologist who carried out some of the most infamous research on obedience back in the 1960s, but have you heard of...

Nov 1, 2014

Please don’t operate a missile battery while reading this article DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs In mid October, the US Food and Drug Administration convened a special meeting to look at whether or not varenicline, the controversial drug to stop smoking – called Champix in Canada and Chantix in the US –...

Oct 1, 2014

A quagmire rife with rhetoric DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs It pollutes our water, warms our planet and destroys the environment. Or…it provides jobs, reduces our dependence on foreign oil and delivers economic growth. It’s either a godsend or evil incarnate. What’s the “it” we’re talking about...

Sep 1, 2014

What’s getting buried may surprise you DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs British Columbia is indeed a wondrous, resource-rich place. We’ve got oil. We’ve got minerals, trees, fish, and, of course, liquefied natural gas (LNG). We’ve got all kinds of natural resources here in BC to exploit. And exploit them...

Aug 1, 2014

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs If you want some reliable advice about which medical procedures, screening tests or drug therapies are unnecessary, useless or even downright dangerous, one of the best sources is the medical professionals themselves. After all, the people delivering the procedures and prescribing...

Jul 1, 2014

You’ve got hepatitis C, now you’re my hostage DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs A friend of mine who works in the Canadian insurance industry told me they’ve seen their first claim for the new drug called Sovaldi. New drugs come along all the time, but not drugs like this one, which claims to eradicate a...

Jun 1, 2014

Stories from Australia and Britain reveal the dangers of telling the truth about statins DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs When policy dooms you, start telling stories – stories so fabulous, so gripping, so spellbinding that the king forgets all about a lethal policy. – Karl Rove (one of George W. Bush’s...

May 1, 2014

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs • The headline that landed like a drone strike on the medical world asked one simple question: “Time to stop mammography screening?” The editorial by Dr. Peter Gotzsche, a Danish physician and one of the world’s experts on the science behind breast cancer screening, was...

Apr 1, 2014

Mental health drugs based on biased sources DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs A November 2012 press release from the BC Ministry of Health presented us with a bold and hopeful headline: “New program helps BC family doctors treat mental health challenges in children and youth.” This announcement was...