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Dec. 26, 2004 - 14:22 MST THE WONDERING JEW Home Grown One of the things I wonder about is discussed in this morning's Eugene, Oregon newspaper -- The Register Guard Talk about diversifying, wow. I have noticed over time all the many "new" over the counter combo drugs. All sorts of things mixed in with old, well know pain killers are showing up. Which enable some folks to be taking OTC pills that can fight the effects of each other or on the other hand double or worsen the effects. For instance if one is taking one of those "combo" pills, pain killer plus sinus and perhaps also taking something like Sudafed and a bit of Benadryl, what will be the outcome ? A more or less pain free individual with a truly messed up respiratory tract too sleepy to drive. Let alone speaking of the ill effects of OTC drugs and prescription drugs interacting in weird ways. Thus the article by Les AuCoin an Ashland writer. (Ashland Oregon)In full: We ought to ban the splicing of drugs into food "How's this for an idea ? Let the commercial businesses inject drugs into you without your knowledge or approval." "That's the effect of a new form of genetic agriculture called biopharming. It is the process of splicing pharmaceuticals into the genes of commercial crops" Industry expects to begin marketing transgenic seeds of this kind in two or three years. But it won't be allowed to in this state of the Oregon chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility has its way." The Organization, which includes physicians and nondoctors, plans to introduce a bill next year in the Oregon Legislature to ban such for four years. This would buy time to learn more about possible adverse effects of such genetically altered crops." "I want to take a drug when I have a need for it -- and not before," says Rick North, director of Physician's for Social Responsibility Campaign For Safe Food." "Oregon currently permits no biopharmaceutical crops for cultivation. North and his group want to keep it that way. Anyone who has suffered an allergic reaction to a drug or medicine would likely agree." "I'm just enough of an old shoe to like the idea of the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Each does his or her own thing. You know what that thing is and you make your purchases." Biopharming on the other hand, would be lilke buying a bagel from the baker and ingesting a dose of paraffin." "Biopharming opponents have some impressive research on their side. The National Research has concluded that beneficial biopharming produced in a greenhouse could pose a threat to humans in the open market.In a 2002 report, the council reported that an additive grown in corn since 1997 could potentially poison consumers." "A group called Oregonians for Food and Shelter will likely fight the bill in Salem. The organization is essentially a front for such industries who might profit handsomely from biopharming." "Rather than naming itself. "Chemical Companies and Agribusiness Executives Who Know What's Best For You And Your Body," it seems to prefer, "Oregonians For Food And Shelter." "The group has muscle. In 2002, it helped defeat a ballot measure that would have required labeling of genetically modified foods." It will lobby furiously against the biopharming moratorium. Add why not ? The biotechnology, pharmaceutical and agribusiness industries see a whole new world of profits in biopharming." "According to a recent report in The Oregonian, a privately held biotech company in College Station, Texas, is working to produce children's vaccines that can be delivered in a snack rather than through a syringe." "You can almost hear moratorium opponnents playing hearts and flowers now. They'll speak of the Yankee ingenuity and the promise of genetic food break through that could fight such maladies as AIDS, herpes simplex virus, hepatitis and E. coli." "I don't know of anyone who wants humans to be infected by those diseases. That's not the point. The point is our food supply does not and should not be the the delivery mechanism for drugs." "As for ProdiGene Inc., the Texas biotech firm, its cultivation of crops for medicinal purposes has had a troubled history. In 2002, a half-million bushels of soybeans in Nebraska had to be destroyed when inspectors found that the soybeans had been exposed to an experimental ProdiGene corn containing a vaccine for traveler's diarrhea." "I of course, have always been stoutly opposed to traveler's diarrhea. But I just think we need doctors and pharmacists -- not biotech firms -- to give us vaccines against it." "As Rick North of Physicians for Social Responsibility says, "I don't want to be exposed to (drugs) without knowledge of what (they) do and what their side effects are." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Opinions and thoughts of this old man. I guess that I pretty well bared my thoughts in the beginning. People dosing themselves with the "witches brew" of over the counter meds, often without reading the labels themselves (which have little practical information for the layman anyhow) often complicate their ailments as it is. Now rears the head of medicinal food - - - - - Bootleg birth control drugs for the rebellious teenager, side by side with drugs to encourage the conception of children. Mood elevators next to mood depressors. Stool softeners next to Immodium next to downright laxatives. I thought that our teenage prank of getting someone to ice a cake with Ex-Lax was as low as things could get. I can see the lobbyists touting regulation and control for the Frankenstein's nightmares. Yeah right, our government cannot even regulate the over the counter medications we have now and as well it seems that some prescription medications are proving to be unsafe for most folks. But, you know that will be okay, if your body starts going downhill, just put some DNA in the pot and have your clone made, then before you kick the bucket, you might have time to raise said clone to a responsible age. Only thing is -- you yourself will be gone. Maybe we should raise our kids to be biopharmacists so that whatever the result -- it will be Home Grown . . . . . . . . 0 comments so far
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