GARY AND MEDS

"Gary" is my dealer. I buy somewhere between $800 to $1,000

in drugs every month. I call him and use some code words that sound scientific, but he knows what I want. A short time later, an everyday looking car without a bumper sticker like "legalize marijuana"  pulls up to my house. The person who delivers looks like a God fearing church goer in casual clothes and they  give me my drugs.

I can go to "Gary's" place and it does not look like a "head shop." It is sort of like a medical supply place, but the real stuff is under the counter and in the back. I load up and head home. I keep a lot on hand, because without the drugs I get shaky and go through withdrawal.

My wife and I know a couple that cross over the border into Mexico to

get their supply. They pay roughly a third of what we pay. Then again, it may be more savings than that. Every time, this couple can fool border guards and the police and by the way, the police never hassle me. "Gary"has a good set up.

Both my wife and I are retired and we sure would like to spend less on drugs. As an example, one bottle costs

$440.00 and lasts about a month. Then there are 3 little bottles that are

around $125.00 a month each. What really blew me away is that medications (okay I sort of lied there for awhile at the beginning of this article) are supposed to come down in price after years in the market. However, the Pharmaceuticals have a new scam. According

to Bliss and Decker BLOOMBERG-BUSINESSWEEK  "Ending the Silence of Generic Drug makers" (2010:7/5/19-20) big drug companies buy out

small companies that make generics. So when it is time for generics to produce high quality meds, no one makes one and the prices on the brand names keeping going up,up,up.

Talk to a U.S. senator about this and they get tears in their eyes about the cost of research to make medications. We  deserve to pay for such huge prices for legal medications even though most people using the same meds in other countries do not do so. Look, the game is up. I  really do use legal medications. Since the election of a new president the

Federal Trade Council is getting some teeth and will hold hearings

in August.

 So I am not breaking the law. So what do you say about

 those rich pharmaceuticals? Don't say it in polite company.

Prof. Joel Snell

Kirkwood College