Diary of a Legal Drug Dealer: One Drug Rep. Dares to Tell The Truth...

(10/2010) Book Review: Diary Of A Legal Drug Dealer

Oct 11, 2010

Review By Patricia Gale

Are Drug Companies Keeping Us Sick?

When Kay Carlson was offered a high-paying job as a sales rep for a well-known pharmaceutical company, she jumped at the opportunity. For one of the new drugs, her company gave Carlson and the other sales reps a limitless spending account and told them to do whatever was necessary to get face time with doctors and get them to accept copious free samples. This included expensive lunches for their entire staff, gifts for their office, and lucrative speaking engagements as sponsored medical experts in exotic locales. How were they going to pay for all this pricy drug PR and marketing nationwide, Carlson wondered. Not surprisingly, she saw the retail price of that brand-name drug jump dramatically within the year.

Soon, Carlson grew uncomfortable with the expensive, often fraudulent tactics used to get doctors to accept drug samples and write prescriptions. She began to ask questions and dig deeper into her company’s practices — and was so shocked by what she discovered that she quit her job and became a leading whistleblower against the drug industry.

In a new exposé, Diary of a Legal Drug Dealer: One Drug Rep Dares to Tell You the Truth, Carlson offers healthcare consumers an inside look at how drug companies have taken over our healthcare system, causing us to be overmedicated, incorrectly medicated, and addicted to prescription drugs.

According to findings by AARP, most Americans over the age of 45 take an average of four prescriptions daily. Nine out of 10 children or adolescents who see psychiatrists are put on drugs. Carlson believes Americans and their doctors have been brainwashed to believe Big Pharma’s PR message: For every health issue, there’s a pill to address it.
Do we need all these pharmaceutical drugs, and are they really helping us become healthier? In many cases, Carlson found that some of the most common and best known prescription drugs are making us less healthy by only masking the symptoms, or by causing harmful side effects that impede healing and require even more medications.
Unlike the conspiracy-theory books about evil Big Pharma and how it’s in bed with the government, Carlson’s book is impeccably documented with current, peer-reviewed studies and the work of well-regarded, prestigious medical doctors and scientists. She is not saying the pharmaceutical industry and medical community are out to harm us intentionally. But she does build a convincing case for the idea that drug companies have an unhealthy alliance with the FDA; the large medical organizations; government institutions such as schools, prisons, veterans hospitals, and mental health facilities; and yes, doctors themselves. The result? The medical industry and healthcare system have been corrupted and gravely influenced by the profit-driven drug companies.

Carlson believes there’s a better way — and that’s to educate yourself and take the control of your health out of the hands of entities that make money on keeping you sick.
In this eye-opening book, readers learn:

• Top reasons why the pharmaceutical selling machine needs to be reformed
• Tricks pharmaceutical reps use to get doctors to write prescriptions for costly medications
• How doctors are discouraged from reporting side effects and adverse events associated with prescription meds
• How statins became one of the most profitable heart medications — and why most of us don’t need them
• How Big Pharma turned psychiatric conditions into a cash cow — and why parents, especially, should be worried
• How doctors and drug companies profit from cancer
• What every parent needs to know about the drugs and shots routinely recommended for their kids
• Where to get reliable information about prescription drugs
• Easy and effective alternatives to prescription medications

Even those who know something about the inner workings of the drug industry will be surprised by the stunning facts revealed in Diary of a Legal Drug Dealer. Anyone who is concerned with their health will be grateful for Kay Carlson’s courageous stand and exhaustive research — and may think twice next time before reaching for the pill bottle.

K.L. Carlson is a former pharmaceutical rep turned whistleblower against the pharmaceutical industry. A passionate speaker and media presence who has been featured in the documentary films Prescription for Death and Making a Killing, she is devoted to educating healthcare consumers about the insidious methods drug companies use to create birth-to-grave prescription drug users. Her new book is Diary of a Legal Drug Dealer: One Drug Rep Dares to Tell You the Truth
(www.DiaryofaLegalDrugDealer.com).