Astro-Pharmacies & Drug Factories on the Moon (and I wrote a poem!)
“Malcolm X and Edmund Burke shared an appreciation of this important insight, this painful truth--that the state wants men to be weak and timid, not strong and proud.” ~ Thomas Stephen Szasz
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You can listen to me read this essay here:
I’ve had enough of the drug Czars and their cures! On the train into Manhattan the other day, I saw nothing but ads for the new obesity drugs that all the celebrities are taking, Ozempic or Wegovy.
It might be a little contradictory for Whoopi Goldberg to say, “You have to take responsibility for yourself and see what’s going on with your body” in one breath and then say, “and there’s nothing wrong [with taking weight loss drugs].”
Despite Dr. Terry Dubrow (plastic surgeon and TV personality) admitting that Ozempic was dangerous he rationalized normalizing its use because “It’s here to stay. This is the new Botox and it’s for obesity instead of wrinkles.”
Never mind that these drugs can cause tumors in the thyroid, including thyroid cancer, severe stomach problems, kidney failure, suicide, to name a few side effects. It will get rid of the fat—like a miracle!
The media has been so supportive. It’s adopted a “more empathetic tone,” while the “condition” of obesity has won increased recognition among societies within healthcare, Novo said. The disease is also being recognized by policymakers, and patient groups are increasingly pushing patients with obesity to seek treatment.
These drugs were originally prescribed just for diabetes, but now this year, combined sales of the drug for these two “diseases” almost doubled the $31.2 billion profit they recorded last year. Drug manufacturers are so greedy. Ozempic could be profitably produced for less than $5 a month but Novo Nordisk charges almost $1,000 per shot and ad those shots must be given once a week.
People are getting sicker every day. You’d think with all the drugs being marketed as cures; the opposite would be true—don’t think about that worrisome detail. Just take your meds!
Cancer is on the rise. Diabetes, obesity, heart disease. And everyone is suffering from mental disorders. There is a diagnosis and a prescription for every problem. Are you stressed? Of course you are! Feeling a bit depressed? Who isn’t! If you are sick (and everyone is) you have an obligation to take care of yourself—with drugs. And if you argue, you'll need a drug to fix that, too.
Obesity is a disease, just like depression. Just like everything. Obesity now affects roughly 42% of U.S. adults. And there’s nothing anyone seems able to do about it.
Two-thirds of Americans (65%) complain that willpower alone usually isn’t enough to lose weight and keep it off.
Will power? You can’t be serious! How dare you suggest I deny myself foods that I love when I’m so vulnerable, or that I might need to exercise and sweat (yuck!) when I have a phobia about that. It’s cruel! My stress levels go up just thinking about it. I’ve already asked my doctor for a higher dose of my anti-anxiety meds, but he says he can’t, or he might go to jail as a drug pusher. Imagine that! It’s all so depressing. Fortunately, my doctor said he can give me a prescription for depression along with my anxiety meds.
Guess what? I just found out I can get rid of my doctor, who’s been making me feel increasingly anxious anyway, and order my anxiety and depression meds online. My Ozempic drugs too.
Here’s what one of many websites offer:
Get a prescription for your weight loss, anxiety, stress, and depression medicine refills after an online visit with a healthcare provider.
Talk to a provider within minutes
Pick up your prescription at your pharmacy or get it discreetly delivered
No insurance needed
Hey, maybe if I document my weight loss journey on TikTok, I can become an online influencer. How cool would that be. It’d be like a whole new purpose in life. I can use a beauty filter, too, so I won’t even have to fix my hair or put on makeup. And just think, I can still have my favorite fast food delivered and I will get skinny!
I mean, is this paradise, or what?
Writing all the above made me feel a little stressed. I should take a Xanax, you say?
Are you kidding?
I wrote a poem! Now, let me just warn you, I am NOT a poet. But I had so much fun writing it, I’m going to inflict it on you!
DRUGS:
Drugs in your arm and drugs in your brain
Drugs to keep you from going insane
Drugs from the doctor and drugs on the street
Drugs at your door without moving your feet
Drugs make you happy so stop being sad
Drugs make you passive and never ever bad
Drugs in your food and drugs in your face
Drugs manufactured far out in space
Drugs are a miracle, everyone agrees
Drugs can even turn he’s into she’s
Drugs must be taken, do not disobey
Drugs are the answer, so jab-jab away
While I was laboring over my award-worthy poem, AI was busy dreaming up drugs. AI never sleeps like we frail humans have to (take some Adderall!). But we can never catch up with AI when it can make drugs faster and cheaper and never take a break.
New labs and factories must be built all over the world to test and manufacture these new drugs.
Last year, AI drug discovery company Exscientia opened a new research center in Vienna; in February, Insilico Medicine, a drug discovery firm based in Hong Kong, opened a large new lab in Abu Dhabi. All told, around two dozen drugs (and counting) that were developed with the assistance of AI are now in or entering clinical trials.
But manufacturing drugs on earth is not enough—nothing will ever be enough. These drug Czars are in continual competition to see who can come up with the most profitable drugs and convince the most people to take them.
So, why just build a drug empire on earth? Why not extend it to space? How about some astro-pharmacies orbiting earth?
Analysts predict over $1 trillion of the global economy will move into space by 2040, fueled in part by the expected takeoff of commercial spaceflight. Drug manufacture will represent a big chunk of the profit.
Cancer drugs are set to be the biggest winners. Just by developing ONE novel oncology drug through space-based R&D a company could obtain an average net present value of $1.2 billion.
But why stop at astro-pharmacies? Let’s build drug factories on the Moon and Mars is next:
Paul Reichert, a research scientist at Merck pharmaceuticals, says an even better research site is the Moon: “It’s perfectly designed, and placed at a good distance. It’s got a sixth of the gravity of Earth and has no atmosphere.”6
More than 131 million people — 66 percent of all adults in the United States —already use prescription drugs. That number will only continue to grow.
The Prescription Drugs market is expected to reach a revenue of US $1.09 trillion in 2024.
The Oncology Drugs market alone is expected to reach a projected revenue of US$214.10bn by 2024.
Global mRNA Therapeutics Market Set to Reach $21 Billion by 2028
The Global mental disorder drugs market was valued at $36.77 bn in 2020 and is projected to reach at a market value of $58.91 billion by 2031.
Big Pharma is going to keep getting bigger with the most powerful drug companies solidifying their control.
This year, just 10 drugmakers are expected to hold 35% of the total biopharma market share, or more than $420 billion in sales. Novartis, the company making those obesity drugs, is number one on that list, followed by Pfizer.
Nordisk has a market capitalization of almost half a trillion dollars. It is expanding into the heart disease business (the biggest drug market of all because it kills the most people) by taking over the German biotech company Cardior Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth over $1 billion. The company also accounts for almost 50% of global insulin production. Novo employs some 63,400 employees in 80 countries and its products are sold in around 170 countries.
Does anyone think we will ever hear anything other than that drugs are the answer to all our ills? Does anyone think we will ever hear Big Pharma Czars, or government officials say that exercise and healthy food are the best medicines?
Certainly not. The empire is too profitable and its rulers too powerful for them to stop now.
I think I’ll take a walk to calm down. That’s my prescription for this anger I’ve been feeling. It works every time.
I would also add that the drugs are getting into the water we drink and the waters where fish and animals live ( and making them sick). Jeff Childers (Coffee and Covid)brought to my notice last week the story about fish of many different varieties and sizes along the entire peninsula of Florida having a strange spinning sickness. They swim in circles, sometimes bobbing their heads above the water, until they die. Very concerning.
Love the poem!