Natural Pain Remedies Gaining Favor With Medical Students

Advocators of natural pain remedies are delightedPharma" dishes out to doctors.
with the recent Medical Students' reaction toAccording to data from the Pharmaceutical
pharmaceutical manufacturers' gifts. A group calledResearch and Manufacturers of America, this kind
PharmFree is the initiative of the 60,000-strongof spending rose from just over $12 billion in 1999
American Medical Student Association. Theirto over $22 billion in 2003 creating vast vested
efforts so far include meeting with 40,000interest situations by obligating doctors to "push"
American physicians to urge them not to accepttheir drugs.
any more "Big Pharma" freebies, and to directWithout the Hippocratic Oath to follow, it seems
them toward sources of information about drugsmany doctors have lost sight of their high
that are unaffiliated with the pharmaceuticalprinciples. But this reaction from our medical
industry.students, gives us hope for the future generation
The lengths to which pharmaceutical makers goof doctors and their medical ethics. Let us hope
to make sure doctors know about - and writethat the Hippocratic Oath is returned to its rightful
prescriptions for - their drugs is well known. Theplace at Med School graduation."
all-expense-paid trips to Hawaii and other exoticThe medical students' feelings ran high as they
locales, the lavish "educational" conferences instaged a protest at Pfizer's New York
Vegas, the free tickets to sporting events andheadquarters, where they dumped tens of
other perks, and the loitering sales personnel atthousands of logo-sporting pens back onto the
medical schools. This is not to mention all the freecompany's doorstep. They replaced these pens
meals, pens, notepads, eye glass cases, freewith ones of their own
samples of drugs, and other gratis items "Big