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Just when the controversial new Medicare drug bill has been passed, a new report has come out showing that half the time, prescription drugs don’t work. And a couple of illegal drugs can cause changes in DNA that can be passed down to future generations.

Steve Connor reports in the Independent that Allen Roses, vice-president drug company GlaxoSmithKline, says that more than half of the patients who take expensive prescription drugs don’t get any benefit from them. Connor writes, “It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public.”
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Opium production in Afghanistan is on the rise and is turning that nation back into a country run by drug lords, the way it was before the Taliban took over. UN drug agency director Antonio Maria Costa says the country is falling into the hands of “drug cartels or narco-terrorists.” This means that drug wars will escalate here in the U.S. as well.

The Taliban may have provided a haven for Osama bin-Laden and drastically curtailed women’s rights, but they also forced many farmers to stop growing opium. However, since their other crops didn’t bring them nearly as much money, farmers returned to opium growing as soon as they could and production rose to around 3,600 metric tons last year.
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Anthropologists believe that so many people use drugs today because they helped our ancestors survive. Anthropologists Roger Sullivan of the University of Auckland and Edward Hagen of the University of California say our ancestors were exposed to plants containing narcotic substances for millions of years. They believe we are predisposed to take drugs because we evolved to seek out plants rich in alkaloids.

Consuming these plants could have been a basic survival strategy. ?Stimulant alkaloids like nicotine and cocaine could have been exploited by our human ancestors to help them endure harsh environmental conditions,? Sullivan says.
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