Jeff Sessions Launches the "War on Weed"

The saga continues. The story of the greatest president in the history of these United States adds another glorious page.

You can follow the daily process if you follow this link: “The Horror Show Continues: Days 301-365 of President Trump.”

Today, we discover there is new hope for America’s struggling drug companies. With unnecessary government regulations about to be slashed and burned and put through a concrete mixer, maybe they’ll finally make to squeeze out a little profit for themselves. 

So:

January 9, 2018 (Day 355): It only took a year of random tweeting and general dithering, but the Trump administration is finally ready to launch its main attack on America’s biggest drug problem.

Opioids?

High prescription drug prices?

Keep guessing.

Yes. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is gearing up to win the “War on Weed.”

As you may already know Trump recently declared victory in the sanguine “War on Christmas.” As he pointed out during one holiday speech, he has made it safe again to say, “Merry Christmas!” without commies coming to your house to set your tinsel-draped fir tree on fire.

Of course nothing Sessions will be up to will help the three million Americans who suffer from type-1 diabetes. In recent years they have seen the price of the life-saving insulin they need skyrocket. Eli Lily has managed to drive prices up by 700 % in twenty years.

Nor will Sessions’ attack on states-legalized pot help children subject to severe asthma attacks, children with dangerous bee sting reactions and peanut allergies or others who must keep EpiPens handy. These pens can be used to stop or mitigate life-threatening seizures. According to industry insiders these devices, marketed by Mylan, cost no more than $30 to produce. Yet, when Mylan packages them up, two to a pack, they charge $600.

Even better, for Mylan’s bottom line, the pens lose effectiveness after eighteen months. Then they must be replaced.

Even a total victory in the “War on Weed” won’t help those who take Humira for crippling rheumatoid arthritis or debilitating Crohn’s disease. Since 2012 the price of this medication has doubled. Currently, Humira sells for $38,000 for a twelve-month supply. That figure is set by AbbVie, a company spun off from Abbott Labs in 2013.

When asked to comment for a story by The New York Times, company officials politely declined. They may have been busy counting their money. AbbieVie had $25.6 billion in revenues in 2016.

Almost two-thirds came from sales of Humira.

Of course, we all know drug companies are run by great business people and great human persons. Regulating them in any way only kills capitalism and causes noxious weeds—but hopefully not marijuana—to grow in the nation’s streets.

Fortunately, with a Republican Congress and a Republican/Stable Genius seated in the White House, we no longer need worry about unnecessary government regulations. Also, businesses will get huge, permanent tax cuts, because clearly they are barely getting by. Two syringes of Humira cost $522 in South Africa, $822 in Switzerland and $1,362 in Great Britain, where an accursed system of socialized medicine is in play. Here in America we can thank god we have the freedom to pay whatever prices Big Pharma sets. This is why two syringes in the United States go for the bargain rate of $2,669.

Who helps make it possible for Big Pharma to eke out tiny profits? Consider John Shimkus, who represents the people of Illinois so wonderfully. In 2016, Shimkus worked overtime to gather signatures from 242 members of Congress and block an Obama proposal to test ways to lower drug costs for Medicare Part B. That program spent $24.6 billion on prescription drugs in 2015.

In other words, billions were at stake.

“Hey,” Big Pharma said, “let’s donate $300,000 to Shimkus! He’ll help us provide great drugs at great prices!”

I’m not sure how many of the 242 signers in Congress were Republicans. When I checked the list I know the first fifteen were. You can click the link and study the rest of the names yourself. Those who did add signatures included Steve Chabot, my very own congressman, Tom Price, former member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, and also former head of Health and Human Services, a man with a penchant for flying all over god’s creation at taxpayer expense, Steve Scalise, third-ranking House Republican, and Senator “Snowball” Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.

In any case, with the price of Humira having doubled, AbbVie did promise to limit any price increase I 2018 to single digits. Last week they kept their word and jacked the cost a mere 9.7 %.

In other great news, we can celebrate the tax cuts coming for Big Pharma and Big Pharma’s top executives. Under President Trump, hardworking CEO’s like Richard A. Gonzalez of AbbVie will finally catch a break. In 2016, the last year for which public records are available, Gonzalez earned a paltry $20,970,924. You really wonder how he managed to get by, earning only $89,913,309 from 2012 to 2016.

Also working hard—and dirt cheap—to keep the price of Humira down, were the next four top officers. In 2016 they pulled down slave wages, earning $8.8 million, $8.2 million, $7.4 million and $7.2 million respectively.  

Hopefully they got decent raises in 2017.

You know what they say. You get what you pay for. And if you want to increase the price of Epi-Pens by 400 %, as Mylan has in the last seven years, you need a bold leader who understands what it takes to lead a successful company. Mylan has been blessed to have just such a leader. That would be Chairman Robert Coury, who apparently worked a few hours of overtime in 2016, and with time-and-half fattening his paycheck, earned $97,600,615.

(This brought total compensation, from 2012 to 2016, to $181,267,633, which allowed Coury to get by, even with a little less economizing at home.)

Of course, if the government hadn’t been so busy regulating them unfairly, the drug companies might have had a little more cash to hand out to ordinary workers. Mylan, for one, had to pay a $465 million fine, just because the federal government launched an investigation in 2014 under Commie Obama. The original complaint accused Mylan of defrauding the Medicare system to the tune of $1.27 billion over a span of ten years.

You can find similar sad stories if you check out compensation at companies like Eli Lily, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Purdue Pharma to name a few.

I warn you, however. You will probably have difficulty reading as your eyes will be filled with tears.

How do these top executives manage to carry on, what with the government suing them all the time for fraud, false claims and dangerous practices? Take Purdue Pharma. The State of Ohio is again suing Purdue and four other companies on grounds they intentionally mislead patients about the dangers of various powerful painkillers. Purdue has been the target of regulatory abuse since 2007. That year the company was forced to pay $634.5 million in fines after investigators indicted Purdue leaders for misleading the public about the addiction risks related to use of OxyContin.

Since 1999, of course, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have nearly quadrupled. Liberal haters like to blame the corporations. Trump and the Trump base know the truth in this matter.

Who killed all those Americans with Oxycontin?

Obama.

How do we keep young people safe going forward? Less government regulation of the drug industry!

And big tax cuts for struggling companies and company leaders.

Last, but not least: stop people from smoking weed!

ADDENDUM:

A conservative friend of mine, K. M. (who shall remain anonymous lest he be “outed” for looking at a liberal blog) rightly pointed out: the CEO of Mylan is Heather Bresch, daughter of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.

I didn’t know that; but now I do. And she’s grossly overpaid too, having hauled away a wheelbarrow full of cash in just five years. How much dough was in Heather’s one-wheeler? A tidy $77,537,992.

If you’re telling me these people need tax cuts—or that Mylan and AbbVie do—I’m sorry, it seems nuts.

Here we have the pay of top Mylan leaders, including Coury, mentioned originally, and now Bresch:  

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