nutmeg contains in myristicin, which can cause hallucinations if you ingest enough of it.

in the united states, prescription drugs have become so expensive that at least one insurance company now pays for its members to go to mexico to get their prescriptions filled.

in addition to paying for the trips, the company puts their members up in a hotel overnight and provides a us$500 stipend to cover any other out-of-pocket costs associated with the trip.

in the past 20 years, it has been discovered that more than 200 restaurants in china were lacing their food with opium to get customers addicted.

until 1950, the soda known as 7-up contained lithium.

americans are currently more likely to die from an opioid overdose than from a traffic accident.

in 2018, u.s. life expectancy dropped for the 3rd year in a row, driven by an increase in opioid overdoses and suicides.

by 2009, more than half a million american children from adolescence to less than two years of age were taking prescribed antipsychotic medication. despite - or possibly because of - this, the number of patients under 18 receiving federal disability payments for mental illness has multiplied by a factor of 35.

in the u.s., 1 out of 4 adults who went to the emergency room for sprained ankles were prescribed opiates.

americans spend about us$100 billion-with-a-b on illegal drugs each year.

the drug nexium, used to treat acid reflux, costs us$215 in the u.s. at the time of this writing, but just us$20 - $60 in europe.

a bloomberg study found that, due to pharmaceutical companies buying up their competitors, 60 drugs doubled in price last year (2016), and 20 more quadrupled in price.

250 million prescriptions for opioids - the type of drug that killed prince, and known gateway drugs to heroin - are written in the u.s. every year.

(it was 6 million prescriptions per year not that long ago.)

in 2002, when eli lilly's patent for prozac was about to run out, they acquired patient medical records and began mailing pills directly to consumers without their consent or a prescription.

4% of american adults can't understand the labels on their prescriptions.

1 out of 3 u.s. college students currently take so-called 'smart drugs' such as ritalin and adderal - not because they have narcolepsy or attention deficit disorder, but because they believe that it gives them a competitive advantage in class.

as little as 1 glass of grapefruit juice as much as 24 hours before taking medication can cause an overdose. this is because the grapefruit blocks enzymes that would normally break down the medication in your small intestine.

pharmaceutical companies often create and fund front organizations to recommend and endorse their products. for example, the national heart, lung, and blood institute endorses asthma medication advair, which is manufactured by glaxosmithkline... which owns the national heart, lung, and blood institute.

when persuading doctors to try new drugs on their patients, pharmaceutical sales reps have been found to mention any life-threatening issues just 6% of the time, and side effects just 41% of the time.

there is almost no government oversight regarding this.

pharmaceutical companies often market the same drug under multiple names in order to broaden market penetration, extend the life of their patents (delaying cheaper generic versions), or to hide negative connotations. for example, sarafem, made by eli lilly, is simply prozac with a name designed to appeal to women.

glaxosmithkline did the same thing with their antidepressant, wellbutrin, which was rebranded as a drug to help you stop smoking, called zyban.

despite the fact that these are clearly different uses, the fda routinely okays 93% of all such repurposing.

in the 1960's, there was a fad where people dried and smoked banana peels to get high. because people will believe anything.