War on Drugs vs Drug Ads on TV

When it comes to conventional drugs, most Americans make an unfounded, completely wrong distinction between drugs and alcohol, Alcohol is a drug! It enjoys more social acceptability and political correctness; much to the profit of the brewers, vintners, and distilleries, and is taxed far less than cigarettes; but it is just as physically and psychologically addictive if not more so than the pills you swallow, the stuff you smoke and the ones you inject. And is as physically dangerous in the 'second hand' form just more acceptable as drunk drivers, violent drunks, abusive partners, alcohol poisonings, suicides, and fetal alcohol syndrome; and is more fatal to withdraw from than any of the others including the opiates, as I was told 14 years ago while in detox and in the emergency of the local hospital, I have been dry for 14 years now.
Now there is this amazed "Oh! My god how?" reaction as to how and why prescription drugs have become the drugs of choice for America's young. One hook I heard recently for an investigative report was "the Internet is the 21st century drug pusher to America's children", what a steaming pile of corporate profiteering crap! Yes, yes there are drug ads and availability, with a credit card I might add, but the 21st century drug pushers to American children and Americans in general are the profit hungry pharmaceutical corporations, more like cartels, who, with their day in and day out drug ads, allowed for some stupid more likely monetary reason by the government, on television push their drugs, normalize and legitimize drug use. Everyday, the channels of broadcast, cable, satellite,etc run a steady stream of ads for drugs and their use, both over the counter (and just when and why did 'over the counter' originally meaning over the counter from a pharmacist you had given a prescription to, and off the shelf meant self-prescribed, self-medicating and self-served) and prescription drugs not to mention all the unregulated 'not-quite' drugs, that fit all the definitions except some hair splitting legal ones. These ads say and imply the same things: 'our drug will make your life better',"our drug will make you a better person', 'our drug will make you a better parent or spouse','our drug will cure or alleviate your ills', 'our drug will cure your problem','our drug has instant results or nearly instant results or gratification','our drug is proven/tested safe and effective','our drug has minimal or ignorable side effects and if they are major, you as an untrained medial non-professional will notice them and seek medical treatment in a timely manner' and there is my personal favorite for completely true and completely meaningless 'our drug has been granted a patent by the US Government as if a patent is some kind of statement of proven effectiveness and safety. A real Pull Head from Ass Now! All a patent means is that no one else currently has the exact same patented formula or process. And the patent holder has exclusive rights to make this exact product exactly this way and has legal protection from duplication by any and all not authorized by the patent holder; a patent has absolutely nothing to do with either safety or efficacy of the drug or anything else granted a patent! Now it is true that true narcotics etc prescription drugs are not advertised on television or magazines etc. I assume that ads aimed at getting people to push for specific brands of painkillers, opiates, behavior and mood modifying drugs, muscle relaxant drugs just proved to expensive even for the 'legal' drug cartels, conglomerates, or corporations (call them what you will) to get passed our mostly sleepy always hungry public watchdogs and onto television.But the ads do promote and condone drug use as a legitimate, socially acceptable method of dealing with life and personal problems. These ads are designed to encourage people to pressure their doctors for a specific brand name drug, never a far more affordable generic, that they may or may not have any real need for, that may or may not actually be safe for them and may or may not have sever long term consequences; I mean it is not like there is an ever growing list of 'FDA' approved as safe drugs that are not safe long term or short term either as to the amount of time it is safe to take the drug but also as to how long after you take the drug; days, months, years,when your baby is born the consequences show up. So if you want to know why the "War on Drugs" is such a miserable expensive failure or why America's young are turning to prescription drugs you need look no further than the nearest television. Where the 24/7 inundation of America with drug ads normalizing and encouraging the use of drugs, prescription, alcohol and OTC and by association the 'street drugs, to cure life's problems fast, fast, fast from feeling sad, fat, ugly, not being 'in', or not being sexy and on and on and on. Drugs are shown to be helpful, acceptable,safe, patented, doctor per scribed or pharmacist recommended, clinically proven( not like the drug companies have ever been caught burring negative clinical or medical research along with customers). Drug ads have, and are designed to, put equally hazardous and dangerous prescription and OTC drugs, found and easily accessible in family medicine cabinets, bedside tables, kitchen drawers, glove boxes, and purses on a pedestal made of safe to use, socially acceptable, politically correct, medically approved, and perhaps worst of all 'it's advertised on TV how dangerous cab it be?' above the common 'street' drugs. Do not consider just the very carefully legally crafted scripts of the ads (seen any ads back-peddling to meet the 'truth in advertising' laws, I know I have) but also consider the happy, normal, well adjusted family and individual lives shown as a result of using the drug, of the endorsing of drugs as acceptable to cure problems, make you feel better or younger,look better or younger, make you sexier or sex better or easier, by the situations and conversations used to promote the drug, not just the portrait of the problem and its cure but the portrait of the people who use the drugs, the drugs, and the effect drug use has overall; the problem is negative but everything else is positive, drugs can cure anything and whether or not the drug is actually prescribed for you is barely part of it. Just consider the growing number of medical problems/emergencies from minor to major to Death caused by responsible adults sharing their prescription drugs not just with each other but also giving them to their children or grandchildren or to those of friends or relatives, always with the best of intentions but seldom with the best results. Once again I say 'Pull Head from Ass Now!' America we (actually our "elected public servants') are allowing corporate greed to create a socially acceptable culture of drug use to abuse to addiction ( and do not forget that this most definitely includes alcohol) with the so legally pushed/advertised drugs that have all the exact same effects and consequences as the 'illegal street' drugs! And while your head is out take a look around and wake up to the fact that the state of America's economy is almost if not entirely the result of corporate and individual greed unfettered by the intentional lack of governmental responsibility to the American citizen and the health of the planet we live on!