Medicine and the old movie channel

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Lately, I’ve been watching the old movie channel on TV. Sometimes they have a marathon of old TV shows. If you liked an old TV show you can get hooked on watching all the shows played back-to-back. They really have this figured out. Now they air these shows in an hour and a half. When the show first came out, it was an hour show. Now the show is played over 90 minutes. This gives a lot more time for advertisements. These TV shows are 35 years old. Geezers like me are watching them. There are a lot of advertisements about medicine. I see one ad played over and over. I’m not sure what the medicine is for but three celebrities talk about how the medicine is wonderful and their hearts have not exploded. They can do all sorts of things and they are having a great time. The next ad is a law firm that reminds you that if your heart has exploded you may be able to get millions of dollars for using this medicine. These commercials are almost as baffling as the murder mystery marathon I’m trying to watch. Who can you believe? These celebrities have been paid a lot of money to make this commercial about the wonder drug. Surely they are truthful in saying that their heart is not in danger of exploding and they feel great. But what about the law firm? Somebody must have had an exploding heart or sweating, dizziness, jitters, vomiting or something that warrants getting millions of dollars in compensation for just using this drug. How about the families or the people with the exploding hearts and sudden violent death as a side effect of the drug? With all the money being spent on these competing advertisements, how much of this drug was sold? It seems like millions of dollars are being spent to advertise this product. As an extra cost, millions of dollars are being paid out to patients and lawyers. With all this money swirling around, how much has been sold? It is incredible that all this money could be spent and the company is still in business. They must have made a ton on it right at the start. The risk/reward equation must be huge. The product is still advertised for both sides. Apparently, the drug company and the lawyers can make enough money for this product to continue being used. I wonder how the product gets to the market. Well of course doctors prescribe it. I just wonder how the patient gets it. Medicine has supposedly gone high tech but it seems like it is getting harder and less efficient. A doctor used to give you a piece of paper with something scribbled on it. The pharmacist gave you some medicine. Now the doctors and nurses come in to look at you and only spend time looking at a laptop computer. They hit a few key strokes and supposedly your prescription has gone to the drugstore. If only that could be true. Now the prescription is somewhere is cyberspace and the druggist is asking you to get in touch with your doctor for a new prescription. A call to the doctor’s office confirms your fear. The doctor has gone to Costa Rica for a seminar on how to prescribe more medicine. The seminar is sponsored by the drug company and the law firm that is filing the class action lawsuit. That’s not the worst part. It is 10 p.m. and I’m ready to go to bed. Colombo has 30 more minutes to solve the crime. This is a show I’ve seen before but I can’t remember how it ends. There are three more commercial breaks with the drug ad before the show is over. Bobby Jonte is the president of the Bank of Greeleyville.