The danger of guns in the hands of civilians is a common refrain in America.

We hear often the dangers of tobacco and smoking.

We are all very aware of the dangers of climate change.

It’s clear there is an obesity epidemic in America (and elsewhere) and that this is the result of a combination of factors–from poor diet to lack of exercise to hormonal imbalances caused by poor diet and lack of exercise.

Diabetes is a threat we’re all aware of.

Breast cancer and pink ribbons own the entire month of October.

Drunk driving is very discouraged–and rightfully so.

Our kids learn about sexually transmitted diseases and the dangers of illicit drugs.

But how many of you knew this?

106,000 people die in America every year as a direct result of a prescription medication. 

Now, that’s just deaths from a bad reaction to a prescription. That doesn’t include the almost 13,000 a year that die from a prescription opoiod prescription. It doesn’t include the 1,000 per day hospitalizations from prescription drug reactions. It doesn’t take into consideration the fact that prescription meds cause leaky gut, which leads to inflammation which can go anywhere from lupus to Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to rheumatoid arthritis to tuberculosis to Crohn’s Disease to Asthma and on and on and on.

It’s pretty hard to put a number on all inflammation-related deaths. Some argue it’s the root of diabetes, cancer, a lot of mental illnesses and more. We could be in the millions pretty easily depending on how wide you want to cast your net. But if we just conservatively say that between the bad reactions, the overdoses and a good helping of inflammation-related deaths that prescription meds cause 200,000 deaths per year in America, how does that stack up?

Just as an example, guns kill about 32,000 people per year.

The amount of outcry, the political response, the sheer volume of cash poured into PR campaigns and advertising to respond to those 32,000 deaths is staggering. The NRA’s ad budget alone is more than $50 million a year.

Am I trying to make a statement on the 2nd amendment here? Absolutely not. Anytime people die unnecessarily, it’s a tragedy. And if we can do anything to stop it, we certainly should.

What I am saying is that if you multiply that number by six, then add a few more, then you’ve got the number of unnecessary deaths every year from prescription medications–that’s the legal kind mind you. Prescription drugs are supposedly rigorously tested, made to pass FDA approval processes, then vetted by highly-trained individual doctors before being handed out to innocent civilians like tiny little time bombs in an orange bottle.

Or how about that fact that for the first time in history, drug-related automobile deaths outnumbered alcohol-related automobile deaths.

Or that iatrogenics (death by medicine) kills more people every year than smoking – 783,000 per year as opposed to 480,000 per year.

The overarching point here is: medicine and prescriptions are more dangerous than our most popular scare points. In some cases, far more dangerous.

But just imagine: a nationwide, years-long, sustained public service campaign extolling the dangers of prescription medications. That might be a direct conflict with the pharmaceutical industry’s $100+ billion advertising and marketing budget (which would be no doubt going through the same media channels as our fictional public service campaign) and its nearly $100 million lobbying budget.

The reason we hear about drunk driving and AIDS and illegal drugs and obesity is that these aren’t actual products with companies developing and selling them who have enormous marketing and lobbying budgets with which to counter the campaigns against them.

Smoking is an interesting case that, perhaps inadvertently, provides a template we could use to combat the dangers of prescription medications. You see, tobacco companies rake in huge profits, have big budgets and know all the right people. But they are, by law, not allowed the same access as most other industries. They are banned from nearly every method of advertising. They are often required to pay victims’ medical bills, etc. They are basically allowed to quietly exist as long as they are held to account.

Perhaps that’s our answer. Treat big pharma like big tobacco. Just an idea. If you have any, feel free to let us know.