• Big Pharma price gouging: Drugs in the U.S. cost 10 times more than in other countries

So why is drug price gouging such a serious problem across the US pharmaceutical industry? US laws, the current state of medical insurance, Medicare, and drug research are all parts of the problem, leaving the little to no oversight in how much drug makers can charge for their drugs.

"As opposed to other countries, American laws actually prevent the government from restraining drug prices. Federal law even prevents the single largest drug buyer - Medicare - from negotiating drug prices. This is a perfect example of how Big Pharma has successfully manipulated laws in such a way that they can operate completely unrestrained in the US, under the flimsy argument that high prices and profits are required in order to fund costly research to develop potentially groundbreaking drugs to treat our ever-proliferating ills." Source

• Surprise! State-granted monopolies benefiting Big Pharma are the cause of ridiculously high drug prices

Because the FDA has become little more than a revolving door for the pharmaceutical industry to continually grant itself special privilege, the natural checks and balances of the market do not apply and we see seemingly insane price differences when compared to other markets.

• Big pharma lobbyists creaming tens of billions out of the federal government in a variety of schemes

According to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the drug industry spent $272,000 in campaign donations per member of Congress last year. He reports that there are more drug company lobbyists than members of Congress. Even before Gilead's $1000-a-pill hepatitis drug, the result of this unsavory lobbying is a $50 billion annual taxpayer gift to the drug industry - a fact that should outrage every taxpayer.

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The HPCSA sent out its initial press release that caused mass confusion just before 13:00, and only retracted it at 16:20.

"We apologise for incorrectly stating that Prof Tim Noakes was found guilty by the Professional Conduct Committee," the second press release said.

Princeton economists, Anne Case and Angus Deaton who won the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, made an incredible discovery after a careful analysis of health and mortality data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other sources between 1999 and 2013. They found that a group of middle-aged white Americans (ages 45 to 54) have an increased mortality rate that continues to increase. This trend is especially alarming as the death rate of other advanced countries, like the United Kingdom, have been declining by about 33 percent.

In the findings of the economists, education seemed to be a factor for the middle-aged white Americans. For those who had a high school diploma or below, the death rate increased by more than 20 percent. Compared with the mortality rate of this group prior to its previous rate from 1979 to 1998, about a half million lives have been lost between the 1999 to 2013 period to something other than chronic disease or aging - something that could have been avoided.

According to the study by Case and Deaton in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the mortality rates of middle-aged white Americans has rapidly increased due to things that could have been avoided. After analyzing health and mortality statistics, they reported that the epidemic of alcohol/drug abuse, diseases formed from those abuses (such as liver disease), and suicide are to blame.

NO from smoke may dilate the constricted airways, allowing the smoke an easier passage into the lungs

NO can endogenously be released by nicotine from nervous tissue, and may decrease the sympathetic output of the brain, which is associated with stress reduction.

(1) inhaled NO from smoke may be able to increase nicotine absorption, (2) NO released through nicotine reduces symptoms of stress, (3) NO endogenously released by nicotine increases post-synaptic dopamine levels

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