Dusty Johnson: “I rise today to review where we stand, near the conclusion of the 106th Congress, on the subject of prescription drugs.…”

“I rise today to review where we stand, near the conclusion of the 106th Congress, on the subject of prescription drugs. Few issues have caught the public's attention more than this one, and few are more deserving of our attention. We live at a time when we can clearly discern remarkable benefits from all manner of drugs. It is nothing short of miraculous when we consider the relative ease and success of today's treatment of common disorders, as compared with that of only two or three generations ago. When World War II began, for example, penicillin and other similar antibiotics were known only to a small number of scientists. At the conclusion of the War in 1945, penicillin was widely available, used not only for battle wounds but for infectious diseases in the general public as well. Patients with high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels were, at best, only partially and inadequately treated in the 1940's and 1950's. Now success is the rule, rather than the exception. Calvin Coolidge's son died in 1924 as a result of a blister and a skin infection after playing tennis at the White House. An infection like that today would be treated as simple, outpatient therapy. While these examples are noteworthy and provide us with a valuable perspective of times gone by, the hard, cold fact is that many of these modern miracles are still out of the reach of too many American citizens.”