Everybody's Liable.
Populism + insatiable appetite for taxes + war on drugs = another lawsuit?

Even though Because they produce life-saving and life-enhancing products, pharmaceutical companies are subject to theft in the imagination if not in fact. Consumers complain about the high prices of medications, as if their importance meant that they should come free of charge.

Of course, we do find a way to make them "free" -- turn to government to pay for it. That's one reason for the origin of the prescription drug program that, as structured, will further add to the woes of Medicare.

Since government funding of anything reduces increases the demand for the product (people buy more of anything if it is "free" or at a low cost--witness $2, 10 pound jars of pickles at Sam's Club), the bill due soars. As a result, politicians scramble to find ways to pay for the increased demand.

A parallel development is the so-called war on drugs, which puts the screws on one drug (say, pot), leading to people seeking out other substances. The drug of choice these days is meth, which is derived from commonly found products.

A variety of factors--the need for more money, policy making by lawsuit, the demonization of the drug industry, and the war on drugs, legal and illegal, not to mention political ambition from an Aspiring Governor--are coming together in plans for a lawsuit against drug companies announced by Minnesota's AG, Mike Hatch.

First it was tobacco. Then handguns. And now, pseudophed.

Hatch said he plans to sue giant international drugmakers such as Pfizer and Merck on grounds that they long have known that large quantities of their legal products have been diverted to illegal meth labs, spurring an epidemic of addiction, crime and shattered lives across America.

Hat tip to the Cake Eater Chronicles, which has more excerpts from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune article on the subject.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader JS for pointing out the misplaced word, since corrected. Fingers. Faster. Mind. Or something. (permalink)