Pharm Land

Joe Queenan reviews Generation Rx at the New York Times. Excerpt:

Generation Rx contends that large drug companies have co-opted the federal government, seduced the medical establishment and mesmerized a temperamentally supine public into taking far more drugs than is strictly necessary, much less healthy. Worse, Americans have fallen victim to "polypharmacy": using so many drugs for so many ailments that they have no idea how the various medications are interacting.

Nevertheless, this is not the work of a conspiracy theorist. The public, particularly "the Tribe of High-Performance Aging," genuinely adores Viagra, Zoloft, Paxil and Prozac, believing that they vastly improve one's quality of life. As in his previous book, "Fat Land," Critser says the public has been complicitous in its own seduction. Gleefully voting with their tongues, Americans use drugs to combat depression (Paxil, Prozac), reduce the ruckus from the kids (Ritalin), make bedtime more like a night in the seraglio (Viagra) and turn the workplace into a hearty party (Vicodin).

Despite the book's misleading title, the triumph of "big pharma" is yet another national tragedy . . . that can be laid directly at the feet of baby boomers. As Critser writes, "The generation of Americans who rebelliously experimented with drugs is now a generation upon whom drugs are experimented, with barely a squeak of protest."

The review doesn't mention the role that the baby boomers' ongoing, if latent, obsession with utopias might play in the pharmacy boom. The boomers always wanted a progressive, preferably perfect, society. They intellectually disclaim such aspirations now, but they emotionally haven't abandoned them. Only now they seek perfection in their personal lives. The baby boomers never could deal with pain, including "not getting their own way," and today's pharm land is a symptom of it.