Create Change!

Every chemical drug has side effects. Anything chemical is destructive to the body. I am perfectly aware of that. I'm not saying we should throw all medicines into the trash can and die when the time comes.

I'm not even saying, that the pharmaceutical companies should be accused, if one chemical drug that heals thousands of people has side effects.

But, if a chemical drug, which doesn't heal, but only alleviates symptoms, burdens 50 percent of its users with serious side effects – then I think that's irresponsible. If this drug is labeled without a warning of its side effects – then I call that a crime. And, if finally, natural mental states are made into illnesses in order to fill up our kids with psychotropic drugs – then I get very angry.

I was a tool for this logic for long enough. I'm old, but not too old. Today, I'm trying to override the practices I used, which are still being pushed.

Don't let yourself be buffaloed: The problem is admittedly quite complex, and all of those in it – doctors, scientists, industry, authorities, judges and politicians have strayed off course. But it is still humans who decide at each intersection. That is what is decisive.

Authorities aren't faceless. The pharmaceutical industry isn't faceless. For outsiders, it is damned difficult to get access to this sort of hermetic system – you even get refused by the receptionist. But these symptoms aren't unidentified. People make decisions there, and people aren't just potentially corruptible – corruption happens. More frequently than you would dare to believe. You cannot accept this. It can be changed. It must be changed.

And even the politicians have to ask themselves why their interest in a fair pharmaceutical market is so small. Just consider, so much money flows into the health system into channels that have absolutely nothing to do with providing for the patients. My story shows, that this is a general problem. If the health system can be improved simply by stopping the corruption – why isn't anyone doing anything to stop it? That would be a job for politics. Appropriate laws must be created. And there must be an interest in passing these laws.

I was part of this system. I have decided to act. This book is the first step.

It is, however, impossible to fight alone against Big Pharma.

Only together can we – the public – create change:

• by asking questions – awkward ones, too – at the doctor's office, drugstore and in the media
• by stopping to believe that doctors are demigods, that deserve our trust without condition
• by not falling for newly invented illnesses, which the pharmaceutical industry wants to talk us into

You are in a key position. Help to create change!