The Sandlot

Its hard to watch TV these days without seeing some commercial for a new wonder drug that is supposed to cure some horrible condition or disease that a seemingly random percentage of the population suffers from.  They usually have some stupid name that you can't remember 5 minutes after you hear it nor can you distinguish it from any of the other drugs in other commercials because almost everyone is identical. 

My favorite part is right at the end of the commercial when they list the side-effects of the drug.  Some of them are no big deal, things like dizziness or diarrhea, but its become more frequently common that the list of side-effects are plights worse than the actual disease they're trying to cure!

I had the TV on a couple weeks ago while eating breakfast and one of these came on.  When it got to the side-effect portion the list was about 10 items long including some awful things like blindness and motion sickness, but the last one they said was "may cause death."  How the hell can you create a perscription drug that could potentially kill the user?  How in turn, can that be advertised on TV?  You can't show some one physically drinking an alcoholic beverage on a commercial but we can advertise a drug that flat out says taking this will most likely maim and possibly kill you.  Perhaps because they throw in the "always check with your doctor before taking" line that's how its acceptable, but to me something stinks.