If you have a health problem, even if it is just an imaginary one, some giant pharmaceutical company out there is probably making a pill for it. According to shocking new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 59 percent of all U.S. adults are on at least one prescription drug, and 15 percent of all U.S. adults are on at least five prescription drugs. These numbers have never been higher, and they tell us that the United States is the most drugged nation on the entire planet. And it turns out that pushing these drugs on the American people is extremely profitable. For instance, Americans spent 100 billion dollars on cancer drugs alone last year. That isn’t “million” with an “m” – that is “billion” with a “b”. The profits that some of these pharmaceutical companies are making are absolutely obscene, and it is our pain and suffering that is making them rich.

So why is prescription drug use rising so rapidly? As noted above, 15 percent of us are now taking 5 or more of these drugs on a regular basis, but back in 1999 that number was sitting at just 8.2 percent.

This newly released report blames much of the problem on obesity…

The population is getting older, but that doesn’t explain it, Kantor said. The pattern looks more related to obesity, which is steadily rising, More than two-thirds of the adult U.S. population is overweight or obese, and many suffer the heart disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders that go along with being too heavy.

And without a doubt, we have an epidemic of obesity in the United States. The following facts on American obesity come from from my recent article entitled “America #1? 36 Facts That Prove That The United States Is An ‘Exceptional’ Nation“…

#1 According to a brand new report that was just released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States has the fattest population in the entire industrialized world by a wide margin.

#2 That same report from the OECD also found that we are number one in child obesity. In fact, at 38 percent our rate of childhood obesity is even higher than our overall rate of obesity.

#3 According to USA Today, the obesity rate in the United States has more than doubled over the past 25 years.

But the truth is that obesity is only part of the story. Drug use of all types is soaring, and commercials for the latest and greatest drugs seem to run around the clock on virtually every television network. Here are some more specific numbers from this newly released report…

In the study, blood pressure drugs were among the most prescribed, increasing from 20% of adults in 1999-2000 to 27% in 2011-2012. Statins increased from 6.9% to 17%; antidepressants increased from 6.8% 13%; antidiabetic drugs increased from 4.6% to 8.2%;and tranquilizers and sedatives increased from 4.2% to 6.1%.

The increase in the use of antidepressants really disturbs me. They are often prescribed needlessly, and they can have some extremely negative side effects.

In particular, I think that it is important to mention that nearly every single mass shooter in the United States in recent years has been on antidepressants. The mainstream media never talks about this connection because the pharmaceutical companies purchase gobs of advertising time from them. But the reality of the matter is that these drugs can cause people to behave in extremely irrational ways. Even the Mayo Clinic admits this…

Most antidepressants are generally safe, but the Food and Drug Administration requires that all antidepressants carry black box warnings, the strictest warnings for prescriptions. In some cases, children, teenagers and young adults under 25 may have an increase in suicidal thoughts or behavior when taking antidepressants, especially in the first few weeks after starting or when the dose is changed.

Of course that is a very watered down version of the truth, and if you start seriously digging into this you will soon discover a whole host of absolutely horrifying stories.

But the pharmaceutical companies are never going to stop what they are doing, because it is making them exceedingly wealthy. As I mentioned above, Americans spent 100 billion dollars on cancer drugs last year, and the big drug firms love milking cancer patients for all that they are worth. According to NBC News, two of the latest cancer drugs that have been developed “are priced at $12,500 a month“.

How do executives at those companies sleep at night?

They are getting rich from price gouging cancer patients.

How disgraceful is that?

Here are some more statistics about the drugging of America that come from one of my previous articles…

–According to the CDC, approximately 9 out of every 10 Americans that are at least 60 years old say that they have taken at least one prescription drug within the last month.

–There is an unintentional drug overdose death in the United States every 19 minutes.

–In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined.

–According to the CDC, approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.

–The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.

–Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants as children in Europe are.

–A shocking Government Accountability Office report discovered that approximately one-third of all foster children in the United States are on at least one psychiatric drug.

–A survey conducted for the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that more than 15 percent of all U.S. high school seniors abuse prescription drugs.

–Many of these antidepressants contain warnings that “suicidal thoughts” are one of the side effects that should be expected. The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 rose by close to 30 percent between 1999 and 2010. The number of Americans that are killed by suicide now exceeds the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents every year.

So what is your take on all of this?

Do you have any prescription drug horror stories to share?

Please feel free to participate in the discussion by posting a comment below…

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and has a law degree and an LLM from the University of Florida Law School. He is an attorney that has worked for some of the largest and most prominent law firms in Washington D.C. and who now spends his time researching and writing and trying to wake the American people up. You can follow his work on The Economic Collapse blog, End of the American Dream and The Truth Wins. His new novel entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.