TYLENOL TOXICITY TERROR

The "therapeutic ratio" of a drug compares the amount required to
produce harmful effects with the amount required to provide benefit.
The therapeutic ratio of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in
Tylenol, is about 2:1 -and even lower if your liver has been
compromised by hepatitis or alcohol.

An Extra-Strength Tylenol contains 500 milligrams of acetaminophen.
The recommended daily maximum is eight pills -4,000 mg, or four grams.

A person taking twice that much can incur severe liver damage -and
people in pain sometimes lose perspective and gulp a handful. "Seven
to eight grams a day for three or four days can be fatal," according
to William M. Lee, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The active ingredient in Tylenol, acetaminophen, had been known to
have anti-fever and anti-pain effects since the end of the 19th
century, but no drug company saw fit to manufacture it until McNeil
Consumer Healthcare began marketing Tylenol Elixir for Children in
1955 as a safer alternative to aspirin.

Johnson & Johnson acquired McNeil in 1959. In the 1960s J&J pushed
Tylenol forcefully after aspirin was associated by an Australian
pediatrician named Reye (pronounced "Rye") with a very rare,
potentially fatal condition involving the liver and ultimately the
brain of infants and children who, Reye found, had been treated with
aspirin in response to upper respiratory infections.

Acetaminophen is not as benign as Tylenol's slogan, "Nothing's
safer," alleged (and aspirin may not be as dangerous as the
pharmaco-medical establishment now alleges). Acetaminophen poisoning
has become the leading cause of acute liver failure (ALF) in the U.S.
Some of the cases are suicide attempts, some are unintentional.

Many consumers don't realize they're overdosing on acetaminophen
because they don't know it's an ingredient in hundreds of
over-the-counter drugs -Nyquil, DayQuil, Theraflu, Excedrin,
Coricidin D, Triaminic, Dristan, Midol, Pamprin, etc.- and
prescription painkillers, including Vicodin and Percocet, the two
most widely used.

For those with liver damage from hepatitis and/or heavy alcohol a
smaller amount of acetaminophen than the recommended "therapeutic"
dose can lead to acute failure.

In May Dr. Lee presented data at a conference showing that one in
eight cases of acute liver failure attributed to hepatitis B also
involves acetaminophen poisoning.

Lee summarized: "If you are sick with acute viral hepatitis and
taking acetaminophen, you are more likely to go into acute liver
failure... even if you take therapeutic doses." Given acetaminophen's
known effects on the liver, Lee commented, "I am surprised that it's
still on the market." He elaborated to a Reuters reporter: "I don't
think that any drug with this amount of (use) and length of time on
the market will ever be taken off the market, but there should be
labeling change." Lee noted that the FDA doesn't require that
over-the-counter medicines containing acetaminophen so state on the
front of the package -although it's been four years since an FDA
advisory committee recommended that the agency impose such a requirement.

Last November a paper in Hepatology described a study led by Anne
Larsen of the University of Washington Medical Center analyzing data
gathered at 22 U.S. liver-transplant centers on 662 patients
suffering acute failure.

Forty-two percent of the cases had been caused by acetaminophen. "The
annual percentage of acetaminophen-related ALF rose during the study
from 28% in 1998 to 51% in 2003," according to Larsen et al. "Median
dose ingested was 24 g (equivalent to 48 extra-strength tablets).
Unintentional overdoses accounted for 131 (48%) cases, intentional
(suicide attempts) 122 (44%), and 22 (8%) were of unknown intent.

In the unintentional group, 38% took two or more acetaminophen
preparations simultaneously, and 63% used narcotic-containing
compounds. Eighty-one percent of unintentional patients reported
taking acetaminophen and/or other analgesics for acute or chronic
pain syndromes."

The National Institutes of Health tracks acute liver failure cases.
Last year there were approximately 2,000 such cases, resulting in
about 500 deaths, according to Dr. Lee. Acetaminophen overdose is the
leading cause for calls to Poison Control Centers (more than
100,000/year); it accounts for some 60,000 emergency room visits
annually. Johnson & Johnson is putting out a blame-the-victim line,
i.e., it's your fault for not using as directed, or drinking alcohol,
or inadvertently taking in combination with other drugs that contain
acetaminophen. "If you're not going to read the label, then don't buy
our products," says a J&J spokesperson in the current ad campaign.
This may be a pre-emptive strike aimed at jurors who, in the days to
come, will be weighing how much to award the families of Tylenol
victims. (For years Johnson and Johnson has been manipulating the
supine FDA to stall and soften any warnings that might put a dent in
Tylenol sales.)

The marketing of Tylenol is one of the all-time triumphs in the
annals of corporate public relations.

By the start of the '80s, Tylenol had surpassed aspirin and had a 37%
share of the OTC painkiller market.

It generated almost 20% of J&J's profits during the first three
quarters of 1982. But then came a national recall of all Tylenol
products, occasioned by a whacko terrorist in Chicago who laced some
bottles with cyanide and killed seven people.

CEO James Burke's handling of the situation is held up in the
business schools as a model of genius p.r. It is the subject of many
learned articles, theses, even books.

"Johnson & Johnson's handing of the Tylenol crisis is clearly the
example other companies should follow if the find themselves on the
brink of losing everything," says a typically admiring text used in a
Defense Department communications course.

Actually, the terrorist's attack in Chicago gave Johnson & Johnson an
opportunity to conflate safety with purity (just as the terrorists'
attack on 911 enabled the Bush Administration to conflate safety with
conquest abroad and repression at home). Johnson & Johnson
reintroduced Tylenol with great fanfare "in new triple-safety seal
packaging," writes the DoD analyst a glued box, a plastic seal over
the neck of the bottle, and a foil seal over the mouth of the
bottle." The label carried a warning not to use if the package had
been tampered with -and nothing about liver damage.

The unspoken message, etched heavily into consumer consciousness, was
that the synthetic compound inside the bottle is perfectly safe as
long as it's pure.

James Burke, master salesman of Tylenol, has been selling the
marijuana prohibition for decades.

Bill Clinton gave Burke the Presidential medal of honor in 1996, when
he was chairman emeritus Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the
private-sector partners of the drug czar's office.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation helped launch and has been the
major backer of another prohibitionist propaganda project the
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. Less than two weeks after
Prop 215 passed in November 1996, the Drug Czar convened a meeting at
which prohibitionist tacticians from the private and non-profit
sectors, along with California and federal officials, discussed steps
to block its implementation. Paul Jellinek of the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation said, according to notes taken by a government attorney,
"The other side would be salivating if they could hear [the] prospect
of feds going against the will of the people." This is an unusually
frank acknowledgment of bias, conspiracy, and projection on the part
of a man who thinks it's all a game, who doesn't understand the
magnitude of the crisis.

There are some parallels between Johnson and Johnson's public
relations strategy with respect to Tylenol and the Prohibitionist
ideology Burke et al have helped to frame.

A misdirection play is involved. In the case of Tylenol, they made it
seem as if safety was simply a function of sealing out adulterants In
the case of marijuana, "the crude plant" can't be defined as a medicine.

False safety measures now abound.

Drug testing has replaced good goggles in many a workplace.

ANGEL RAICH GETS SUPPORT FROM HER SON

Angel Raich sent an email to her friends June 9, "My son Tad has in
the past not wanted to speak out about medical cannabis or about how
it has affected him and his life growing up. Now at the age of 20 Tad
wants to speak out in support of medical cannabis, and his mom. He
asked me to send to you all. In June 2005 Tad joined the US Army.
After being away from home and after working for the US government
for almost a year and he is now stationed in Korea since January
2006. After seeing how the government treats medical cannabis
patients for years and now seeing the way some of the higher ups
treat some of the soldiers including him. He decided to make a
statement to post on my website so people would know what it is
really like growing up with a parent that using cannabis as a
medicine and how it affects the children, the truth about medical
cannabis through the eyes of a child, or when he was a child.

I am proud of my son."

Angel has posted Tad's letter, which was written in April, on her
webpage http://www.angeljustice.org/article.php?list=type&type=49
along with a picture of him graduating from boot camp on Sept. 1, 2005.

To the U.S. Government:

My name is Tad, I am 20 years old. This letter is about my mother and
medical cannabis.

My mother first became disabled when I was 8 years old. She was
confined to a wheelchair for several years and had a difficult time
just getting out of bed. She could never make it to my basketball
games or golf tournaments and barely made it to my 6th grade
graduation. I was completely devastated -- my own mother couldn't go
to any of my events because she couldn't get out of bed. Then one day
she told my younger sister and me that she started using medical
cannabis. My sister and I were in complete disbelief.

We couldn't believe what she was telling us and we were completely
against it. Then after a short while, my mom started moving around
more and eventually started walking again.

She was able to make it to more of my and my sister's events.

I have seen with my own eyes over the past 9 years that cannabis is a
miracle drug.

You know, you call people who attack the United States terrorists,
but what do you call yourself for attacking innocent civilians for
trying to stay alive?

TERRORISTS! That's what you are. You are terrorists and I can tell
you right now that I hate terrorists. So guess what that means?

You are nothing but hypocrites. You can't call MY mother a criminal
or a terrorist for using medical cannabis to stay alive.

She's not harming anyone or attacking anything.

She's fighting for her life, so how the hell is she a criminal!

My mom has tried many prescription drugs and each and every one of
them made her severely ill. Prescription medication approved by the
Federal Government can cause patients severe side effects and
possibly kill them. Medical cannabis hasn't killed anyone!

I am always hearing about recalls on prescription drugs because of
the dangerous side effects, yet what deadly side effects does medical
cannabis have? NONE!!!

They say this is the "Land of the Free." How is it the land of the
free when we have you TELLING US what to do with our bodies?

Last time I checked, you don't own our bodies.

I can tell you that I am going to do whatever I want to my body
because it's mine and not yours, and NO ONE OWNS IT BUT ME!

I am going to do what I can to stand by my mom. I look at the flag
and see nothing but hypocrisy.

You are waging war against innocent civilians. You need to stay out
of our private lives and let us do what we need to do to stay healthy
and alive.

We American citizens have the right to use whatever medication works
to ease our pain and keep us alive.

If it weren't for medical cannabis I would have grown up without a mother.

My mom is a mother who cares for her children and her life. I don't
see any harm or terrorism in that. So take a good long look at
yourself and stay away from innocent civilians.

All you are doing is causing a civil war against sick Americans, and
in THAT war I will fight to protect my mother."