FDA To Give Controversial Diet Drug Another Look

February 21, 2012 12:00 PM

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NEW YORK (CBS NEWS) - It’s been 13 years since the Food and Drug Administration approved a prescription diet pill. On Wednesday, it takes a second look at a drug called Qnexa, a combination of the drugs phentermine, a stimulant, and topiramate, a seizure or migraine medication.

Dr. Judith Korner, director of Columbia University’s Weight Control Center, said the drug, according to the most recent year-long study, helped people lose 14.4 percent of their body weight. The statistic is based on information provided by Vivus Inc., the maker of the controversial drug. “That’s an average weight loss, and a third of the patients lost even more weight than that,” Korner said. “And then there are some people who don’t respond that well.”

The FDA rejected the combination drug in 2010, due to safety concerns about heart problems and birth defects. So what’s different now? The issues concerning the risks, particularly on dying of a heart attack haven’t “necessarily” been addressed, Korner said.

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FDA To Give Controversial Diet Drug Another Look

Mohamed

The San Carlos Reservation is one of the pesorot Native American communities in the United States, with an annual median household income of approximately $14,000 in 2000, according to the US Census. This story is about the war on drugs, no? The war on drugs is a war on people. Not to beat up on the Apache law enforcement but they have a serious drug problem and the least of concerns should be Marijuana, a medicine that your body does not recognize as a toxin the reason it takes weeks to remove thc from your system. In May 2006, the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona testified infront of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that 30% oftheir Tribal employees recently tested positive for methuse (Donna Vigil in Senate testimony). Just think, if Marijuana was legal to cultivate like it is in other states (for medicinal use), than maybe these Apache who make $14,000 a year (if their lucky) could have a career providing medicine instead of being addicted to meth and working for the Tribal government. This is just another drop in the bucket of mass confusion in the war on our hearts and minds. Marijuana is a gift from nature. It is whole. Unlike, refined sugar and cocaine which must be refined. What about Coca-cola and Pepsi, how many souls have they managed to sink their claws of addiction into? Food addiction is a major epidemic in our Indian communites. Where is the outrage on that?How many Indians have died from Marijuana abuse? 0 How many die from diabetes and heart disease; diseases that are in fact related to an addiction to so called foods! Bad medicine is bad medicine. You can’t allow one group to have free reign in exploiting our people only to persecute the small time farmer trying to make a living. Marijuana is a product in high demand in the United State let alone on Indian reservations.