My Doctor Took Money from a Drug Company, and Then Prescribed Me Their Drugs

Well, this is fun. Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit news organization ProPublica recently compiled an awesome database of very compelling information. And as it turns out, I went through it, and consequently, have a funny story about it!

Recently, some judges ordered that the once-confidential amounts of money doctors take from prescription drug companies be released as the result of legal settlements. ProPublica made a database of these numbers, in a series called Dollars for Docs. And boy, is it neat to see what your doctors make from these companies! Especially when you find out that one of them prescribed you drugs that you didn't really care for, from a company they've been paid by.

Like I just did.

No doubt, there are plenty of well-written words out there -- including ProPublica's -- about how some doctors are basically whores for drug companies, and turn themselves into very effective middle men between yourself and your drug-maker. And it's something most of us probably assume to be a sad truth of the American Medical Industry. But what about when you experience it?

It's crazy! Especially considering that when some people sell drugs, like Marijuana -- which is nearly legal in some places (and completely out-of-reach as a profit source by the prescription drug industry, everywhere) -- they are called "drug dealers" and thrown in jail.

But when doctors do this with the drugs hoisted on them by massive corporations who also kick them some cash along the way, they are told they are upholding an ethical standard and given an office on the Upper East Side. I've always kind of thought a certain doctor I've visited is, shall we say, unnervingly pallid. Also, sometimes, a dick. So I looked him up in this database!

And oh, there he is! Click to Enlarge:

In the parlance of The Internet, "O RLY?"