Have Some Soma, and Don’t Mind The Cameras
The BBC reports that “Prozac ‘found in drinking water’” in Britain, and that:
In the decade leading up to 2001, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants went up from nine million per year to 24 million per year, says the paper.
They point to a Observer story, “Stay calm everyone, there’s Prozac in the drinking water.”
So, 24 million people taking prozac out of a population of 60 million. Now its clear to me how people cope with all those cameras.
Photo “It’s rude to stare” by Gilgono.
[Update: Thanks to Philll-prescriptions are a month at a time. So it’s “only” 3% of the population at any one time. Which begs the question of how people cope.
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As much as I’d agree that one would need serious medication to put up with the level of surveillance in the UK, I think we need to differentiate between 24M prescriptions and 24M people taking anti-depressants. If drug prescription “rules” are anything like they are in the US, it’s unlikely that anyone on long-term pills would need fewer than 3-4 prescriptions a year (with refills), which means it’s more like 6M or fewer. Still, a lot of pills.
A prescription is a month’s supply. So 2 million taking it at a time.
I read recently (can’t remember where) that drugs are turning up in animals in the wild. the drugs get flushed, and end up in the water supply so it’s not only Britons who are getting free drugs with every drink.