Fred Grimm: In Florida, zombie pills for kids are an old scandal

[d_legendary1]

Johnson & Johnson couldn’t have pulled this off without us.

Steven Brill, the investigative journalist and founder of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine, has written an epic 58,000-word report on how the pharmaceutical conglomerate made billions of dollars marketing “off label” uses of its blockbuster drug Risperdal

Brill, reporting in the Huffington Post, describes how the company persuaded doctors (with gifts and lucrative “consulting fees”) and institutions to prescribe the antipsychotic medication to children and the elderly, despite FDA approval limiting treatment to adult schizophrenics.

This despite documented dangerous and startling side effects, including “an excess number of deaths” among the elderly and the bizarre development of sometimes massive female breasts by more than 5 percent of boys dosed with Risperdal.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fred-grimm/article36538686.html

[longship]

1. Not to be confused with Fred Gwynne.

First, there was officer Muldoon (with officer Tootie):

There's a holdup in the Bronx
Brooklyn's broken out in fight
There's a traffic jamb in Harlem
That's backed up to Jackson Heights
A scout troop's lost a child
Khrushchev's due at Idlewild!
Car 54 Where Are You!

Then, the literally immortal Herman Munster.


But my favorite will always be the judge in My Cousin Vinny


But, Ooo! Ooo! I still love Muldoon, and Tootie, and Schnauser. And then there's Boom-Boom land.