Remember the Conterfeiting In the 80's?

[Demeter]

When Ronald Reagan was elected, deregulation to hold of the minds of previously sane people.

The Savings Banks were pillaged (W's brother Neil got a good hunk of change out of that).

Space missions failed because the electronics chips were counterfeit--sold as military specified, when they were anything but.

Even bolts were found to be defective after things came crashing down that should have lasted a while.


Well, those days are back. Counterfeit drugs out of China as other SE Asian factories, counterfeit food out of China, counterfeit steel for building, and a blast from the past: counterfeit auto parts.

It's happening again--my mechanic will be replacing for the 3rd time this year a motor mount, but this time he's getting the real parts from Saturn. Seems that somebody's importing junk.

Counterfeiting isn't just for currency and handbags. It's a matter of life and death. And why is it this problem arises when the GOP is in power?

There's an inherent problem with electing people who don't believe in government solutions to government offices.

[MADem]

1. I found it fascinating that they were using yellow highway striping paint to mimic the color of some

of those counterfeited pills...!

[TomInTib]

2. Are you kidding?

I know that I have been slightly out of touch lately, but I surely would have noticed that.

[MADem]

3. Nope--not kidding, wish I were!!! One of those tee vee shows did a piece on it.

NBC, DATELINE, Chris Hansen--he went undercover, went to China, met with a bunch of counterfeiters, and bought a whole shitload of crap pills. That was one of many pretty hideous ingredients--DRYWALL was another! The guy won a (deserved) Murrow Award for that work: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/10/nbc_leads_way_at_murrows.php

The award-winning hourlong "Bitter Pills" was the culmination of an 18-month investigation of how counterfeit prescription drugs can end up in Americans’ medicine chests. "Dateline’s" Chris Hansen went undercover as an American drug distributor to negotiate face-to-face with a Chinese counterfeiter who sold fake drugs that looked so real they could fool pharmacists—until the ingredients were tested. The deal was potentially worth $10 million, and the encounters were documented by hidden cameras. ..."I pitched the story thinking we could pose as businesspeople who wanted to import the drugs," said Mr. Hansen. "Steve Eckert, our producer, got to work right away on the Internet investigating importing counterfeit drugs from China, India and Pakistan, and it led to a relationship with Cherry Wong, whom we met in Hong Kong and Shanghai." Ms. Wong was later arrested and is serving an 18-month jail sentence.

"To me, it was shocking that so many people try to get rich from making, selling or introducing counterfeit drugs into the pipeline, knowing how vital these things are to so many people," Mr. Hansen said. "We found drywall in medications for blood pressure, high cholesterol, in Viagra and in Procrit. If these medicines are not exactly the way they should be, they could result in death. We also saw how it was possible in some states, because of secondary distribution processes, that counterfeits could end up in the neighborhood drugstore."

Within days after "Dateline’s" investigation aired, the FDA announced long-delayed rules to crack down on counterfeiting by implementing guidelines that will help track medicines from manufacturer to drugstore shelf. ...

[TomInTib]

4. Drywall in Viagra?

I always wondered why they call drywall sheet"rock".

[MADem]

5. The UK has had trouble as well--it's a worldwide problem

The MHRA said that counterfeiting put patients at risk because the drugs may contain toxic substances.

Last year a batch of counterfeit heart drugs seized by EU customs officers were found to contain brick dust coated with yellow paint and furniture polish.

The lack of any active ingredient means patients do not get treatment for their illness.

The MHRA said counterfeit medicines had already caused deaths in Africa and Asia.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=10402007

This is pretty gross, too: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_25/b3737076.htm

In mid-May, investigators from Colombia's National Institute for the Supervision of Medications & Foods (Invima) discovered a thriving drug operation in Bosa, a poor neighborhood of Bogotá. Instead of cocaine or heroin, investigators found something else. Workers inside a trio of tiny dilapidated houses were cranking out more than 20,000 counterfeit tablets daily of flu drug Dristan, a generic aspirin known as Dolex, and Ponstan 500, a popular painkiller made by Pfizer Inc. "The drugs were produced in filthy conditions," says Invima General Director Dr. Miguel Rueda. Invima says the pills contained boric acid, cement, floor wax, talcum powder, and yellow paint with high lead levels, all used to replicate the genuine medications' appearance.

In Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America, counterfeiting of over-the-counter and prescription medicines is big business. So big, in fact, that major pharmaceutical makers in Europe and the U.S. are sounding the alarm about counterfeit drugs getting into consumer outlets throughout Latin America and even abroad. "The scourge of counterfeit medicines is spreading rapidly across the globe, and it would be a mistake to think any country is immune to it," says Jim Christian, head of corporate security for Basel-based drugmaker Novartis. The result is a serious loss of revenue for all global drug-makers. Worse, some consumers have gotten very sick--and even died--because of the conditions these drugs are produced in or the unsafe ingredients used in their manufacture....


THE U.S., TOO. Counterfeits, in contrast, are deliberately peddled as the real thing. Fakes can be produced for less than a penny, then sold to distributors at discounts of up to 80% off what legitimate manufacturers charge. The knockoffs are purchased by unsuspecting pharmacies, hospitals, and government health agencies, which pass them on to consumers. Some of the drugs even end up in the export market.

How bad is the problem worldwide? The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assns. (IFPMA) in Geneva conservatively estimates that 2% of the $327 billion worth of drugs sold each year are counterfeit, or about $6 billion worth. But some representatives of the world's biggest drug companies believe that $19 billion worth of counterfeits are sold annually. In some African and Latin American nations, as much as 60% are counterfeit.


One way to stem this tide is better regulation in emerging markets. In the wake of several deaths triggered by counterfeit drugs administered to prostate-cancer patients, Brazil has enacted legislation that makes counterfeiting of drugs a crime punishable by 10 to 15 years in jail and a fine. This is a step in the right direction. But as long as the world's poor need cheap medications, the counterfeit drug industry will continue to flourish.

[cascadiance]

6. It could also be about counterfeiting currency, and blaming it on the North Koreans...

which is what a known German publication had postulated recently, when its investigation claims that North Korea isn't capable of producing the quality associated with the "super dollars" that prompted us to get new currency recently. They postulate that the CIA is counterfeiting currency and is using it to fund black ops now.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/46471/

I also wonder if Thomas Kontogiannis who's been treated with very secretive kid gloves after pleading guilty to money laundering in the whole Cunningham/Brent Wilkes/Dusty Foggo/Mitch Wade affair isn't a part of this operation that the government perhaps is scared to death to touch at all Democrat or Republican.