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From International Socialist Review, Vol.18 No.3, Summer 1957, p.81.
Transcription & mark-up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Sales of both ‘pep pills’ and ‘tranquilizers’ are going up, according to the June 23 New York Times.
In 1955 some 88,000 pound of the ‘pep’ variety were manufactured.
“Divided into five milligram tablets this would be enouth to make 8,000,000,000 pills, or nearly 50 pills for every man, woman and child in the United States.”
As for the ‘tranquilizers,’ the estimate is that in 1957 a total of 40,000,000 prescriptions will be written.
“There is no good estimate of the nukmber of pills 40,000,000 prescriptions represent: each prescription may be filled many times, for realtives, for friends, perhaps even to be crumbled into the ration of the family dog.”
The Times concludes with the warning of practitioners “that tranquilizers reduce only symptoms (anxiety) and do nothing to solve the basic problems that cause the symptoms.”
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Last updated on: 22 April 2009