Give Michigan Consumers a Voice: This Week Marks One Year of Inaction On Drug Immunity by Senate

by: Representative Barb Byrum

Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 10:42:38 AM EST

    February 22, 2008 marked the one year anniversary the House of Representatives voted to repeal the anti-consumer protections for big drug companies called FDA based immunity.  It has been a long year waiting for the State Senate to act on this common sense reform to protect Michigan citizens from drugs that kill or harm their friends and family.  While my House colleagues and I are still waiting for the Senate to take action, no one has waited longer, or suffered more for this change than Michigan residents like Leslie Richter.
    Leslie Richter lost her husband, Richard, in 2003. Richard was killed by a stroke after he took Vioxx, the painkiller that has been responsible for thousands of deaths and injuries across the country. In 2003 alone, Merck, the maker of Vioxx, raked in $2.5 billion in worldwide sales even as the drug was causing heart attacks and cardiac deaths in tens of thousands of Americans. Vioxx, a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was only taken off the market in 2004 after public outcry and numerous outside studies proved that is was, in fact, harmful.
    After Richard passed away, Leslie was at an extreme disadvantage in finding a way to hold the big drug company that manufactured Vioxx accountable for causing her husband's death. Why? Because Leslie is a resident of Michigan, the only state in the nation that gives drug companies total immunity from legal recourse when their products harm or kill consumers.
    Those who are in favor of drug industry immunity argue that if drugs are approved by the FDA, big drug companies should not be held responsible if their products are later found to be dangerous. However, study after study has shown that we simply can't rely on the FDA to keep us safe. In 2005, one of the FDA's own scientists, Dr. David Graham, testified before the U.S. Senate that the agency’s drug approval process was “broken.” Even United States Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) railed against the FDA for being too cozy with drug companies, a sentiment echoed in a recent report on National Public Radio.
    Those who are in favor of drug industry immunity also claim that repealing Michigan's one-of-a-kind law will be a "job killer." Yet, since the law was signed in 1996, we have not seen an influx of pharmaceutical jobs in Michigan. In fact, as Pfizer recently demonstrated when it shifted more than 2,000 jobs to East Coast states that don't have drug immunity laws, we have seen the number of pharmaceutical jobs in Michigan evaporate.
    The bottom line is that big drug companies will stop at nothing to protect their massive profits, even if it means people like Richard Richter lose their lives. It is an outrage that such a profitable industry would be allowed to dispense any drug it can push through the FDA's flawed approval process and then escape responsibility when those drugs harm or kill our residents.
    It's time for the big drug companies' free ride in Michigan to end.  My House Colleagues and I have told Michigan's consumers that they deserve to have a voice when FDA approved drugs hurt or kill their friends and families. As we mark one year since the House voted to repeal this anti-consumer law, we should ask ourselves "What is the Senate saying?"

Show your support and help repeal the protection for big drug companies visit: 

www.housedems.com/petitions/end-rx-immunity 

MichLib Exclusive: House Dems Speak Out on State of the State

by: LiberalLucy

Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 12:45:21 PM EST

After last night's uniting State of the State address by Gov. Granholm, I had the opportunity to speak with several Democratic members of the State Legislature. I asked them to name an issue that they had been working on that they heard the Governor mention in her address.

While I only got to interview just a handful of legislators, I think you might be surprised on the breadth and depth of the issues that they are at work fighting hard for you on. The issues range from protecting our natural resources, fighting for the economy, promoting alternative energy, to fighting corporate interests and promoting Michigan's film industry, and they're all located below the fold. 

Many thanks to Reps. Brown, Donigan, Meisner, Miller, Simpson and Valentine for their time and participation last evening.

Up and At 'Em for Michigan

by: Progress Michigan

Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 11:16:44 AM EST

The Progress Michigan Team is pleased to announce the kick-off of our new website and new campaign ‘Stop the Coal Rush’.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s start where all good things start - at the beginning. So a little about us - Progress Michigan is a first-of-its-kind organization. Our mission is to provide a strong credible voice that holds public officials and government accountable, assists in the promotion of progressive ideas and uses state-of-the-art web based new media to creatively build grassroots support for progressive ideas.

But we don’t do it alone. Progress Michigan works as a communications team and media hub for the entire progressive community. We’re a marketing department for progressive ideas – a campaign that never stops. We work year round to challenge conservative propaganda in the media and make sure that progressive perspectives are heard.

We’re getting started full-speed ahead with our three campaigns on our website. First, our state is threatened with an onslaught of at least seven more dirty coal-fired power plants that will keep Michigan locked in the energy dark ages, dependent on imported fossil fuels and producing more dangerous global warming pollution. More outdated dirty coal plants will hamper the development of clean energy and the good paying jobs that come with it. Michigan’s energy future is literally in the crosshairs, and our Legislature can choose to steer us in the right direction.

To do this, we need your help by contacting your legislators and saying ‘No!’ to a dirty, polluted future for our Great Lakes state. Visit the petition page, and send a letter to your legislators in less than 2 minutes. Two minutes to make a difference, kind of makes you wish the rest of life was that easy, doesn’t it?

But that's not all... 

Lessenberry and 'The drug addicts'

by: Hazen Pingree

Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 06:33:50 AM EST

What the Republican leadership will try to do is to bury this bill in committee and prevent it from ever coming up for a vote. Big Pharma has plenty of lobbyists who are working hard to help them do this, by the way.

The good guys have only you. So call, write, holler. By the way, a large majority - 54 percent - of the voters last fall wanted Democrats to control the state Senate. It's only thanks to outrageously political gerrymandering, that Republicans still have control of the upper chamber. But all politicians are, at bottom, exactly like flatworms in a petri dish. They move away from a hot wire stuck in the general direction of their private parts. You get the picture.

Need I say more?