PRESCRIPTION DRUGS MAY NOT BE SAFE—In order to improve sales, prescription drug companies downplay and even suppress clinical evidence. Georgia PIRG is working to ensure that all relevant clinical trial information is available to doctors and patients.

FDA Lets Drug Makers Off The Hook

In a sweeping change to longstanding policies, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new drug-labeling rules would give drug-makers protection from lawsuits filed in state court.

The change comes despite the lesson of unsafe drugs like Vioxx, which find their way to the pharmacist’s shelves even after safety trials expose dangerous side effects. There have been 60,000 deaths from Vioxx-associated heart attacks.

According to FDA whistleblower Dr. David Graham, the “FDA is part of the problem.” The FDA’s new rule would shield drug makers from the only recourse for consumers, by throwing out the claims of consumers even if the drug-maker defied state law, or if the FDA review was proven inadequate.

House Rolls Back Food Safety Laws

On March 8, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of eliminating well over 100 different state food safety laws including laws regulating milk and shellfish safety.

In addition to nullifying these proven food safety laws already on the books, the bill would forever tie the hands of states and municipalities on a range of emerging food safety issues, whether or not the federal government has addressed public health concerns.

Among other things, states and localities would not be able to regulate and label food products that contain irradiated ingredients, pesticides, antibiotics, or genetically modified organisms. The legislation deprives states and localities of the right to protect their citizens while assigning responsibility for food safety to an under-funded federal bureaucracy.

“It’s shocking that in the days of mad cow disease and the bird flu, the food industry has asked its allies in Congress to put the kibosh on any state that dares to do more on food safety than the federal government,” said Ed Mierzwinski, Georgia PIRG’s federal consumer advocate.

On March 1, attorneys general from 38 states joined together in a letter to Congress opposing the bill, and its challange to states’ rights. Unfortunately, Attorney General Baker did not sign the letter.

Legislature Passes Paper Trail Law

The state Legislature overwhelmingly passed the Georgia PIRG-backed Senate Bill 500, which establishes a pilot program in Cobb, Bibb and Camden counties to attach voter-verified paper trails to Georgia’s electronic voting machines in one precinct in each county during the November 2006 elections.

Within 30 days after the election is held, the Secretary of State’s office must oversee a manual recount and issue a report comparing the totals of three randomly-picked statewide races. Public hearings will be held in each county to take voter feedback after the election as well.

Georgia PIRG worked with Senator Bill Stephens, the sponsor of SB 500, after learning of an incident in Carteret County, North Carolina in 2004 where a computer malfunction caused touchscreen voting machines to stop storing votes electronically.

A recent Peach State Poll by the University of Georgia shows Georgians support paper records along with measures like extending the advance voting period as methods to encourage more Georgians to vote and increase their confidence in the accuracy of elections.