In his essay yesterday, Jack Lessenberry recounts his experience with what he terms "pill pushers", meaning the doctors and pharmacists he first encountered after breaking his foot.

In his companion inteview Jack speaks with Leonard Weber about his new book, that concludes that the nation's pharmaceutical companies and physicians are complicit in practices that should raise both eyebrows and troubling questions. It is called "Profits Before People, Ethical Standards and the Marketing of Prescription Drugs."

Not only are prescription practices under fire, but USA Today reports Prescription drugs find place in teen culture. They write about a rapidly developing underground culture that surrounds the rising abuse of prescription drugs by teens and young adults.

It's a culture with its own lingo: Bowls and baggies of random pills often are called "trail mix," and on Internet chat sites, collecting pills from the family medicine chest is called "pharming." And, they say it is escalating at an alarming rate.

Personally, I believe that prescription drugs and medical advances have benefited society to a great degree. But as my mother always used to say, we should use "everything in moderation". Honestly she was talking about eating, but I think it also applies to taking medicines and consuming natural resources as well. Drugs are powerful. Medicine is practiced. "Be careful out there!"