Are Perscription Drugs Safe?

Read this disturbing quote:
Cost Of Drug-Related Illness Is Immense
TUCSON, ARIZONA. The sale of prescription medicines in the United States exceeded $73 billion in 1994. Two researchers from the University of Arizona conclude that preventable illness and death from the misuse of these medicines cost the American economy over $75 billion a year; if lost productivity is included the cost rises to between $138 billion and $182 billion annually. The researchers point out that the purpose of prescribing pharmaceutical drugs is to treat disease successfully - not to cause more problems. They estimate that this purpose is achieved in less than 40 per cent of all cases. More than 60 per cent of all people prescribed pharmaceutical drugs end up with a drug-related problem which results in almost nine million hospital admissions a year at an estimated cost of $47.4 billion. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that more than 28 per cent of all hospital admissions in 1992 were due to drug-related illness and that somewhere between 80,000 and 200,000 people died from complications involving prescription medicines. In comparison, it is estimated that the direct cost of diabetes to the American economy was $45 billion in 1992 and that of heart disease was $117 billion. The researchers conclude that drug-related illness and death should be considered one of the leading diseases in the United States.
Johnson, Jeffrey A. and Bootman, J. Lyle. Drug-related morbidity and mortality. Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 155, October 9, 1995, pp. 1949-56

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I would really be scared to see updated numbers. I'm going to keep my eye on this.
Okay I've got one more.

180,000 people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury. The equivalent of three jumbo jet crashes every 2 days.
20% of all patients admitted to a university hospital suffered iatrogenic injury.
36 % of those admitted to a teaching hospital suffered an iatrogenic event, of which 25% were serious or life threatening.
64 % of cardiac arrests at a teaching hospital were preventable. Most were due to use of medications.
Leape LL, Error in medicine. JAMA Dec. 21, 1994; 272(23): 1851-7
Hey because I'm a muscle head I had to look up IATROGENIC.
The terms iatrogenesis and iatrogenic artifact refer to adverse effects or complications caused by or resulting from medical treatment or advice. In addition to harmful consequences of actions by physicians, iatrogenesis can also refer to actions by other healthcare professionals, such as psychologists, therapists, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and others. Iatrogenisis is not restricted to conventional medicine and can also result from complementary and alternative medicine treatments.

Some iatrogenic artifacts are clearly defined and easily recognized, such as a complication following a surgical procedure. Some are less obvious and can require significant investigation to identify, such as complex drug interactions. And, some conditions have been described for which it is unknown, unproven or even controversial whether they be iatrogenic or not; this has been encountered particularly with regard to various psychological and chronic pain conditions. Research in these areas is ongoing.

Causes of iatrogenesis include medical error, negligence, and the adverse effects or interactions of prescription drugs. In the United States, 225,000 deaths per year may be iatrogenic, making it the third leading cause of death.[1]