Let me talk to you as a patient first, before a former pharma rep.
I know the fear. The quiet fear when you swallow a pill and wonder: **"Is this right for me? What is this actually doing inside my body?"
**
Years ago, I worked in pharmaceutical sales. I thought I had seen everything. Until a pharmacist placed an order that made me freeze.
The request was for Dexamethasone. A corticosteroid. Life-saving in emergencies, a ticking bomb if misused.
The standard dosages are 0.5 mg or 1.5 mg. But this pharmacist asked for the 6 mg tablets. And not a box or two — over 1000 boxes.
I paused. Something was wrong. I called my central warehouse. They said: "We have only 200 boxes in stock. Nobody requests this amount of this dosage."
The deal didn't go through. I was frustrated. A commission slipped away. I moved on and forgot about it.
Weeks later, a contact in the industry pulled me aside. He whispered about a "magical new product" being sold at that very pharmacy.
The product was sold to patients as "Premium Foreign Collagen" for radiant, youthful skin. Expensive. Exclusive. In high demand.
Do you know what was inside each capsule?
Three 6 mg Dexamethasone tablets. Crushed into powder. Stuffed into a single capsule.
18 milligrams of corticosteroids. Per dose. For a healthy person. For "temporary glow."
I felt sick.
The patients buying these capsules had no idea they were swallowing future osteoporosis. A suppressed immune system. Risk of severe hypertension. Long-term hormonal collapse.
This was not a beauty product. This was a silent crime.
That day, I understood a brutal truth: An uninformed patient is a walking target.
I couldn't stop every criminal wearing a white coat. But I could do something else. I could arm patients with the right questions.
So I started sharing what I know. One story at a time.
