A Dallas suburb’s mayor and her daughter are dead, and fentanyl pain patches found in the aftermath — while not blamed — have drawn attention to the powerful narcotic.

A medical examiner’s autopsy report was just released in the deaths of Coppell, TX Mayor Jayne Peters, 55, and daughter Corinne Peters, 19.  Both were found dead of gunshots at their home on July 13. The daughter’s death was ruled a homicide by the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office, while the mother’s death was deemed “consistent” with being a “self-inflicted act.”

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The term “drug wars” often refers to violent cartels which bully, bribe and slaughter in the name of  illegal drug profits. But another drug war is assailing America, and no machine guns are used. Rather, it’s a war inflicted by huge pharmaceutical companies — often foreign-based — which knowingly sell deadly, defective drugs for years while reaping monstrous profits.

Take GlaxoSmithKline, a British pharmaceutical giant whose negligence with deadly drugs seems to know no limits. GSK’s latest revealed outrage concerns diabetes medication Avandia, which carries a high risk of causing heart attacks. According to a recent New York Times investigation, GSK knew of this risk for 11 years yet covered it up, continuing to peddle its defective drug even though people were dying as a result.

In short, GSK knew it was killing people and did so anyway, all in the name of money.

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For years, millions of Americans took Accutane as a means to fight severe acne. Though this medication was effective as an acne treatment, it also backfired. Now many Americans face Accutane injuries, including severe gastrointestinal ailments such as UC, or Ulcerative Colitis, and Crohn’s Disease.

Accutane also has been known to cause depression and suicidal impulses in some users, as well as birth defects in the infants of women who were pregnant while using Accutane.

The defective drug’s maladies have become so widespread that they were acknowledged recently on hit Fox TV show Glee. In it, the character of high school cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester, played by Jane Lynch, spoke of Accutane causing hearing loss. Hearing loss, in fact, is another Accutane side effect, along with ringing in the ears.

With so many Accutane ailments, Americans need a means to redress their Accutane injury or illness. And they have one: an Accutane lawsuit. Such legal action can seek financial compensation from the manufacturers whose negligence harmed innocent Americans.

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Many American women have taken antidepressant drug Paxil during their pregnancy. Now many American newborn children are suffering birth defects as a result. Since 2005 Paxil has been shown to have serious side effects in newborn babies, including ailments of the heart, brain, spinal cord, lungs and other vital organs. Such Paxil side effects injuries often require surgery or even repeated surgeries to correct.

That’s a high price to pay for the negligence of a pharmaceuticals giant such as Paxil creator GlaxoSmithKline of London, England. GSK reaps almost $1 billion per year in Paxil sales in America alone, and that huge amount is only about 2 per cent of its total annual drug sales. Meanwhile, American children are suffering horribly due to Paxil side effects injuries.

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Each day, Americans are “hammered” with visual messages on TV and the Internet. But how many are trite, and how many are truly useful? Do we really need to know whose kitty can play the piano? Or do we need to know which defective drugs or injury accidents threaten our loved ones?

At Jim S. Adler & Associates, we’re trying to close the information gap not only in our website’s written content, but in its videos. That’s why we’ve created “Hammer TV,” a video-only Web service filled with helpful safety tips and information for keeping your family whole and healthy.

Named after longtime Texas personal injury attorney Jim “the Texas Hammer” Adler, Hammer TV hosts a variety of “Top Stories” videos on the dangers and costs of SUVs, ATVs, distracted drivers, salmonella food poisoning, uninsured motorists, defective drugs such as Paxil and — one of our biggest threats, literally — the risks posed by big rig, tractor trailer, semi truck and 18 wheeler vehicles.

But don’t worry: There’s also a human touch. Among Hammer TV’s “Top Stories” and “News on JSA Charities,” it offers looks at small children in need getting free “snow parties” or holiday clothes, and even an “up close and personal” look at the Texas Hammer himself, Jim Adler.

Hammer TV also has a touching tribute to Kevin Hills, a Texan who was killed by an 18 wheeler, and a heartwarming dedication to the staff and volunteers of Safe Kids Greater Houston, whose mission is to keep our kids safe.

Or check out Hammer TV’s “PSAs” tab for tips on road rage, water safety, kid safety and the dangers of texting while driving. Heck, you even can watch Jim Adler’s famed “TV Commercials” all in one place — and with no interruptions by annoying TV shows.

It’s all there for you — and for free — on Hammer TV. Tune in, and learn more.

Beyond that, the Texas Hammer has hard-hitting videos for you on YouTube and on Facebook.

On Facebook, check out Jim Adler’s latest flipcam interviews about Toyota’s massive stuck accelerator recall and why the Japanese automaker can’t be trusted, as well as his take on the computer screens coming to car dashboards this fall. Crazy, right?

Also on YouTube as well as on Facebook, watch the emotional video Jim Adler’s firm created for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and MADD Victim Services. Drunk drivers take a terrible toll in human life and in the anguish of victims’ survivors. This video puts a powerful face on them and is a moving reminder that we all have a responsibility to protect each other.

Call it reality TV with meaning and a message. Or call it Hammer TV. Either way, it’s here for you.

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For huge pharmaceutical companies which make huge profits, settling a defective drugs lawsuit for millions of dollars may be considered a satisfactory trade-off given such drugs’  billions of dollars in revenues. In fact, some pharmaceutical giants even market drugs which are known to be dangerous, content with a bottom-line strategy of profits at any costs — even human ones.

It’s not known if GlaxoSmithKline PLC of London, England is guilty of such malice when it comes to birth defects caused by its defective drug Paxil. In fact, though a Philadelphia, PA jury in October awarded $2.5 million in compensatory damages to a couple whose child had heart problems after his mother took Paxil during pregnancy, that same jury did not award punitive damages for malice.

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Statistically, young women are among the least likely persons to have high blood pressure, heart attacks, blood clots, strokes and other cardiovascular ailments. Yet many American women are suffering in these ways — and even dying. That’s because they are users of one of three defective drugs sold as birth control pills: Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella.

Fortunately, these three brands are the only oral contraceptives which share the drug DRSP, or drospirenone. That drug has been known to cause serious health problems in the heart and kidneys, and also to cause breast lumps, numbness, depression, confusion, vision problems, migraine headaches and pulmonary embolism.

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A year and a half ago, the heparin overdose of actor Dennis Quaid’s twins was big news. The legal settlement just announced in the case isn’t as big of a news story to most media, but it’s also very significant.

The Associated Press reports that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has offered a $500,000 settlement in the case, which the Quaids have accepted. Half of that money will go to each of the twins: Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone. Also, Cedars-Sinai will pay for any additional medical care the Quaid twins ever need related to their injury, though they seem to have recovered.

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For Houston-born actor Dennis Quaid, star of Disney’s The Rookie, The Alamo and The Parent Trap, the pain of almost losing his twin children to a heparin overdose remains quite real. On today’s Oprah Winfrey Show, a tape revealed Quaid on an emotional visit to the Los Angeles hospital where the near-tragedy occurred, and he then discussed the event with hostess Oprah Winfrey, who assessed other defective drug dangers.

As Winfrey pointed out, more people die from medical mistakes each year in America than from breast cancer, AIDS and car accidents — combined. That’s not a problem. It’s an epidemic. And epidemics demand action.

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