Miracle drugs that promise they can do anything fill TV screens constantly, but these drugs can do just about anything except make people’s lives better.

The regulations in place for most drug advertising are nearly non-existent due to a lack of updates on archaic laws, and now American citizens, especially the elderly, are facing the consequences.

The problems that lie with most drug advertising is that ads are purposely placed on websites with more vulnerable users or played on channels with an older population. This marketing style captures the best audience for unproven medicine or shady supplemental industries.

There are many known negative side effects to pharmaceutical advertising, including anxiety linked to the fears that direct-to-consumer drug advertising purposely invokes.

Sophomore Vryas Pillaii worries about his grandparents, who watch a lot of television and get a lot of drug advertisements. “I don’t know exactly how much they’re seeing but they believe a lot of what they see and I don’t know how I feel about possibly dangerous advertisements being shown to them,” Pillai said.

With a large population of elderly people in Bettendorf, the risks of dangerous pharmaceutical advertisements could be even worse in the community. Bettendorf could experience a stark news report if pharmaceutical advertisements aren’t regulated. There would be a rise in combined drug deaths because people don’t know what they’re taking.

Junior Jacob Kustes also believes that these drug advertisements are extremely dangerous to his grandparents and their friends, “I know [my grandparents] take some medications, so I don’t know how I would feel if some of those were just fake pills that might even be dangerous,” he shared.

What these stories tell about direct-to-consumer drug advertising is a potential horror story for Bettendorf and the rest of the nation and one that should be regulated for the safety of the citizens.