Alan Cassels, a Victoria-based pharmaceutical policy researcher and author, shares insights from over 30 years of investigating how drug marketing and government policy shape health outcomes. With a background in public policy and a career focused on exposing overdiagnosis and overprescription, Alan has written multiple books including *Seeking Sickness* and *The ABCs of Disease Mongering*. In this interview, he explains how fear-based marketing turns normal human experiences—like mild cholesterol, aging, or sadness—into chronic conditions that require lifelong medication.

Alan describes how public health messaging often serves corporate interests more than citizens, and why Canada’s current drug approval system lacks transparency. He calls for greater scrutiny of pharmaceutical influence on doctors, researchers, and regulators, emphasizing that evidence-based medicine must be reclaimed from marketing spin. His message is pragmatic yet urgent: “We don’t need more drugs—we need more critical thinking.”