Many of my friends and colleagues are aware of my opposition to gifts from drug companies to physicians (I’ve blogged on this topic before).  You might ask how I can be so saintly in my virtues.  Is it my unerring internal ethical compass, my zen-like detachment to material accoutrements, my incorruptible moral fibre?  Ha!  I’ll tell you how I do it:

I get some sort of drug company freebie or sample maybe once or twice a year (unsolicited, mind you).  This was the latest one.  Some docs get free steak dinners, “seminars” in the Bahamas, and honoraria for “assisting with product development.”  I get free boxes of stinky tissues.  And boy do I mean stinky.  I’ve been trying to pawn this stuff off on the adult hospitalists, since it gives me a headache and makes our call room reek.  Who the heck would want to use this stuff?  I’ve been using the sandpaper-like paper towels out of the bathroom instead of these migraine-inducing failed science experiments.  With gifts like these, it’s no wonder I’m no friend of the practice of gift-giving.