My Pharmacist Humiliated Me When He Refused to Fill My Hormone Prescription

https://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/transgender-rights/my-pharmacist-humiliated-me-when-he-refused-fill-my-hormone

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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/19/john-stossel-absurd-hysteria-around-plastic-straws.html

But what about that scary “500 million” figure that celebrities, politicians and news anchors constantly cite? It turns out that number came from a 10-year-old who, for a school project, telephoned some straw makers.

Because the boy is cute, the media put him on TV. Now the media, environmental activists and politicians (Is there a difference?) repeat “500 million straws used daily … many end up in oceans,” as if it were just fact. The real number is much lower.

That is 1.6 straws/day for EVERY MAN, WOMAN, CHILD in the USA  – someone must be ABUSING STRAWS ?

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FDA announces voluntary recall
of several medications containing valsartan

Food and Drug Administration voluntary recall announcement of several drug products containing the active ingredient valsartan, used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure. The recall is due to the presence of an impurity which is classified as a probable human carcinogen based on laboratory test results.

Take immediate action and review the Information about the recalled products on the FDA Drug Recalls website, including information on returning affected lots for credit. NCPA urges pharmacists to review their inventories for any of the products listed in the recall announcement. The FDA says that pharmacists should notify their patients if any of them have been dispensed the medicine included in this recall to discuss their treatment, which may include another valsartan product not affected by this recall or an alternative treatment option.

The FDA’s review is ongoing and has included investigating the levels of NDMA in the recalled products, assessing the possible effect on patients who have been taking them and what measures can be taken to reduce or eliminate the impurity from future batches produced by the company.

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OHA considers removing opioid treatment from health plan

https://www.koin.com/news/health/oha-considers-removing-opioid-treatment-from-health-plan/1310298073

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Growing concern over opioid addiction and overdose has prompted state health officials to create a proposal that would eliminate prescription opioids from the Oregon Health Plan by 2019.

State health leaders’ concern about addiction, however, is matched by anger from advocates of opioids for some pain conditions.

Julia recently had eye surgery. It did not go well. She said she’s tried other alternatives, but they haven’t worked. She said she’s tried 30 different medications and surgeries.

“I have scar tissue attached to the back of my eye,” she said. “It feels like I have a Charlie horse every day.”

Advocates of opioid treatment say removing the option would be discriminatory.

Amara, another patient, said she deserves to have opioid treatment as an option.

“I’ve proven it works successfully for me,” she said. “I’ve gone down a long journey to get to that point. It wasn’t my first choice.”

On Thursday, they plan to hold a protest against the proposal in front of the Oregon health Authority in Salem.

State health leaders tell KOIN 6 News the evidence review committee will gather public opinion before any decision is made.

“All this medicine does is make me be able to live,” Julie said.

Did anyone notice that Oregon is one of the handful of states that has a “death with dignity ” law ?.. So the state of Oregon is taking away the pain medication from Medicaid pts… ones who can probably not afford to pay for them – since they are “poor” and on Medicaid…

So as these chronic pain pts’ pain levels soars up the pain scale.. the state is ready, willing and able to facilitate a chronic pain pt’s desires to resolve their pain with the “final solution”…

Just by chance… the pts that take this options will be one less “taker” on the state’s Medicaid program. So is the state of Oregon… moving from the “covert genocide” that many suspect is going on in this country to a few steps away to a LESS COVERT GENOCIDE ?

According to this article  https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/02/oregon_revenue_forecast_3.html  the state of Oregon is running abt 1.6 BILLION budget SHORTFALL…  Could they be trying to balance the budget on some of the poorest and sickest in the state ?

Oregon is the same state where the Sweet Cake Bakery  https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/court-rules-against-oregon-bakers-who-refused-make-gay-wedding-n833321 was fined $135,000 for discriminating against a gay couple for refusing to bake a wedding cake by Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

So it would appear that the Oregon bureaucrats won’t tolerate some discrimination by some in the business community, but apparently when the same bureaucracy will itself discriminate against those in the society that are the most poor and the sickest of the sick without any repercussions.

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USPS Worker Nearing Retirement Found Dead in Mail Truck During California Heat Wave

https://www.insideedition.com/usps-worker-nearing-retirement-found-dead-mail-truck-during-california-heat-wave-44920

A United States Postal Service worker has been found dead inside her mail truck during a sweltering heatwave in California.

Peggy Frank, 63, had worked for the Postal Service for 28 years and planned to retire soon. 

She had been on medical leave for several months after breaking her ankle, and returned to the job on Friday.

That same day, a neighbor found her unresponsive in her mail truck in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, authorities said.

“I am really so sad because she was going to retire really soon,” Lynn Calkins, Frank’s sister, told KTLA-TV. “Now she can’t.”

Officials are working to determine Frank’s cause of death. 

Her family said they believe the extreme heat may have been a factor.

Temperatures in the area had soared to 117 degrees, and an excessive heat warning for the region had been released by the National Weather Service. 

In addition, USPS trucks are not equipped with air conditioning, CBS Los Angeles reported.

“They [the Postal Service] need to do something,” Calkins told KTLA-TV. “They need to start caring about their people a little more.”

A spokesperson for the USPS told KTLA-TV that postal workers are reminded every day to stay hydrated, wear appropriate hats and clothing, to carry water and ice and to stay in the shade as often as possible. 

“The safety of our employees is a top priority and the Postal Service has implemented a national Heat Illness Prevention Program (HIPP) for all employees,” a statement from the USPS said. “In connection with the HIPP, the Postal Service provides mandatory heat-related and other safety training and instruction to all employees and assures they have the resources needed to do their jobs safely.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the employee’s family at this time,” the statement said. 

But Frank’s family said the efforts made are not enough. 

“They need to change things a little so it happens to nobody else,” Calkins said.

Most medications are suppose to be stored in a max of 85F… if a mail carrier died because of the heat in her mail truck.. what is happening to your medications ?  The same medications that you buy/take to help you maintain your health.

The manufacturer, wholesaler & pharmacy are legally responsible to maintain medication within the mandatory storage range… but.. when a mail order pharmacy hands your heat sensitive medication off to a delivery service..  they no requirement to maintain those storage temperatures.

I recently made this post Getting your medications thru mail order can kill ?

about mail order medication where the pt – liver transplant pt – medication was so harmed by HIGH HEAT… that the pt started to rejecting his transplanted liver

REMEMBER… health care is nothing but a FOR PROFIT BUSINESS…

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Alert! Watch out for fake FDA warning letters

Have you ever ordered medicine from questionable online pharmacies? Many folks use these alternative pharmacies because of their extremely cheap prices and the convenience they provide.

But are you sure they are safe? Aside from putting your information and your health at risk, these illegal online pharmacies can also put you in the crosshairs of extortion email scams.

Read on and learn more about the latest round of scary letters that the FDA is warning everyone about.

Fake FDA Warning Letters

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning the public about impostors who are forging FDA warning letters and sending them to people who tried to buy medicine from illegal online pharmacies.

The FDA said that instead of receiving the medicine they attempted to buy online or over the phone, targeted individuals are receiving official-looking but fake warning letters about drug violations.

The fake letters claim that based on a review of your social media accounts and the package that is being shipped to you, the FDA has determined that drug violations have indeed been committed.

The letters are commonly addressed to a generic “Sir/Ma’am” but may even include a specific name. Don’t be fooled! Since these fake online pharmacies may already have your name, address and maybe even your credit card details, it’s not a stretch to think that they’re misusing your data.

Although the letters don’t demand money (for now), they do warn that “we are still investigating the root of this delivery & necessary legal steps will be taken if we found [sic] out any suspicious activity on your end.”

The FDA is still investigating this matter but it believes that it could be a part of an international extortion scam.

Nope – Not from the FDA

The FDA said while they do send out warning letters to companies and individuals who are involved in the manufacturing or distribution of FDA-regulated products, they don’t send them directly to consumers.

“Consumers who aren’t involved in manufacturing or distributing FDA regulated products should be on alert that if you get an FDA warning letter, it’s probably fake, and probably a scam,” FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb explained in an official statement.

The agency also said that they don’t generally take action against people for purchasing medicine online. However, they do regularly take action against the operators of these illegal pharmacies.

To help stop this scam, the FDA is urging any consumer who has received a fake warning letter to email FDAInternetPharmacyTaskForce-CDER@fda.hhs.gov with details about the letter and its packaging, including photos or scans.

Stay away from illegal online pharmacies

The FDA also said that getting victimized by scams like this is not the only danger when you purchase medicine from illegal online pharmacies.

First, the products bought from these shops may be counterfeit, contaminated, or expired, putting your health at risk.

Secondly, most illegal online pharmacies don’t have sufficient cybersecurity safeguards to protect your sensitive information from data breaches. Some may even be deliberately misusing your data by selling it to scammers and fraudsters!

With your real name, address, email and financial information at their disposal, they can send you more extortion and scam emails or even charge you with products that you never purchased.

How to spot an illegal online pharmacy

Buying medication online from fly-by-night online shops can be enticing since they tempt you with cheaper prices and they usually don’t require a prescription.

However, you are putting your health, your bank account and your identity at risk so please avoid them at all costs.

To be safe, keep your eye out for online pharmacies that:

• Allow you to buy prescription medicine without a valid prescription.
• Offer extremely low prices that are too good to be true.
• Do not have an available U.S. state-licensed pharmacist to answer any questions.
• Are not located in the U.S.
• Offer worldwide shipments.
• Appear on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s List of Not Recommended Websites. (However, not being on this list doesn’t mean that an online pharmacy is safe. New shops appear every time).
• Are NOT licensed by your state board of pharmacy, or equivalent state agency. (Please check your state board of pharmacy to verify its licensing status of the pharmacy).
• Do NOT have the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s (NABP) Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites Seal (VIPPS). This seal means that an online pharmacy has met state licensure requirements and it is safe to use.

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Did A Chronic Pain Marine Lose or Not?

www.nationalpainreport.com/did-a-chronic-pain-marine-lose-or-not-8836775.html

Did the Fighting Marine Robert Rose win or lose Tuesday in U.S. Federal Court in Greeneville, Tennessee?

Depends on how you look at it?

From a legal point of view, he lost.

A Federal Judge rejected Rose’s attempt for an injunction that would have forced his Congressman (Phil Roe) and his Veterans Administration Hospital Mountain Home VA Center in Johnson City, to talk about Rose’s claim that treatment for his chronic pain was denied.

Rose, who took on his Quixotic adventure versus a huge federal bureaucracy without the benefit of a lawyer, lost but, in defeat, he may have won.

First of all, Congressman Roe, ironically (or maybe not ironically) is head of the House Veteran’s Affairs Committee.

Rose has challenged Roe for over a year, to simply talk with him.

It started July 4, 2017 when Rose showed up at an event at the VA Center…but was denied his opportunity to speak with his Congressional Representative. The National Pain Report was there, at least on the telephone.

Here is the National Pain Report coverage on Robert Rose’s battle.

What did Congressman Roe do?

As one long-time observer of Tennessee politics who wished to remain anonymous told the National Pain Report Tuesday, “Robert was marginalized and was made invisible and stigmatized by his own Congressman. It’s a tragedy.”

What did Robert do?

Thanks to his own expertise in developing a following on social media, and the National Pain Report’s interest in his case, Robert has built a narrative that has caught the attention of other veterans.

Here’s one of many examples the National Pain Report has received to Robert’s story:

“I was injured in the 1983 Beirut bombing conflict with neck and lower back injury that resulted in spinal stenosis, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, PTSD /panic attacks, neuropathy of my feet because of lower back, said Walter Radziszweski, a Connecticut veteran who emailed the National Pain Report on Tuesday. I have been going to the VA mostly at the Newington CT campus which is an outpatient clinic. Specialty care at the West Haven campus and getting timely appointments are just about impossible and return phone calls take days. Care is good, when you can get it!“

For fellow Tennessee resident and nationally recognized chronic pain advocate, Terri Lewis, Ph.D., the Marine’s efforts are starting to pay off.

Dr. Lewis believes Robert’s case is a textbook opportunity for the VA to address its mission to give Rose and other vets the palliative care they deserve.

“I’ve surveyed thousands of chronic pain patients and Robert’s case is typical… The question that Congressman Roe and others ought to be asking is ‘Why hasn’t’ the VA served people like Robert better?” she said.

She believes that Robert and other vets who has been denied care need to continue the fight within the VA to make sure our vets receive their care.

Robert, as he drove into his driveway plainly exhausted, told the National Pain Report, “I’m tired, but I will think about a new strategy about how we best address the issues facing our veterans and others who want to know that addressing their chronic pain is a priority.”

If you have experience about this topic, please share in our comments section..

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CDC chief says fentanyl almost killed his son

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/cdc-chief-says-fentanyl-almost-killed-his-son-n891976

The new CDC director, Dr. Robert Redfield, says his son almost died of an opioid overdose when he took cocaine contaminated with fentanyl.

The head of the nation’s top public health agency says the opioid epidemic will be one of his priorities, and he revealed a personal reason for it: His son almost died from taking cocaine contaminated with the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

“For me, it’s personal. I almost lost one of my children from it,” Dr. Robert Redfield Jr. told the annual conference of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

The AP viewed a video of his speech, which he delivered Thursday in New Orleans. Redfield declined to speak about it Monday, except to say in a statement: “It’s important for society to embrace and support families who are fighting to win the battle of addiction — because stigma is the enemy of public health.”

Redfield mentioned his younger son while talking about his priorities for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he started as director in March. He listed the opioid crisis first, calling it “the public health crisis of our time.”

Public records show that the son, a 37-year-old musician, was charged with drug possession in 2016 in Maryland. The outcome of the case is not available in public records.

Dr. Umair Shah, the head of Houston’s county health department, applauded the CDC director’s moment of candor.

“It was definitely an intimate moment that grabbed the audience of public health professionals,” said Shah, who just finished a term as president of the association.

About 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, according to preliminary CDC numbers released last week. That’s a 10 percent increase from the year before.

Most of the deaths involved opioids, which are driving the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in U.S. history. Growing numbers of recent deaths have been attributed to fentanyl and fentanyl-like drugs, which are relatively cheap and are sometimes cut by suppliers into heroin, cocaine or other drugs without buyers’ knowledge.

Can you imagine that.. using the two NOUNS in the same sentence MUSICIAN and COCAINE and anyone being surprised? This “adult kid” was charged with possession in 2016… so it was apparently known to his Father/parents that he had a substance abuse problem..  But his “Doctor”/Father now becomes concerned when his “kid” got a hold some of his “drug of choice” mixed with an illegal Fentanyl analog and almost died.

Was his known addiction/substance abuse of ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES history “no big deal” to his Father prior to his son’s brush with death ?

Now his Father has become a CRUSADER for those suffering from the mental health issues of addictive personalities…  I guess that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention … the last and newest part of this federal agencies title… PREVENTION… there is apparently NO CONCERN about addressing the treatment/prevention of chronic pain and unrelenting pain of 100 + million of our citizens.

Poor Dr Redfield, he is having to deal with the stigma that his family’s gene pool is “defective” and his son’s mental health disease of addictive personality is a personal embarrassment to him and the family.

Maybe we need to expand the “covert genocide” that our bureaucracy is doing to those suffering from chronic pain and start sterilizing addicts and any off springs before they can spread their “defective gene pool” to the next generation. We can’t legislate morality, we can legislate the legal supply of opiates and other substances that are abused,  so is it time to start legislating what will less the DEMAND part of the equation ?

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WE’VE ALL HEARD THE CHILLING STATISTIC THAT EVERY DAY, AT LEAST ONE NEVADAN DIES FROM AN OPIOID OVERDOSE. THOSE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN USED TO JUSTIFY A CRACKDOWN ON PRESCRIPTION PAIN MEDICATIONS THAT LEFT THOUSANDS OF NEVADANS ABANDONED BY THEIR DOCTORS. BUT IS THE STATISTIC LEGITIMATE? DO OPIOIDS KILL ONE NEVADAN EVERY DAY?

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CVS sues state to block release of report on its drug pricing

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180716/cvs-sues-state-to-block-release-of-report-on-its-drug-pricing

CVS Caremark is suing the Ohio Department of Medicaid to block it from releasing the full report detailing how the pharmacy middleman charged taxpayers three to six times as much to process prescription drugs for the poor and disabled as the industry standard.

“The disclosure of proprietary information in the Caremark agreements would be devastating to Caremark’s entire nationwide business model,” CVS attorneys argued in an 18-page request for a temporary restraining order filed Monday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Pharmacy benefit managers have long operated in the shadows of the health care system. They buy drugs from manufacturers, distribute them to patients through pharmacies and manage the cost of those drugs through employers and insurers.

The Dispatch has spent the past six months uncovering how PBMs operate in Ohio. The stories have detailed some of the hidden costs PBMs create that critics say drive up the price of medications. We’ve uncovered how PBMs force cancer patients in dire need of medications to wait weeks for drugs that are available on the shelves of their local pharmacies. Stories of how the practices of PBMs have driven neighborhood pharmacies out of business.

Meanwhile, PBMs, drug manufacturers and health-care providers continue to make increasing profits in the billions as health care in America has increased by $1.2 trillion in a decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service.

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