“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey
passionate pachyderms
Pharmacist Steve steve@steveariens.com 502.938.2414
Hello my name is xxx xxxxxx and my wife xxxxx .We read a article on the internet that was about ( can a pharmacist refuse to fill a legitimate prescription). After reading this i am really not sure if a pharmacist at Walmart can refuse to fill it.On 9-6-2017 my wife xxxxx had her dr. appointment and received a prescription that was a e script to Walmart in montecello n.y. When she arrived to the store the pharmacist told her she would not fill it because of the amount. She has been going there for the past 5 or more years and never had a problem with the same prescription from the same dr. After a few hrs. going back to the dr office to get it changed to rite aidand they filled it with no problem then I called Walmart corporate office to speak with some one about it and was told some one would call me back but never did maybe you can advise me of this. thank you
Oregon — A wise person once said that insanity can be defined by doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. If we apply this definition to the war on drugs, then every proponent of it needs to be locked in a psychiatric hospital. Not only has kidnapping and caging people for possessing arbitrary substances not worked — but it’s made it far worse.
Using government force, ie the police, to curb addiction has had disastrous results. Not only has the drug war given the United States the world record for the largest prison population but it’s also given rise to one hellish police state. Luckily, however, a very small group of bureaucrats has been able to chip away at the drug war, by slowly rolling back the laws which allow it to continue.
Oregon is one such place.
A new bill, signed into law this week by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown makes personal and possession of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other hard drugs a misdemeanor instead of a felony.
Oregon now joins a tiny minority of other states that have stopped throwing drug addicts in cages.
Naturally, the ardent drug warriors are furious for several reasons. First off, the District Attorney, Rick Wesenberg said, “The bottom line is that it gives drug users and abusers more freedom to break the law with less consequences.”
Wesenberg is one of those individuals who fit the definition of insanity and thinks that continuing to kidnap and cage people for using drugs may some day have a different result.
READ MORE:Legendary Author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” Admits He Was Recruited by CIA to Run Drugs
“Douglas County is in opioid crisis, and in a meth crisis, and in a heroin crisis,” Wesenberg said. “The governor and the Legislature just blunted law enforcement’s most effective tool in combating drug addiction.”
If this tool was so effective, why — over the last 5 decades — has it failed? Every. Single. Time.
Wesenberg was joined in his fear mongering by Linn County District Attorney Doug Marteeny, who said, “To change the classification of this behavior from a felony to a misdemeanor is tantamount to telling our school children that tomorrow it will be less dangerous to use methamphetamine than it is today.”
Both Wesenberg and Marteeny, however, are very misguided. Research shows — as in the case of Portugal — decriminalizing drugs and treating addicts instead of caging them, can produce paradigm shattering results.
Sadly, however, instead of helping people, who clearly have physical and mental addictions and need help, most state governments still lock people in cages when they catch them with drugs.
However, research — according to many law enforcement officials — shows that the cost of incarceration, especially for repeat drug offenders, is far higher than simply treating their addiction.
The good news is that people like Wesenberg and Marteeny are quickly finding themselves obsolete. Law enforcement across the country are realizing that treatment — not cages — curbs the problem of addiction far more successfully. This includes cops in Oregon too.
As Oregon’s News-Review notes, among the bill’s supporters, are the Oregon Association Chiefs of Police and the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association, which said felony convictions include unintended consequences, including barriers to housing and employment. But the two groups, in a letter to a state senator who backed the bill, said the new law “will only produce positive results if additional drug treatment resources accompany this change in policy.”
READ MORE:Ferguson Protesters File Mass Restrainer Order Against Mo. Police
The good news in this regard is that cops and local governments are changing their policy — and it is working.
These changes in policy have led to the creation of the Angel Program.
The concept of helping addicts instead of criminalizing them is such a success, it’s been adopted by 200 police agencies in 28 states.
Aside from the angel program, stopping the war on drugs is also having a heavy effect on reducing opioid overdoses.
Solutions to this epidemic exist, but in order for them to be successful, government must legalize freedom and admit that the war on drugs is an epic failure. While things may seem bleak, these tiny changes are already beginning to have a major positive effect.
Soon enough, the dinosaurs who continue to push the drug war will be seen as the tyrants they are. To all those in law enforcement, you will do well to place yourself on the right side of history — which, most assuredly, does not involve kidnapping, caging, and killing people in a failed war to control what those people do with their own bodies.
New white paper reviews the science behind calculating morphine equivalent doses and shows why policies based on these can be problematic
LENEXA, KS, September 6, 2017 – The Academy of Integrative Pain Management (AIPM) today released a new white paper, entitled, Opioid Dosing Policy: Pharmacological Considerations Regarding Equianalgesic Dosing. This white paper provides guidance to policymakers and payers, who are increasingly responding to the nation’s opioid epidemic by limiting doses of opioid pain relievers. In so doing, however, they may be unwittingly exposing patients to increased risk due to an inadequate understanding of the science underlying the concept of equianalgesic dosing.
Because opioids differ in their per-milligram potency, equianalgesic dosing tables are used to calculate equivalent doses of different opioids, which are often expressed in terms of “morphine equivalent daily doses”. As outlined in the white paper, the science supporting these tables and the larger concept of equianalgesic dosing is problematic, and using them to determine allowable opioid pain reliever doses can expose patients to both unintentional overdose and underdose.
“In the interest of the people with pain for whom our members provide care, we felt it was necessary to outline our concerns about the key concept of equianalgesic dosing,” said Bob Twillman, Ph.D., Executive Director of AIPM. “We have seen policymakers and payers both relying on this concept as if it was based on solid science, and as if individual differences in a number of factors wasn’t important in clinical practice. Doing so can expose patients to significant risks, and we want to help mitigate those risks by encouraging more deliberative practices.”
“I’ve been researching and writing about the problems with equianalgesic dosing for the past several years, so I was pleased to be asked to serve as the primary author on this document,” stated Jeffrey Fudin, Pharm.D. “As I studied this concept, I was shocked by the poor quality of the studies underlying it and by the dramatic clinical effects that could result from an uncritical use of published conversion tables. Add to that the fact that some opioid pain medications just don’t fit the concept because of their mechanisms of action, and you have the potential for some serious negative consequences if policies improperly use this information.”
AIPM encourages policymakers and payers to review the white paper carefully and to consider its implications if they attempt to fashion opioid dosing policies that rely on the concept of equianalgesic dosing. “We hope this will help policymakers and payers develop better, safer policies that protect patients from overdose while also ensuring that people with pain get the treatment they need for their pain,” added Twillman.
What do you take with you in an emergency? Clothing? Documents? Photos? Consumer Reports warns you should have your prescription medications too. Before disaster strikes, make sure you have all the medications you need on hand. But if you end up stuck without them, you should head to your nearest pharmacy as soon as it is safe.
CR says you should keep a list of all your medications along with the dosing info. If you have to evacuate, take all your drugs with you, in their original containers with the original labels. You’ll want to put them in a watertight bag.
If your medication is damaged, throw out anything that’s wet or looks or smells different — they may be contaminated by floodwaters, and dangerous to take.
“Once a state of emergency has been declared, in certain states, a pharmacist can give you up to a 30-day supply of your medication without your doctor’s authorization,” Trisha Calvo, Consumer Reports Health Editor said.
The Red Cross and other disaster recovery agencies can assist with getting medication during and following disasters.
2 Wants to Know reached out to the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy to see what the rule is here. Jay Campbell told us pharmacists are allowed to give you up to a 90 day supply once state of emergency is declared.
He added that during Hurricane Matthew folks had to go to pharmacies they usually didn’t go to. So it’s important for you have the original bottle with all of the information.
Without it, the pharmacist doesn’t really know what you need. There’s also a state law that requires your insurance company to cover the costs
Major opioid maker Purdue Pharma is arguing that an Ohio lawsuit should be thrown out because the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of its popular painkiller.
Ohio is among several states suing opioid makers, and says the companies falsely marketed the drugs and downplayed the addictive effects of opioid painkillers that drove an epidemic still ravaging the United States. Purdue Pharma, maker of popular painkiller Oxycontin, argues that it marketed the drugs according to FDA guidelines.
The lawsuit, and others filed from several states and localities, are a response to a nationwide epidemic that took 33,000 lives in 2015, according to federal data.
Ohio argued in its lawsuit that Purdue Pharma marketed the drugs to treat chronic pain. Ohio defines chronic pain as noncancer pain lasting three or more months. However, Purdue Pharma says that the FDA approved Purdue’s long-acting products to treat chronic pain that includes noncancer pain.
Purdue also said the lawsuit is pre-empted by federal law and prior decisions made by the FDA.
For instance, in 2013 the advocacy group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing issued a petition asking the FDA to strip the chronic pain indication from opioids’ label. The FDA declined to strip the indication or add any warning that there isn’t enough evidence to show that the benefits outweigh the risks of long-term use in treating non-cancer pain.
Purdue argues that any statements that the painkillers shouldn’t be used for noncancer pain would go against FDA labeling and conflict with its obligations under federal law.
Purdue also faces lawsuits from Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Several counties in New York and California, as well as the city of Chicago, have sued opioid makers, too.
The attorney for the eight New York counties that sued Purdue Pharma blasted the defense.
“We find Purdue’s motion to be interesting but fatally flawed,” said attorney Paul Hanly in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Interesting because the argument that FDA regulation of opioids means there can be no lawsuits has been around for decades, yet just months ago, in nearly identical litigation filed against it by Suffolk County, New York, Purdue submitted hundreds of pages of legal argument to the Court but omitted this argument. Why? There can be but one answer: Purdue knew the argument has no sound basis in the law. To assert it in the Ohio case is a desperate but doomed attempt to confuse the pertinent issues.”
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will join President Trump’s drug commission next week.
Trump appointed Bondi, a longtime Trump supporter, to the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis in March, but has yet to join the commission.
“The President always intended for the Attorney General to be on the Commission–however, Governor Christie choose [sic] to begin the Commission with only himself and four others. The announcement is protocol before the Executive Order is signed next week,” Bondi’s spokesperson, Whitney Ray, said in an email.
The commission is led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
In April, an ethics commission cleared Bondi after a $25,000 donation was made from Trump’s foundation to the attorney general. At the time, Bondi had received a complaint about Trump University for fraud allegations. Her office later dismissed the case.
President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency, following a recommendation from a White House commission led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that urged the president to do just that.
Last month, the commission wrote in a report that more than 100 Americans die of drug overdoses every day, meaning America is “enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks.” To address this problem successfully, elected policymakers, the expert regulators they appoint, the medical and scientific communities, and law enforcement must work cooperatively to advance the interests of public health and safety. That must be their sole focus.
Unfortunately, a number of states, counties and municipalities have filed lawsuits in recent weeks demanding that manufacturers, wholesale drug distributors and pharmacies pay for the clean-up of the problem.
Never mind that these products were approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and their production quotas were annually increased and approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and these very same states have always had regulatory authority over the physicians and pharmacies that prescribed and dispensed the products. It’s always easier to pass the buck.
Perhaps equally predictably most of these same governments have decided to pursue litigation at the urging of plaintiff lawyers who stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars if they are successful. Typically, these arrangements pay plaintiff lawyers roughly one-third of the take plus their expenses. As a result, the incentive for plaintiff lawyers is to maximize their fees irrespective of the public interest.
Strong evidence of this problem can be found in investigations by the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times series. Such reporting has shown how personal injury lawyers often shop their ideas for potentially lucrative lawsuits against corporate defendants to friendly governmental officials, most prominently state attorneys general, whom they also support with generous campaign contributions.
Lawsuits brought by powerful state or local governments must serve the public interest, and not merely the profit-seeking interests of politically influential members of the plaintiffs’ bar.
Drawing a bright line between these obviously conflicting interests has been a policy priority for the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) for more than a decade, animating our drive to enact commonsense statutes — in 18 states thus far — that promote accountability and transparency when public authorities feel compelled to hire outside counsel to initiate major litigation.
In fact, ATRA was part of the successful 2015 effort to enact such a statute in Ohio, where Attorney General Mike DeWine has hired outside counsel as “consultants” in his lawsuit against makers of opioid pain medications.
Among those consultants is former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore, whose private-sector associates in precedent-setting, multistate litigation against tobacco companies 20 years ago were widely reported to have netted more than $1.6 billion in fees without ever providing citizens a full accounting of the work they performed.
ATRA has also worked to develop common sense reforms, like limits on contingency fees and greater transparency in government contracting for private lawyers.
ATRA urges lawmakers across the country to work together to pass common sense reforms that would rein in the potential for abuse and corruption that comes when governments hand over the power of the state to private lawyers looking only for personal enrichment.
Attorneys general and other government officials who bring these cases put their reputations and the integrity of their offices at risk when they rely on the private contingency fee lawyers to represent the public interest. Moreover, it is essential that, as with broader policymaking, any litigation must serve the public interest, not the profit motives of outside counsel.
Pete Sessions, chair of the hugely powerful Rules Committee of the US House of Representatives, committed a highly immoral act.
This Congressman, along with others in the committee, blocked several pro-cannabis amendments from full House votes, killing them. For years, medical marijuana users and their industry have been protected from federal persecution by amendments penned by Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and other freedom loving members of the House, such as Oregon’s Earl Blumenauer and Colorado’s Jared Polis.
Such protections were the product of years of struggle and state votes for medical legalization going back to California’s landmark passage of medical marijuana in 1996. For three years now, the Department of Justice, including the DEA, have been prevented from spending any money to crush these state legalizations. Each congress saw ever-increasing votes of members of the House of Representatives securing these vital protections. Now all these years of progress and state votes for medical legalization are jeopardized by the real possibility of renewed raids by federal jackboot thugs.
The actions by Chairman Pete Sessions to deny congressional input into American medical marijuana policy was immoral for many reasons. The absence of these protections,
Sets up road blocks to what might just be the best answer to America’s lethal opioid crisis.
Further challenges the lives and families of medical cannabis refugees who uprooted from ignorant states to those with medical cannabis programs for cannabis treatment of conditions like juvenile epilepsy. Many children have found life-saving relief in medically legal states.
Denys Americans basic health choices. Instead of a decision between you and your doctor, the end of these protections allows federal police to determine what medications you and your family can access.
Violates the will of the American voters. By overwhelming numbers, Americans believe state medical legalizations should not be harassed by the feds.
Infringes state’s rights by allowing federal thugs to mug the will of voters in medically legal states.
Other pro-cannabis amendments were dropped at the same time, including protections for hemp farming, access to banking, and easing restrictions that have stifled cannabis health research for nearly five decades. Fortunately, the current protections got a short reprieve, and the Senate may act to help achieve and restore these human rights.
Congressman Pete Sessions: protecting your gun rights, immorally violating your rights to health, liberty, and a meaningful vote.
PALM COAST — A Palm Coast man accused of helping his girlfriend kill herself after the couple made a “suicide pact” that led to her death while he survived was arrested Wednesday by Flagler County sheriff’s deputies and charged with “assisting self-murder.”
According to a department spokesperson, Bruce Haughton and his 52-year-old girlfriend, Katherine Goddard, tried to kill themselves by carbon monoxide poisoning on two occasions in June. Goddard died during the second attempt while Haughton survived both attempts.
Haughton, 52, had turned himself in to Flagler deputies Monday on charges tied to an unrelated case of criminal mischief, court records show. He was released from jail on that charge Tuesday before officers re-arrested him Wednesday on the new charge, according to booking records. He is being held without bail at the Flagler County jail, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Assisting self-murder is a second-degree felony manslaughter charge punishable by up to 15 years in prison, according to state statutes.
Investigators allege Goddard and Haughton made a pact to kill themselves when they stopped using prescription pain medication, and they tried to do so on June 29 and 30. Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Brittany Kershaw indicated Haughton planned the attempts, placing duct tape around the garage door of Goddard’s Red Clover Lane home in Palm Coast and affixing a dryer vent to the exhaust pipe of a vehicle in an attempt to fill the car with carbon monoxide.
Kershaw said the vehicle’s battery died on the couple’s first attempt, so they bought sleeping aids that night and tried again the following day.
Goddard’s daughter came home from work and found the couple unresponsive inside the vehicle June 30 and called 9-1-1.
“I just got home and I just found my mom and my step-dad in the garage, in the car,” she said, “and I don’t know if the car’s been on or what but … he’s barely breathing and I can’t get a pulse off of her.”
In the call, as the 9-1-1 operator asked her if she thought it was intentional, the
daughter found and read a note.
“Due to the pain we are both in and can’t get help, this is the only way we can see getting out of it. Goodbye to everybody,” she read.
Goddard was dead by the time deputies arrived and Haughton was transported to Florida Hospital Flagler, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Haughton had 3 percent blood-level of carboxyhemoglobin, or COHb, at the time, according to investigators, who noted that Haughton is a smoker. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that COHb levels must be elevated to at least 9 percent to warrant a carbon monoxide poisoning diagnosis for smokers.
Sheriff Rick Staly said Haughton’s blood levels of COHb were much lower than Goddard’s. Kershaw said Goddard was also a smoker. She didn’t know Goddard’s exact COHb level but said it was “very high” and her body already showed signs of rigor mortis, while Haughton was still breathing when deputies arrived.
Staly said those types of discrepancies aroused the suspicions of investigators, who presented their evidence to the State Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors determined the assisted self-murder charge was most appropriate.
“There were a lot of unusual circumstances in this case, but the state felt that that was the appropriate charge,” Staly said. “There’s insufficient evidence to charge him with murder. Although there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that would indicate this case is more than the charge.”
Hello my name is xxx xxxxxx and my wife xxxxx .We read a article on the internet that was about ( can a pharmacist refuse to fill a legitimate prescription). After reading this i am really not sure if a pharmacist at Walmart can refuse to fill it.On 9-6-2017 my wife xxxxx had her dr. appointment and received a prescription that was a e script to Walmart in montecello n.y. When she arrived to the store the pharmacist told her she would not fill it because of the amount. She has been going there for the past 5 or more years and never had a problem with the same prescription from the same dr. After a few hrs. going back to the dr office to get it changed to rite aid and they filled it with no problem then I called Walmart corporate office to speak with some one about it and was told some one would call me back but never did maybe you can advise me of this. thank you 
