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Wrongful death lawsuit filed against St. Thomas, NHC, others

http://www.murfreesboropost.com/wrongful-death-lawsuit-filed-against-st-thomas-nhc-others-cms-45398

A Texas woman is seeking $5 million in a wrongful death lawsuit claiming her elderly mother died from negligence by local healthcare providers, mainly involving a botched diuretic prescription. If you need attorney for wrongful death attorney case then check here.

Sharon Elizabeth Conway filed the complaint Oct. 5 on behalf of her mother, Clara Hamner Conway, who died Aug. 28, 2015, after gaining 30 pounds in only 18 days while being treated at St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital and NHC Murfreesboro, according to court documents.

The lawsuit names St. Thomas Rutherford, NHC Murfreesboro, Dr. Zakaria Botros, Dr. Evans Neal Mize, Dr. Susana Irias Donaghey, Wellness Solutions and nurse practitioner Miatta Kebee Hampton.

Conway was admitted to the hospital Aug. 6-10, 2015 for symptomatic anemia (shortage of iron), acute gastritis (inflammation or swelling of the stomach lining), COPD exacerbation (shortness of breath) and mild hypokalemia (a low potassium level).

She was discharged weighing 158 pounds and readmitted Aug. 18 due to shortness of breath. During those eight days, she gained 15 pounds but complained of decreased appetite, according to the lawsuit, and also showed signs of swelling in her extremities.

The lawsuit contends the weight gain was caused by abnormal fluid retention, which, if left untreated, can lead to heart failure and death. The problem often is treated through diuretics, increasing the excretion of water and salt in the body.

Conway was prescribed 20 milligrams of Lasix by mouth every other day, and Botros requested consultation by pulmonologist Dr. Richard Parrish, who recommended diuretics for failure of the left side of her heart. If that didn’t bring improvement, she was to undergo a procedure to remove excess fluid from her chest, according to the suit.

Despite Parrish’s recommendation, she received only one 20-milligram dosage of Lasix on Aug. 19 and not another until Aug. 24 when she was given a 40-milligram tablet of Lasix, according to the filing.

The lawsuit contends Botros and Mize should have known she suffered dangerous levels of fluid retention but failed to take appropriate steps to treat her.

After six days at St. Thomas, weighing 188 pounds, she was transferred to NHC Murfreesboro where a nurse noted significant swelling in her lower extremities, the lawsuit says.

In the transfer, a discrepancy occurred in orders for Lasix to be administered at 40 milligrams every day instead of every other day, and the conflicting prescription order was not recognized, according to the lawsuit.

“This dosage was insufficient to manage the abnormal fluid retention in her body,” the lawsuit states.

On Aug. 25, the patient suffered an episode of respiratory distress. Despite continuing problems and abnormal lab results, physicians were not notified and no changes were made in her medications, according to the lawsuit.

Even as the patient continued having problems with oxygen levels, repeated respiratory distress was not addressed with diuretic medication, the filing contends.

She was found unresponsive Aug. 28, 2015 and taken to St. Thomas Rutherford where she was pronounced dead.

The lawsuit contends the “volume overload of fluid retention caused her increasing respiratory distress” and made her gain 30 pounds in 18 days. “Left untreated, these conditions caused cardiac arrest and untimely and wrongful death,” the lawsuit states.

Officials with St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital and NHC Murfreesboro did not return phone calls.

Sam Stockard can be reached at sstockard44@gmail.com.

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It’s Time for Doctors and Patients to Stand Together

nationalpainreport.com/its-time-for-doctors-and-patients-to-stand-together-8831730.html

By Jay Joshi, M.D.

Jay Joshi, M.D.

(Dr. Joshi is a nationally recognized pain physician who will attend the CRPS Conference in Chicago on Saturday. What follows is his commentary about the conference specifically and the environment of chronic pain treatment generally) 

With this recent election cycle, two topics have become very clear.  We have issues in America with healthcare and discrimination.  Access to healthcare (especially good healthcare) has diminished, premiums have gone up, deductibles have gone up, coverage has gone down, and the total cost of healthcare continues to rise.  Discrimination, based on race, color, gender, disability, and more continues to be a problem.  In some ways, it is worse than it was 10 years ago.

What we are seeing in our broader society seems to be amplified (much like the pain in CRPS) within the pain patient population.  We are seeing access to good pain physicians diminishing, premiums for pain patients rising, deductibles rising, coverage for pain procedures diminishing, reimbursements diminishing (to the point where it costs more to do the procedure than we are getting reimbursed in some cases).

We are also seeing bigotry and discrimination increasing within the pain patient population.  It seems that the general stereotype is that anyone who is on an opiate is a drug addict.  Somehow pain MANAGEMENT is worthless if there isn’t a cure.  While we are always working toward a “cure”, we are not there yet.  And management is a lot better than the alternative, which is failure.  Failure leads suicide, which I’ve become increasingly convinced some people who hate pain patients welcome with open arms.  Patients with CPRS and central sensitization are doubly discriminated against because most people in our society (especially physicians) have little to no understanding or compassion toward the disease or the patient.  Thus, their views and practice philosophies are based on stereotypes and opinions, not science.  This leads to bigotry and discrimination.  I’ve personally been a victim of both simply because I properly take care of and advocate for pain patients.  In fact, this happened again to me this month.

Saturday’s conference may be the pivotal point in the management of CRPS and central sensitization.  We all know ketamine infusions are helpful.  The experts know the science behind it and it is not based on opinion or stereotype.  We need to come together and fight these disgusting people who treat pain patients and legitimate pain physicians like some contagious disease that needs to be eradicated from the planet.  There is a place for humanity in our society and a place to treat our fellow mankind with dignity and respect.  There is no place for racists and bigots in our society or ignorant physicians and non-physicians who slander, defame, and threaten patients and their providers.  So let’s stand united to defeat this insurgency of hate.

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Ex-DEA officers charged with drug, weapons crimes

http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/crime/2016/10/18/ex-dea-officers-charged-drug-weapons-crimes/92387010/

WASHINGTON – Two former Drug Enforcement Administration task force officers were charged in a superseding indictment unsealed today with drug conspiracy, weapons offenses, robbery, obstruction of justice and falsification of records in federal investigations, according to Department of Justice and FBI officials.

Karl Emmett Newman, 49, of Kentwood, and Johnny Jacob Domingue, 27, of Maurepas, were indicted Oct. 7 by a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, authorities said.

Newman is charged with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and oxycodone, one count of interference with commerce by robbery, one count of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, one count of possessing a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, two counts of unlawful conversion of property by a government officer or employee, two counts of falsifying records in a federal investigation and one count of obstruction of justice. Know whom to call after getting arrested in order to get legal help.

Domingue is charged with one count of falsifying records in a federal investigation.  Newman was originally charged on May 13 in a now-unsealed indictment and was arrested on that date.  Domingue was arrested on a now-unsealed criminal complaint on May 12.

In addition to serving as DEA task force officers, Newman and Domingue previously served as deputies with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey S. Sallet of the FBI’s New Orleans Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Monte A. Cason of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Dallas Field Office and Deputy Chief Inspector Brian M. McKnight of the DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility made the announcement.

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Seniors Brace For Smallest Social Security Increase on Record

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/10/17/seniors-brace-for-smallest-social-security-increase-on-record.html

Let’s start with the good news. For the more than 60 million people who receive Social Security benefits, they will get a cost-of-living increase in 2017. This is positive considering there was no increase in 2016. Here is the bad news. The increase is expected to be around 0.3 percent, the smallest increase on record.

“For the average Social Security beneficiary, that equates to basically $2 to $6 a month, so it’s very small,” says Max Gulker, a senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. He expects the cost-of-living increase for 2017 to come in between 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent when the government releases its number on Tuesday.

While Social Security benefits increase, Medicare Part B premiums will rise too.  Medicare Part B covers doctor visits, lab tests and outpatient medical treatments.  About 70 percent of people enrolled in Medicare are protected by the hold-harmless provision which prevents Medicare Part B premiums from rising more than the cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits.  For the majority of seniors, this means the hike in premiums will not be more than the cost-of-living increase but it could eat up any increase in benefits.  In other words, most Social Security recipients will probably see the increase in their payment go towards Medicare costs so they are not likely to see a big change in their monthly checks. 

Medicare Part B premiums have been climbing as healthcare costs soar.  Back in 1970, the monthly Part B premium was $5.30.  This year, the standard monthly premium is $121.80.  Meantime, average benefit costs per Part B beneficiary have shot up from about $8 per month in 1970 to more than $460 per month in 2016 according to the Congressional Research Service. 

 

 

The majority of people enrolled in Medicare are protected by the hold-harmless provision but some are not.  One group that does not qualify for the provision are those seniors with higher-incomes, making more than $85,000 per person or $170,000 per couple.  More than three million of these higher-income beneficiaries could face a big hike in Medicare premium costs next year. 

Big Hike in Premiums

“For the three-quarters of people who are under hold-harmless, there is going to be very little increase possible in their Part B premiums so that often spells bad news for the folks who are not under hold-harmless because whatever sort of cost increase in the system has to be made up from that smaller group,”  Gulker says. 

The Medicare Trustees estimate premiums for those not protected by the hold-harmless provision could rise 22 percent from $121.80 per month this year to $149 per month next year.   The highest income group could see premiums rise from around $380 per month this year to $467 per month next year. 

In 2015, Congress stepped in and provided a $7.5 billion loan to the Medicare program which prevented a big spike in Medicare premiums for many higher-income seniors.  Gulker says there could be calls from seniors and advocacy groups to get Congress to step in once again to limit the premium increases. 

Congress to the Rescue

He points out, however, Congress can only do this so many years and a longer-term solution is eventually needed. 

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Evidence in St. Louis drug ring case should be tossed after alleged DEA misconduct, lawyers say

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lawyers-say-dea-misconduct-in-atlanta-should-void-drug-ring/article_afb1bc5d-724a-5e30-b29f-5f519300f8d6.html

ST. LOUIS • Efforts to nix key evidence against accused members of a violent St. Louis drug ring have revealed a Justice Department investigation of claims that a Georgia DEA official had sexual relationships with paid informers.

The target, a DEA supervisor in Atlanta, allegedly was involved with two confidential informers and paid one of them $212,000 in agency funds, according to court documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

Much of the court material is under seal. The woman who received the funds testified for hours Monday in the closed courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Shirley Padmore Mensah in St. Louis. Reporters were kept out, although Mensah promised to make a redacted transcript of the testimony available later.

Defense lawyers say in a pending motion that questionable information from the woman, known as “CS1” for “confidential source 1,” laid the foundation for the investigation of Dionne L. Gatling, Andre Alphonso Rush, Timothy Lamont Rush and Lorenzo Gibbs. The four were subsequently indicted, in 2014, on various federal drug-related charges.

The charges against Gatling and Andre Rush allege they were involved in two murders here.

Based on information provided to them by federal prosecutors, the lawyers said in the documents that the Atlanta-based supervisor’s subordinates admitted helping him justify payments to CS1 by falsely claiming her information was used to advance criminal investigations.

Defense attorneys’ documents say the supervisor had used CS1 to “launder” information agents obtained illegally, or their hunches, by claiming it came from her.

The money was paid starting in 2011, including two DEA bonuses, of $55,000 and $80,750. The woman said she had no idea why she received bonuses, according to court filings. DEA money was at one point used to pay roughly the amount of CS1’s monthly rent after she moved closer to the supervisor, defense lawyers indicated that prosecutors told them.

None of the DEA staffers, who also are based in Atlanta, has been criminally charged, but an internal investigation is underway, the filings say. The supervisor reportedly has denied all the accusations.

James Shroba, head of the St. Louis DEA office, said Monday the agency takes “these allegations extremely seriously” and vowed that they would be “thoroughly investigated.” He declined to comment on other aspects of the case or on the status of the Atlanta supervisor.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta did not respond to a reporter’s questions about the case.

Practices faulted before

The DEA’s use of informers was faulted in a report released last month by the Justice Department Office of Inspector General.

The report says that management and oversight of the confidential source program needed “significant improvement.” It complains that there is not adequate oversight of payments, “which exposes the DEA to an unacceptably increased potential for fraud, waste, and abuse, particularly given the frequency with which DEA offices utilize and pay confidential sources.”

It also says the DEA had over 18,000 active confidential sources between Oct. 1, 2010, and Sept. 30, 2015, who were paid a total of $237 million.

The agency also has been accused of failing to discipline agents accused of misconduct.

Federal prosecutors allege that Gatling led a drug trafficking organization linked to the “Black Mafia Family,” dealing cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine in the St. Louis area.

A superseding indictment filed in 2015 says that Gatling, then 47, and Rush, then 50, also were involved in two murders.

Prosecutors say Gatling orchestrated the shooting of Theodis Howard, 41, in St. Louis on April 5, 2010, because Howard cooperated in an investigation that led to a prison sentence of more than 17 years for Gatling’s brother, Deron Gatling.

Prosecutors also say the pair then killed Terrance Morgan, 41, in St. Louis on May 2, 2013, because they feared he would cooperate with authorities against them.

CS1 was the original source of information about drug dealing by Gatling and the others, according to DEA agents in Atlanta in 2012, court documents show. They called her a reliable confidential source who had been working with the DEA for at least two years.

She reportedly introduced Gatling to a source of drugs.

In 2012, DEA agents in St. Louis used that information to apply for a series of wiretaps on Gatling that led to his indictment and the others.

But defense lawyers say in court filings that CS1 actually knew Gatling from a prior business relationship and that at the time the DEA sought the wiretaps, she did not have the knowledge agents claimed about drug dealing.

Allegations of misconduct

In 2015, prosecutors disclosed to defense attorneys that an Atlanta supervisor was under investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, and that he and two others were under internal investigation by the DEA.

The supervisor allegedly had personal and sexual relationships with two confidential sources, made improper payments to CS1 and falsified DEA reports to justify the payments, the defense lawyers were told.

Others were under investigation for allegedly falsifying the reports, and reportedly said they did it at the supervisor’s direction, the documents say.

The defense argues that since the entire investigation began with DEA claims about what CS1 knew, and those claims are wholly or partially false, all evidence obtained as a result of the wiretaps should be tossed out.

With many documents under seal, it’s not clear how prosecutors have responded.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean Hoag obtained an order closing the courtroom for CS1’s testimony Monday, saying that she, and even her daughter, had been threatened. Prosecutors claim that Gatling had summoned others on social media to watch the testimony, possibly so they can identify her by sight. Gatling has already disclosed CS1’s name, prosecutors said.

The accused supervisor testified in another case that he has been an agent since 1999. His current employment status is unknown.

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These Doctors Want to Abolish the DEA

https://www.civilized.life/articles/doctors-abolish-dea/

Laws that prohibit drugs aren’t meant to keep the public safe, they are meant to silence opposition. And, when making decisions at the ballot box, voters must consider and compare how the candidates would spend taxpayer money. Candidates that support the war on drugs must be voted out and it is time voters push for the closure of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

The DEA has its roots in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), founded in 1930 under President Herbert Hoover. Noted racist and lead champion of cannabis prohibition, Harry Anslinger, was appointed to be the first commissioner. In 1968, the FBN became the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), the predecessor to the DEA and a massive governmental bureaucracy whose existence relies on drug prohibition.

President Nixon’s top aid, John Ehrlichman, even admitted the war was racist and wasteful, saying Nixon’s war on drugs was really an effort to have a weapon for Nixon to marginalize his two biggest political enemies: people of color and the antiwar left.

“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I am saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroine and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt these communities.

“We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meeting and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about drugs? Of course we did,” Erlichman said.

Wasteful expenditure of billions of dollars

This war strategy worked beyond Nixon’s wildest imagination and has led to the wasteful expenditure of hundreds of billions of tax dollars, the destruction of millions of lives, the rise of well-armed gangs, a significant role for the sale of illicit drugs to fund terrorism and the erosion of our Constitutional rights. There has been bipartisan support for the failed war on marginalized people and the massive amounts of government waste it generates. It’s time for voters to say enough is enough.

If the American public pushes their elected officials to rearrange their priorities, existing law enforcement could be employed to investigate terrorism instead. Do we really need the DEA? After all, over 90 percent of the drug war is related to cannabis, and it’s becoming legal state by state. Still, there are over 800,000 cannabis arrests per year, easily dwarfing the arrests for other drugs.

Treating marijuana use as a crime is ‘absurd’

Of course, the whole idea of treating the medical condition of substance abuse criminally, rather than medically, is absurd. The law enforcement approach is compounded by defining drug use as drug abuse.

If we took a harm reduction approach we could dramatically cut the $18-billion currently spent on prioritizing the enforcement of draconian drug laws. Also, if there was no longer an illicit drug market we would take money out of the pocket of terrorists. More importantly, we would have trained law enforcement personnel who could focus on tracking down would-be terrorists and combating terrorism.

Dr. Arnold Leff has come up with a timely idea that I support – abolish the DEA. Leff was President Nixon’s associate deputy director of the Special Action Office on Drug Abuse and has spent his career in public health.

The bulk of DEA agents are almost ideally suited to track down terrorists. We should move the vast majority of current DEA agents to the department of Homeland Security and put them to work where they can do some good: tracking down terrorists and preventing terrorist attacks.

Americans must ask themselves, what is their law enforcement priority?

Dr. David Bearman is a pioneer in medical cannabis, pain management and harm reduction. His work spans decades in California and beyond. His medical practice is located in Santa Barbara, California. 

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The Accepted Medical Use of Marijuana: States Need To Take Action Now To Protect Patient Rights

https://www.medicaljane.com/2016/10/17/the-accepted-medical-use-of-marijuana-states-need-to-take-action-now-to-protect-patient-rights/

After the recent rejection of the Rhode Island-Washington Marijuana Rescheduling Petition, it is easy to point fingers at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and proclaim how corrupt and inept they must be to uphold the position that marijuana still has no medical use. ^[1][2][3] However, once we see that the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) both believe that the only way a drug substance can have medical use is for it to pass through the FDA’s own drug approval process, it’s easy to understand how the DEA is incapable of acknowledging a type of accepted medical use that it has no authority over.

The key to making sense of the DEA’s position regarding the medical use of marijuana is realizing that there are at least three types of accepted medical use.

The first, and most well known form of accepted medical use, results from successful completion of the FDA’s randomized placebo-controlled phase I-III clinical trials new drug approval process, which allows for an approved drug product to be marketed for interstate commercial distribution and carried by pharmacies as a prescription medication.

“[…] in Gonzales v. Oregon (2006), the Supreme Court confirmed the state’s right to accept the medical use of controlled substances by finding that the DEA does not have the authority to deny a standard of medical care that is accepted under state law.”

The second, and less obvious form of accepted medical use – known as “grandfathered” medical use – pertains to drugs that have been in widespread medical use prior to the adoption of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938. ^[4] Aspirin is the most prominent example of grandfathered medical use, as the over-the-counter formulation of this medication has never received FDA approval. ^[5]

The third, and least recognized form of accepted medical use, state-accepted medical use, exists because of the sovereign rights of individuals and our resulting form of government known as federalism, in which certain rights are retained by the states and others transferred by Congress to the federal government. The relevant example here is the authority of the state to accept the medical use of controlled substances, which falls under the state’s authority to regulate the profession of medicine within its own borders.

This authority has never been transferred to the federal government and is why more than half the states in the Union have been able to accept the medical use of marijuana and establish their own state-regulated Medical Use of Marijuana Programs, without legal challenge from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In fact, in Gonzales v. Oregon (2006), the Supreme Court confirmed the state’s right to accept the medical use of controlled substances by finding that the DEA does not have the authority to deny a standard of medical care that is accepted under state law. ^[6]

This is especially significant when such state-accepted medical use involves a Schedule I controlled substance, as in the case of cannabis, since such accepted medical use has a direct impact upon federal scheduling, a consequence that Congress was well aware of when it created the federal Controlled Substances Act in 1970 and provided a mechanism for states to affect changes in federal scheduling by means of the term “currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” ^[7]

The Rhode Island-Washington Marijuana Rescheduling Petition failed because the governors of those states relinquished their state’s authority to accept the medical use of marijuana. By requesting a specific schedule change based on a scientific argument, they merely gave the DEA another chance to break out the 5-part test of “medical use” (that it solely created in 1994 after two prior attempts at defining such use, and before any state had accepted the medical use of marijuana). ^{[8][9][10][11]}

Think of it this way, a landlord asks a tenant who is in default if he is going to honor the agreement they entered into wherein tenant agreed to pay a set rent each month. Such an approach would most likely be fruitless. The landlord would be better served by giving the tenant notice that rent is due, and then pursuing court action if tenant continues to ignore the agreement. Similarly, those states that have accepted the medical use of marijuana should give the DEA notice that marijuana has accepted medical use and needs to be removed from federal Schedule I.

We need to approach this as a matter of law, not science. Given the DEA’s continued inaction regarding the medical use of marijuana, one solution for the current situation is for those states that have accepted the medical use of this substance to first make sure that marijuana is properly placed in a state schedule that recognizes its state-accepted medical use; and then give notice to the DEA that marijuana has accepted medical use and that its placement in federal Schedule I no longer applies. Such action by the states would demonstrate that they are doing their part to protect their state’s accepted medical use of marijuana, so that ultimately patients can be properly served and no longer placed in jeopardy by the violation of federal law.

To make this happen everyone needs to get involved — contact your state legislators and executive officials to take action.

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North Carolina GOP Office Damaged by Firebomb

http://www.wsj.com/articles/north-carolina-police-say-gop-office-damaged-by-fire-graffiti-1476649527

The Republican headquarters in Orange County, N.C., was firebombed and sprayed with graffiti overnight, local officials in the town of Hillsborough said Sunday.

Flammable material contained in a bottle was thrown through the front window of the GOP headquarters, according to a release from town officials. The graffiti, which was spray painted in black on an adjacent building, included a swastika and the words “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.”

Furniture inside the office was burned by the fire, which also damaged the structure’s interior before going out on its own, town officials said.

Local police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were investigating the incident.

“This highly disturbing act goes far beyond vandalizing property; it willfully threatens our community’s safety via fire, and its hateful message undermines decency, respect and integrity in civic participation,” Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said in a statement.

State Republicans decried the incident, saying they would be calling for additional security at Republican Party offices and events between now and Election Day.

“Whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Independent, all Americans should be outraged by this hate-filled and violent attack against our democracy,” said Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party in a statement.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and state Democratic officials also condemned the attack.

“The attack on the Orange County HQ @NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable,” Mrs. Clinton tweeted. “Very grateful that everyone is safe.”

“We hope the perpetrators of this attack are brought to swift justice, and we are thankful that no one was hurt,” said North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Patsy Keever in statement.

Write to Dan Frosch at dan.frosch@wsj.com

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Another disclosure by WikLeaks revealed that Hillary Clinton’s opinion on legalizing Cannabis. It was revealed that she is firmly against it.

mirrorspectrum.com/info/wikileaks-clinton-told-wall-st-she-is-100-against-legalizing-cannabis#

Imagine this… another ATTORNEY that supports the position of the DEA… along with the 43% of Congress that are attorneys… as is Obama and AG Loretta Lynch.  In the last Presidential election there was 126 million votes cast and FIVE MILLION separated the winner from the loser and there was 106 million eligible voters – THAT DID NOT VOTE..  One can presume that Clinton will also support the rescheduling of Kratom to C-I and we know that she endorses the proposed prescription opiate tax by Senator Manchin of WV… to help fund the treatment of those suffering from addictive personality disorder. Of course, a lot of those people… do not want treatment… do not want to be sober.  Just like the 45 million Nicotine addicts and 35 million alcoholics.  Remember even though the number of legal opiate prescriptions PEAKED in 2012… the bureaucracy is still trying to connect the legal prescribing of opiates with the increasing number of OD’s from illegal drugs being imported from south of our border and China.  They refuse to acknowledge the facts… because it does not support THEIR LARGER AGENDA.  Just like they prohibit research on MJ, Kratom, long term opiate use… so any anecdotal information does not meet their criteria of double blind clinical studies and those clinical studies cannot be done… so benefit to the pts doesn’t exist.  The LACK of a positive is PROOF of a negative ??

WikiLeaks has been the most important thing that has happened to an election in a long time. We’ve been able to catch glimpses of the real nature of politicians and bureaucrats like never before, and see the state of democracy for what it is: a once mighty oak ravaged by white ants.

In Hillary Clinton, we see a figure beholden to Wall St., working diligently to advance the influence of financial corporations over government policy and taxpayer money. Her mega-donor list is a who’s who of megabanks that also happened to benefit from the TARP government bailout.

And in telling the Goldman Sachs banksters to chill out, cannabis won’t be legalized, she was providing music to the ears of the financial fat cats. Big Pharma, so desperate to suppress the truth about the medicinal value of cannabis in order to protect their profits, is a major part of Wall St.

In return for their money, Clinton gave speeches to Wall St. giants behind closed doors between 2013 and 2015. She told Goldman Sachs she was “far removed” from ordinary people and that “you need both a public and a private position.”

Clinton has vacillated terribly on the issue of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is a gift to her donors but very unpopular to Americans who see it for the fleecing it is. She was for TPP before she was against it – a familiar descriptive.

As Bernie Sanders pointed out during the primary – where he was efficiently neutralized by the establishment – the only thing we know about Clinton is that she will be on the side of Wall St.
If Clinton supporters believe she will do anything about government’s war on cannabis, they should think again.

The good people at Marijuana.com have been studying the leaked emails, and during one of those Wall St. speeches, Clinton expressed a clear opposition to cannabis legalization.

“During an on-stage Q & A session with Xerox’s chairman and CEO in March 2014, Clinton used Wall Street terminology to express her opposition to ending cannabis prohibition “in all senses of the word”:

URSULA BURNS: So long means thumbs up, short means thumbs down; or long means I support, short means I don’t. I’m going to start with — I’m going to give you about ten long-shorts.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Even if you could make money on a short, you can’t answer short.

URSULA BURNS: You can answer short, but you got to be careful about letting anybody else know that. They will bet against you. So legalization of pot?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Short in all senses of the word.”

The exchange with Burns is part of an 80-page document containing the emails of John Podesta, her campaign manager. Campaign staffers have been working diligently to try and scrub embarrassing parts of the speeches, and this was one of them.

As Tom Angell points out:

“That the campaign flagged the candidate’s opposition to legalization as a potential problem demonstrates a growing understanding by political operatives that marijuana law reform is now a mainstream issue, one which is supported by a majority of Americans and a supermajority of Democratic primary voters.”

As with so many other issues, it’s hard to tell from Clinton’s public statements exactly where she stands – unlike Sanders, who openly supports legalization and even introduced a bill to end federal prohibition.

Since that exchange with Burns in 2014, Clinton has acknowledged the medical value of cannabis and indicated she would let states do their own thing, and even said cannabis should be rescheduled under the Controlled Substances Act.

However, she adopts a ‘cover your ass’ approach by saying “I don’t think we’ve done enough research yet” and “I want to wait and see” what happens in states with recreational legalization.

This is not in line with the truth becoming exponentially obvious – that denying medical cannabis to suffering patients is a criminal act, and prohibiting a plant that people have used for thousands of years is oppression.

Clinton had no problem making it clear to a Wall St. corporation that she is against legalization, but why?

Perhaps because the pharmaceutical industry is a major part of Wall St., and they are desperately fighting ballot initiatives to legalize cannabis in several states, as it represents a direct threat to their profits.

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