Casualty of the war on drugs ?

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

 

This post showed up on another FB page from a Father that had lost his daughter to the war on drugs …

Please people ! Can not you get it ? They want us all to do as my Stepdaughter did , and that was for us to commit suicide ! It has absolutely nothing to do with curbing opiate addiction! It’s tough to imagine but it is so very true as they used my Stepdaughter as a experiment of how far they could push a person living in horrible Chronic Pain and 4 years ago they got their wish when she committed suicide ! We all need to either wire to the President our Congress people and Senate and at least let them know we are fully aware of this inhumane treatment of people suffering from Chronic Pain when it has been proven to give us some type of a normal existence! It looks as if it doesn’t matter what we do but we must at least let them that are the powers that be know we are aware of what these Nazi Bastards are getting done! Don’t you know that Heroin Dealers are thrilled with this Nazi Ultimatum against us that are sick? This next is a response to a fellow Chronic Pain Sufferer that I wrote my story for , this is how serious it is. You are not alone and I know this doesn’t help for me to say that but its all I can say and do. I had one so called pain Dr. or pain mgt. clinic drop me because I threatened to go to Washington and stand before congress and explain to them how inhumane we are treated right after my Daughter took her own life because of being treated like some frigging junkie, she suffered from Fibro and Lupus and stayed in her bed 2 weeks out of the month. After being treated so bad she was 20 minutes late for an appointment and they made her reschedule and had her wait another almost 20 days before she could see the asshole again after that and having to jump through so many Pain Clinic ( Hoops ) she just said screw it I’m not going to live like a wounded animal , at least a wounded animal will be euthanized and shortly after that she hung herself. Please all of you do not go that route , it will paralyze the ones that love you even though I understand and loved her so much I to was so tired of watching her in so much pain, I have had 20 surgery’s in the past 9 years and I have to put up with pain clinics and it’s very tough and especially if our pain is undiagnosable , I did not mean to write a book but thought it may help you to know you are not alone and we understand and though we all have never met I do love you all and we must stand together , we must write our so called people in Washington ,etc, and voice how we feel and muster support and understanding among the powers that be and if we don’t I’m afraid they all will have their way and see us all committing suicide . A picture attached again of my beautiful Daughter. In Sissy’s loving memory.

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Could this be a chronic painer’s “Life Song “?

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

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Another “bad apple” transferred to the DEA duties ?

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Montana officer reprimanded for unauthorized use of information

http://helenair.com/news/crime-and-courts/article_3f1f239d-26b2-54e0-8a2a-8f33cf60ad76.html

BILLINGS — Cleared in two fatal shootings and investigated for illegally keeping animals including pot-bellied pigs and a fawn on his property, Billings Police officer Grant Morrison has now received a letter of reprimand for obtaining criminal justice information for his own use.

Billings Police Chief Rich St. John said Wednesday that in late September Morrison called for information kept by the Criminal Justice Information Network and the National Crime Information Center when Morrison became concerned about a car driving periodically by his Laurel house.

“There had been a lot of rhetoric against him” including on social media following the shootings, St. John said.

Morrison requested driver’s license information, registration information and a photograph of the woman seen driving near Morrison’s house, St. John said.

Morrison shot and killed 38-year-old Richard Ramirez in April 2014 and 32-year-old Jason James Shaw in February 2013. He was cleared in coroner’s inquests after both incidents.

He’s since been assigned to a Drug Enforcement Agency prescription drug task force and as such does not respond to calls for service, St. John said.

The chief said he was satisfied by Morrison’s job performance in his new assignment.

On the day in question in late September, Morrison, according to St. John, was requesting the information from the CJIN and the NCIC and, in a subsequent call for the license plate check, from an officer assigned to light duty. “We get those requests all the time. They run the information, and they give it to (the officer),” St. John said.

The problem with Morrison’s request, St. John said, is that officers can seek information from crime databases only when pursuing a case — not for their personal use.

St. John said Morrison, a Laurel resident, should have checked with the Laurel Police Department if he feared for his safety or that of his family.

The CJIN/NCIC technician on duty when Morrison’s request came in took the information to Sgt. Neil Lawrence. After that, police administrators determined there’d been a violation of the rules and that Morrison had obtained the information inappropriately, St. John said.

The corrective action chosen was the letter of reprimand, which will remain in Morrison’s file for two years, St. John said.

  St. John said police administrators will discuss with Department of Justice officials on Thursday whether the incident will result in a letter of reprimand against the department. He said he doesn’t believe that will be the case.

The Billings Police Department employs a progressive discipline system by which similar violations can ramp up punishment for officers. Punishment that does not result in a suspension is generally handled by sergeants, the department’s frontline supervisors, St. John said, and then reviewed by officials higher up in the department.

Any punishment that involves an unpaid suspension requires signoff by the chief himself. At that point, St. John said, officers in certain circumstances have two choices — serve the suspension at home without pay, or serve the suspension with pay, but with additional requirements designed to teach and clarify preferred practices.

Those requirements can include additional training through such tools as the FBI’s virtual academy and having the suspended officer write a paper on proper procedures. St. John said he’s been known to require that those officers also write reports on such books as Steven R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Suspended officers have several weeks to write the reports and are paid for their efforts, he said.

A decision on whether to allow the officer to participate in a paid suspension with the additional written requirements depends on how salvageable the officer’s career is deemed to be, St. John said.

Education-based discipline “has proven to be an excellent tool,” St. John said. In the 10 years he’s been chief of police, not one officer has opted for suspension without pay, he said.

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Could Obamacare be in need of “life support “

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Obama-Scare: Biggest US health insurer might leave exchanges

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/19/obama-scare-biggest-us-health-insurer-might-leave-exchanges.html?intcmp=hpbt2

The nation’s largest health insurer fired a shot across the bow of ObamaCare on Thursday, citing flagging enrollment and high-risk customers in suggesting it may have to pull out of the exchanges in 2017.

UnitedHealth Group raised the alarm in an earnings update Thursday morning, with CEO Stephen J. Hemsley warning of dimming conditions in the market.

He pointed to lower enrollment forecasts and a concern that the exchanges are increasingly taking on less healthy – and therefore more costly – customers.

“In recent weeks, growth expectations for individual exchange participation have tempered industrywide, co-operatives have failed, and market data has signaled higher risks and more difficulties while our own claims experience has deteriorated,” he said in a statement.

As the company cut its earnings outlook, it also announced it was pulling back on marketing for the ObamaCare exchanges in 2016 and said it would make a decision on the exchanges in the middle of next year.

The company said: “The Company is evaluating the viability of the insurance exchange product segment and will determine during the first half of 2016 to what extent it can continue to serve the public exchange markets in 2017.”

Even the suggestion of exiting the exchanges is significant.

According to Bloomberg, UnitedHealth still covers just 550,000 people on the exchanges. But the actions of one mega-insurer could have a ripple effect in an increasingly consolidated insurance industry.

Aetna announced a merger earlier this year with Humana, while Anthem announced a deal with CIGNA. Before the Aetna deal, the Wall Street Journal reported that UnitedHealth also had approached Aetna about a takeover.

2017 is an important year because that’s when government programs that effectively compensate insurers for taking on more costly customers will end. The key factor may be how the current enrollment period goes.

The Obama administration earlier this year announced they expect 10 million people to be covered through the exchanges by the end of 2016, lower than original Congressional Budget Office estimates. Insurance companies still continue to make money through employer-sponsored care as well.

An official with the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that the marketplace will stabilize.

“The Health Insurance Marketplace is entering its third year and continues to grow, giving millions of Americans access to quality affordable insurance,” an HHS spokesman said in a statement. “As we’ve seen during the first two weeks of Open Enrollment, every day, tens of thousands more Americans turn to the Health Insurance Marketplace for health coverage and even more return to the Marketplace for another year.”

Obama-Scare: Biggest US health insurer might leave exchanges​

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United we stand, divided we fail

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

stevemailbox

There is a old saying… “united we stand, divided we fail”..  Has anyone, other than me, notice that daily or multiple times a day I see a NEW GROUP on Facebook or a website whose focus is some disease state and/or pain as part of a disease state. The email below suggests how successful this system of “many small groups” talking among themselves will be. Here is a list of all the press releases for the last FIVE YEARS by the DEA HQ and 21 district offices  http://www.dea.gov/pr/news.shtml , plus there are untold numbers from the CDC and at least one “drug abuse” office within the White House.. You add groups like PROPaganda, STOPP and others, because they are singing from the same hymnal as the DEA… that get media attention.. that seem to be more than happy to regurgitate all of these press releases.. so a couple of dozens entities can basically flood the news media with the same message.  I have seen dozens of petitions on line and few reach a thousand signatures..  I have seen some attempts to raise funds to fund a defensive fund.. which have failed.. There are numerous groups that have formed non-profits or are in the process of forming non-profits.  I am sure that there are Foundations out there where grants and other resources are potentially available for these non-profits.  But unless there can be a well funded dedicated on going long PR event and a coordinated effort by all those groups. The outcomes will not be what is hoped for.

I’LL TELL YOU!

I am a former publicist and I have something to say:

We keep saying we need to be heard, and we’re doing our best with publishing articles and relying on comment sections, social media, websites, etc. And it’s all done in good faith and conviction and with the best of intent, and with passion, with a lot of volunteered time.

BUT.

We need a big, professional, powerful publicity campaign. Period. Please read on. (That was an alliteration beyond words!)

I can do it, with your help, but monies would have to be paid to an accredited PR distribution service. I know where to go for that too. In fact, I’ve already asked one if they do any charity work, but they have to pay their distribution services, like AP, etc, so the answer was no. And yes, there are a couple of ways we can help a PR plan along inexpensively, in addition to the PR service, but that’s for “The Plan,” which would be the next step.

This is how news gets out. It’s not magic. It’s a strategic part of a planned marketing campaign. (The PR department in a company is a vital part of the success of the company.)

For our cause, we must tell the nation, through the media, that “we’ve got news for you.” 

All of our comments sections and articles are not reaching enough of the right people. They are only reaching us and maybe a small number of small news entities. We have to think big. 

If you’re going to make a voice, for example, for a new drug, you have your PR department and your PR firm, and BOOM, the news gets out.

WE HAVE TO THINK AS BIG AS A BIG CORPORATION. 

THE LITTLE GUY WHO INVENTS THE GREATEST PRODUCT IN THE WORLD NEVER GETS RICH BECAUSE NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT HIM. He didn’t have a PR department.

The best-designed website doesn’t have any success if it isn’t marketed (another type of marketing altogether). 

The product “Kleenex” didn’t get its name because in 1919 there was a rally and people were throwing tissues out of airplanes.

And quite possibly the greatest potential President of the United States is sitting somewhere at home right this minute because s/he doesn’t have the money to even begin to campaign. It’s all about marketing.

In addition to a strategic public relations campaign, a million of us should go to Washington in protest to get heard.

That is the size of our problem, and the only way we are going to get picked up by news entities like 60 Minutes is if we do this.

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Does this suggest that “education” is not necessarily the answer to mental health/addiction ?

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Ex-pharmacist tells story of addiction

http://thecourier.com/local-news/2015/11/19/ex-pharmacist-tells-story-of-addiction/

Here is an example of what/who should be a “most knowledgeable” person about the POTENTIAL  addictive properties of certain medications and yet the “feeling” that taking those medications provided was mentally/physically overwhelming TO HIM.  He was apparently very “thinned skinned” because “he couldn’t make everybody happy”… and when caught the second time.. instead of addressing his mental health issues it was to make him a criminal.. which caused him to attempt suicide… ANOTHER CRIME… We can try education, but some mental health issue will not respond to “education” and it won’t respond to “treatment” until the person is ready to accept treatment. Perhaps the only education we need is toward those who insist that substance abuse is a crime, but I suspect that their resistance to be educated is not that much different than the education that we are trying to impart on those that suffer from the mental health disease of addictive personalities

Pharmacists have access to a “candy store” of prescription medication and nearly one out of six people in the field will struggle with chemical dependency during their career, statistics show.

One of them was Chris Hart, a former pharmacist, who began taking non-prescribed painkillers while on the job.

Hart shared his story with University of Findlay pharmacy students and community members during a chemical dependency seminar on Wednesday.

“This disease can happen to anybody, I’m just an ordinary guy that it happened to,” Hart said.

Hart described himself as a “people pleaser” and “perfectionist” from a normal family. He focused on academics, graduating second in his high school class and then attended pharmacy school at Ohio Northern University.

“I’m pouring my heart and soul into pharmacy, because that’s what we were taught,” Hart said. “…Along the way, they really didn’t tell you how to take care of yourself.”

Ten years into his career, Hart said he was getting burned out because “he couldn’t make everybody happy,” and that “not everybody liked him.” He said he struggled to go to work every day.

One evening, Hart was putting away medications when he said he came across Percodan, an opioid pain medication. Hart was suffering from a headache and decided to take two pills.

“It was that simple. I didn’t think of it being addictive. I didn’t think of it being a strong narcotic. I didn’t think about breaking the law,” he said.

After taking the medication, Hart said he had the “most fantastic feeling,” and that he became “super pharmacist,” cleaning the store and helping customers.

A month later, without a headache, Hart turned to the same opioid because he remembered the euphoria it brought.

Hart experimented with other prescriptions in stock and often moved to different jobs. He eventually became addicted to sleeping pills.

The former pharmacist said at one point, he nearly died from significant gastrointestinal bleeding, which he said was caused by the prescription drug abuse. Before his wife drove him to the hospital, he made sure he had enough sleeping pills to last him through his hospital stay, sticking them into his sock.

“Nobody thought it was drugs. They all thought I was working too hard,” Hart said. “I’m a good person. No one every suspected I was stealing drugs and using them.”

That didn’t happen until November 1993, when an inspector for the state pharmacy board came into the pharmacy where he worked and inquired about missing pills. Hart confessed to stealing medication.

“I went from a practicing pharmacist in the morning to a busted drug addict in treatment that night,” Hart said.

After more than seven years of sobriety and getting his pharmacy license back, Hart relapsed. He was again caught for stealing pills, and his employer wanted charges pressed.

Hart convinced his boss to allow him to tell his wife in person, rather than calling her from jail.

Instead, he drove over an hour away to a hotel, where he took 90 sleeping pills, a near lethal dose, and cut his wrists in an attempt to kill himself. A maid found Hart in his room the next morning and he was rushed to the hospital.

According to a recent University of Findlay survey of nearly 170 pharmacists, about 38 percent have attempted suicide after being caught with drugs.

Hart spent 60 days in jail for convictions on three counts of theft of medication, all fourth-degree felonies. His license to practice was revoked again.

He has been sober since Jan. 20, 2004 and he is taking recovery one day at a time.

“I have to be aware of it every day. I can’t forget it, but it’s not a battle,” Hart said.

Today, he teaches an elective course, “Chemical Dependency and the Pharmacist,” to students at five universities, including the University of Findlay.

Hart said it’s important for pharmacy students to “take care of yourself along the way.”

“It’s a very stressful position and it’s getting worse,” he said.

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Menominee tribe files lawsuit over hemp raid

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Federal agents raid a hemp grow on the Menominee Indian Reservation, Oct. 23, 2015.

Menominee tribe files lawsuit over hemp raid

http://fox11online.com/news/local/northwoods/menominee-tribe-files-lawsuit-over-hemp-raid

KESHENA — Less than a month after its land was raided, the Menominee Indian Tribe has filed a lawsuit against the DEA and Department of Justice.The tribe wants to clarify whether it’s legal for it to grow industrial hemp on its reservation, which the tribe considers to be equal to a state.“We still stand firm on that belief that, yes, we fit the guidelines,” said Gary Besaw, the Menominee Indian Tribal Chairman.

The guidelines Besaw is talking about are those in the 2014 Farm Bill. Besaw says the bill allows his tribe to team with the College of Menominee Nation to grow and research industrial hemp.

“It fits within our ethics and our values,” said Besaw.

The DEA has said the tribe wasn’t growing industrial hemp. After the October raid, the DEA reported it confiscated 30,000 high-grade marijuana plants.

The difference between marijuana and industrial hemp is THC level. Industrial hemp has a lower THC level, preventing anyone from getting a high from it. It’s used in things like clothes and building materials.

“We would like to see how good of an impact we can have on our economy here,” said Besaw.

The tribe’s lawsuit would only clarify whether it is legal for it to grow hemp.

In an e-mail, a DEA spokesperson told Fox 11, as a matter of policy, the DEA does not comment on active litigation.

While the lawsuit says the court can address any appropriate relief, the tribe does not specifically ask for financial compensation for the raid.

“Depending on the determination, and we think it will be positive, then we’ll judge that, we’ll weigh it from there,” said Besaw.

The tribe hopes to have a decision by spring, in hopes of possibly starting another hemp crop.

The federal agencies involved in the raid have not commented. At the time, Drug Enforcement Administration officials would say only that the investigation is ongoing.

 

 

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The next epidemic of economic theft and hacking ?

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Do No Harm: Protecting Patient Data

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PracticeManagement/InformationTechnology/54745?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2015-11-18&eun=g578717d0r

“If I can steal your medical identity and get medical coverage as you, I can go have surgeries and your insurance gets billed, and I walk away scot-free,” Bulu said.

NATIONAL HARBOR — Information technology experts underscored the importance of keeping patient health information secure and outlined strategies for doing so at a cybersecurity conference here.

Dale Jessop, chief technology officer for Exco In Touch, recounted recent high-profile cyberattacks on large companies including retailers Target and Home Depot, financial giant JP Morgan Chase, and health insurer Anthem.

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Most breaches are preventable, he said: “Often they come down to one person doing something they shouldn’t have done.” This includes clicking links or opening attachments from unknown senders.

Anthem stressed after it was attacked that no credit card numbers had been stolen in the breach. The statement may have provided comfort to some consumers but not Jessop.

Healthcare data typically include a person’s name, address, gender and, often, a Social Security number. “That’s enough for people to create a new line of credit,” he said.

Tim Bulu, director of information security for health information systems at the University of San Francisco, told MedPage Today that even basic demographic information, such as gender and address, is valuable when combined with medical information.

“If I can steal your medical identity and get medical coverage as you, I can go have surgeries and your insurance gets billed, and I walk away scot-free,” Bulu said.

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Jessop stressed the importance of educating companies about the strategies hackers use. The range from “phishing” scams — emails that deceive recipients into divulging passwords or other sensitive information — to simple “tail-gating” in which the hacker physically enters a private space on the heels of a delivery person or other employee.

“It’s very easy to move around a hospital if you look like you should be there,” he said.

A second presenter at the lecture, Bill Braithwaite, MD, PhD, chair of the identity management task force for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a multi-stakeholder industry group, described potential new requirements that aim to balance patient rights while also keeping patient health information secure.

Braithwaite, known as a key author of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, said that new guidance for identity management in patient portals is currently being developed.

Some potential elements include:

  • Requiring that all systems offering electronic access by patients to their own protected health information (PHI) are able to use identity proofing and authentication at a high level of confidence (standards “equal to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Level Of Assurance 3”)
  • Requiring that all patients must be informed of the risk to their own privacy of viewing, downloading or sending protected health information “including any differences based on any security choices they may have”
  • With “rare and well-defined exceptions” all patients must meet a “high confidence identity proofing standard” before gaining access to protected health information
 
 

Braithwaite also spoke about specific challenges to identity management such as patients who choose to be anonymous and those who request proxies.

The proxy issue is difficult because some individuals may wish some but not all of their health data to be managed by another person — e.g., a senior wanting to delegate management of certain health issues to an adult child.

Another difficulty is determining at what age a patient is capable of managing his or her own healthcare decisions and data, without parental control. For patients anywhere from 13 to 19, deciding this question in legal terms is nearly impossible, Braithwaite said.

“In some states the law is so inconsistent that you cannot make a decision that’s legal,” he said.

A subgroup of Braithwaite’s task force is developing guidance for how to manage these concerns.

Another task force subgroup is focusing on anonymity issues. The group determined a core principle of securing the privilege of anonymity or pseudonymity is counter-intuitive: Patients must first be “known to a practice” — in other words, they must have already proved their identity in some fashion.

The team established the following conclusions based on their discussions:

  • Patients have a right to anonymity
  • Each patient must have a unique identifier so that his or her records cannot be confused with anyone else’s
  • Authentication for anonymous patients does not require a different mechanism than for openly identifiable patients

Currently, an anonymous or pseudonymous identity cannot be used across institutions while a fully-proofed identity can, Braithwaite said. Emerging technologies can help remedy this problem in the future by allowing all patients to more easily understand the conditions in which disclosures of personal information occur.

It boils down to creating trust in the system, he said.

“If patients trust the system that we implement that their information is not going to be used against them or released without their permission, being anonymous won’t be such a big deal anymore. It won’t be such an important right to be taken advantage of.”

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Legal Complaint Filed Against CDC Opioid Guidelines

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

walter

Legal Complaint Filed Against CDC Opioid Guidelines

https://edsinfo.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/legal-complaint-filed-against-cdc-opioid-guidelines/

Comments/complaints filed by the Washington Legal Foundation regarding the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines:

On November 17, 2015, WLF filed formal comments with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), calling on CDC to withdraw its Draft Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain and, before renewing efforts to write guidelines, to generate reliable data on ways to ensure adequate treatment of patients while preventing opioid abuse. 

WLF argued that CDC has been conducting its administrative proceeding with unwarranted secrecy and in clear violation of the transparency requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). 

The CDC Draft Guideline—which CDC has never publicly released but which was leaked in late September—calls on doctors to cut back significantly on prescriptions of opioids to treat patients with chronic pain, as a means of reducing the possibility of drug addiction and abuse. Many advocates for patients suffering from chronic pain have decried CDC’s proposal; they fear that it would deprive patients of adequate treatment.

Download the WLF Comments – definitely a worthwhile and extremely satisfying read:

http://www.wlf.org/upload/litigation/misc/CDCComments-Opioids.pdf

Washington Legal Foundation serves as a counterweight to the voices of economic activists and the plaintiffs’ bar that are heard whenever anti-free enterprise issues arise in the courts and regulatory agencies. Our legal team shapes legal policy through aggressive litigation and advocacy at all levels of the judiciary.

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Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) calls for DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg to be replaced.

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Blumenauer Speaks Out On DEA Chief

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) calls for DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg to be replaced.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4560946/blumenauer-speaks-dea-chief

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said Wednesday that acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief Chuck Rosenberg should be replaced after calling the notion of smoking marijuana for medical purposes a “joke.” 

“Rosenberg is clearly not the right fit for the DEA in this administration,” Blumenauer said during a speech on the House floor Wednesday morning.

The acting agency chief made the comments to reporters earlier this month.

“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal — because it’s not,” Rosenberg said. “We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don’t call it medicine — that is a joke.”

Blumenauer hit back at this notion during his floor speech. 

“What is a joke is the job Rosenberg is doing as acting DEA administrator,” he said. “He’s an example of the inept, misinformed zealot who has mismanaged America’s failed policy of marijuana prohibition.” 

He continued: “Rosenberg’s claim that more research is necessary is true, but it reeks of hypocrisy because the DEA under his leadership has made badly needed cannabis research difficult, often impossible.” 

The DEA considers marijuana a Schedule I substance, the most dangerous of five drug categories outlined in the Controlled Substances Act. According to the federal classification, these substances have “no currently accepted medical use,” creating a barrier to federal funding for research into cannabis’s medical properties.

Ecstasy, LSD and heroin are also Schedule I substances. 

Blumenauer also criticized Department of Justice officials for cracking down on state medical marijuana laws, pointing to a recent court ruling in California that declared such intervention illegal.

“Sadly, these actions by administrating officials are indicative of a throwback ideology rooted in the failed war on drugs, which needs to stop,” Blumenauer said. 

<span class='image-component__caption' itemprop="caption">Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) thinks acting DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg should be replaced.</span> ASSOCIATED PRESS Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) thinks acting DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg should be replaced.

Blumenauer’s remarks come as a Change.org petition calling on President Barack Obama to fire Rosenberg has gathered over 90,000 signatures.  

“It’s great to see members of Congress calling for much-needed change at [the] DEA. Rosenberg’s comments are not only offensive to millions of seriously ill people who rely on medical marijuana, they are out of step with where the vast majority of the American public is on this issue,” said Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, the group that started the petition. “Unless President Obama does something about this, it’s going to be an increasingly distracting political problem for his administration.”

The DEA, meanwhile, has stood by Rosenberg’s remarks.

“To clarify, Acting Administrator Rosenberg indicated that marijuana should be subject to the same levels of approval and scrutiny as any other substance intended for use as a medicine. DEA supports efforts to research potential medical uses of marijuana,” the agency said in a statement last week.

Rosenberg is a former FBI official who took over the agency in May. He replaced Michele Leonhart, who in 2012 would not say whether she believed heroin and crack were more dangerous than marijuana. (Rosenberg himself said in August that heroin is “clearly more dangerous” than cannabis.) 

Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Contrary to Rosenberg’s claims, some studies have shown that smoking cannabis is a safe and effective treatment for a variety of medical conditions.

 

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