Maybe they should call this a TIAF program (Turn in a friend)

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1164216  (Video)

 

Anonymous tips about drug activity can be sent through text messaging

 

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in the Valley is using text messages to make reporting possible drug trafficking easier.

DEA Assistant Special Agent Steve Jenkins in McAllen said it’s a step to help the community feel safe.

“We’re trying to get the message out to the community that hey this is available and it’s a way for them to help keep the streets safe,” Jenkins said.

“TIP 411” is an anonymous program that allows you to text a tip when you see possible drug activity.

Just grab your cell phone, type TIP 411, then go to the message box and type RGV with a description or picture of the crime.

“That’ll get passed to the DEA office here and we’ll take act appropriately,” Jenkins said.

The tipster’s phone number will not be seen by the DEA agent.

Jenkins said the new system allows them to keep an ongoing anonymous conversation with the tipsters, rather than a phone call with no way of getting more information once you hang up.

“It’s a way if the person is not comfortable with providing us the information, “Jenkins said. “They can give it to us that way.”

Jenkins said he hopes the younger community will use the program.

“This is out there for them,” he said. “We’re here to keep the streets safe.”

Jenkins said other cities using the program like El Paso, New Orleans and Albuquerque have seen success in fighting drug activity.

Make sure when you are using the TIP 411 program, you must be connected with a cell phone provider.

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We are the FDA and are here to protect ???

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Prescription medicine

 

Are Your Medications Safe?

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/02/fda_inspections_fraud_fabrication_and_scientific_misconduct_are_hidden_from.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top

Agents of the Food and Drug Administration know better than anyone else just how bad scientific misbehavior can get. Reading the FDA’s inspection files feels almost like watching a highlights reel from a Scientists Gone Wild video. It’s a seemingly endless stream of lurid vignettes—each of which catches a medical researcher in an unguarded moment, succumbing to the temptation to do things he knows he really shouldn’t be doing. Faked X-ray reports. Forged retinal scans. Phony lab tests. Secretly amputated limbs. All done in the name of science when researchers thought that nobody was watching.

That misconduct happens isn’t shocking. What is: When the FDA finds scientific fraud or misconduct, the agency doesn’t notify the public, the medical establishment, or even the scientific community that the results of a medical experiment are not to be trusted. On the contrary. For more than a decade, the FDA has shown a pattern of burying the details of misconduct. As a result, nobody ever finds out which data is bogus, which experiments are tainted, and which drugs might be on the market under false pretenses. The FDA has repeatedly hidden evidence of scientific fraud not just from the public, but also from its most trusted scientific advisers, even as they were deciding whether or not a new drug should be allowed on the market. Even a congressional panel investigating a case of fraud regarding a dangerous drug couldn’t get forthright answers. For an agency devoted to protecting the public from bogus medical science, the FDA seems to be spending an awful lot of effort protecting the perpetrators of bogus science from the public.

 

 

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Utah needs a state law to protect the 4th amendment & HIPAA ?

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Utah State capitol

 

Utah bill would prevent law enforcement from abusing substance abuse database

http://www.cachevalleydaily.com/politics/article_21c64776-b3ed-11e4-b3b6-5bd21f5bd591.html

Republican Senator Todd Weiler of Woods Cross has a bill before the Utah Legislature that would create a new substance abuse control database. On KVNU’s For the People program Thursday, Weiler said the state has had a database in place for 19 years.

When it was created, then-governor Mike Leavitt expressed the fear that it would be abused and Weiler said it has definitely been abused. He said if you go to your doctor for a prescription for oxycotin or other controlled substance your prescription goes into this database.

Your doctor can check it to make sure you are not doctor-shopping and also law enforcement can check it and that’s where abuse has come in.

“We’ve had incident after incident of abuse,” Weiler explained. “I’m basically running a bill to say that law enforcement would have to go to court and show probable cause in order to look inside your electronic medicine cabinet, which is the same standard they would have to do to look inside your actual medicine cabinet.”

Weiler said that the adjustment to the law protects people’s privacy and holds law enforcement to the same standards they would need to go through for any other type of search. But Weiler’s bill does emphasize the need

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

Working at Walgreens will provide you career challenges you will never forget ?

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Clerk targeted in Dania Beach Walgreens robbery speaks out

http://www.wsvn.com/story/28121231/clerk-targeted-in-dania-beach-walgreens-robbery-speaks-out

DANIA BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — The clerk behind the register at a South Florida Walgreens that was targeted by an armed robber said he obeyed the perpetrator’s demands and is thankful he and his customers emerged from the ordeal unharmed.

Roosevelt Fleurijeune has not returned to work at the Walgreens at 501 East Sheridan St. in Dania Beach since the Feb. 8 incident. He told 7News he’s unwilling to resume his duties until the company can provide some sort of security at the store.

Surveillance cameras rolled as the subject, who was wearing a hoodie, entered the drugstore just after 11 p.m. He is seen heading straight for the cashier, where customer Jessica Young had just finished paying for her purchase. He is then seen pulling out a gun and pointing it at Fleurijeune, then at Young. “He turns around and points it [the gun] at my head,” said Young.

The clerk said the suspect told him he would shoot at any point. “I know for myself I was terrified, but the lady, she didn’t even know we were being robbed,” he said. “I was able to open the register, cause at [gunpoint] you’re not able to open the register, so I was pressing [the buttons] quickly.”

The robber is then seen grabbing Young’s plastic bag full of the sodas she’d just purchased, emptying it and ordering the store employee to fill it with money from the register.

As the subject headed towards the exit, Jon Pawlowski walked in, completely oblivious of what had taken place as he scrolled through Facebook on his smartphone. Pawlowski told 7News the subject then pointed the gun at him. “This guy just starts shouting, ‘Get on the floor, get on the floor, get on the floor,'” he said. “Probably by the third ‘Get on the floor,’ I looked over like, ‘Who the hell is this?’ and he has the gun, you know, just pointed right at me, to the point where I can actually see down the barrel.”

Seconds later, the robber bolted out the door, leaving both customers and the store employee shaken. Fleurijeune said he was aware there was a chance the subject would pull the trigger after he gave him the cash. “Somebody looks at you and tells you you’ve got two minutes to live, to open the register, or you’re going to die, you know, you don’t want to take those chances, so you have to do whatever you can to get him out,” he said.

Young said she got a good look at the robber, describing him as a heavy-set man in his 30s with crooked teeth, a mustache and a scar above his lip. If you recognize this man, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward.

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CVS, Metrics & Medication Errors in the news again

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve


I-Team: Report Suggests Trend In Prescription Drug Errors Filled By Pharmacists

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/13/i-team-report-suggests-trend-in-prescription-drug-errors-filled-by-pharmacists/

BOSTON (CBS) — Anyone who has waited in a drug store for a prescription knows a pharmacy counter can be a busy place.

“It’s a high-pace, high-stress environment,” a former CVS pharmacy technician told the I-Team.

She did not want to be identified, but she believes that stress leads to mistakes.

“Somebody gets the wrong strength of medication, somebody gets the wrong number of pills,” she said.

The I-Team obtained documents detailing prescription drug errors reported to the State Department of Public Health.  Since 2010, pharmacies reported 194 serious drug errors.  In one case, an allergy drug was given to a patient instead of a high blood pressure medication.  In another case, a patient got something for acid reflux instead of an anti-depressant, and an arthritis drug was given to someone who needed a medicine for seizures.

The pharmacy technician believes a growing trend in pharmacies is behind all that stress and the errors.  It is called performance metrics, a system used to measure how many prescriptions a pharmacist fills and how fast.  It also counts flu shots and phone calls pharmacists make to patients urging them to fill prescriptions. If the pharmacist falls behind, she says, they’ll hear about. “You didn’t make all of your 50 phone calls. I want you to write an action plan to tell me how tomorrow you are going to get all of your prescriptions filled, get  your phone calls made plus give out x number of flu shots,” she said describing what pharmacists she worked with were told.

CVS would not talk to us on camera, and would not allow our cameras inside their stores, but they did invite the I-Team inside a store to see how the system works. Company representatives told us if metrics contributed to mistakes they would change the system.  They insist it does not.

In a written statement the company said: “The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to ensure prescription safety.”

In spite of those assurances, pharmacists are starting to speak out against metrics. Susan Holden is the president of the Massachusetts Association of Pharmacists. She worked under a metrics system at a different drug store chain. “It was very nerve-wracking, very stressful, sometimes tearful,” she recalled.  Holden now works as a hospital pharmacist and she says metrics puts too much stress on pharmacists. “Ultimately, I was afraid of harming a patient,” she said.

A survey of nearly 700 pharmacists conducted by the institute for safe medication practices found that more than 83 percent believed performance metrics contributed to dispensing errors.

Susan Holden believes if something doesn’t change, the problem could get worse. “The worst case scenario, it could be a very dangerous prescription error. I think anybody could draw a conclusion about what could happen,” she said.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy is urging states to restrict the use of metrics that are proven to compromise safety.  The Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy has taken no action.

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Problems should be solved

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

I had been getting my inbox loaded with notices that my blog was down.. then it was up.. then it was down..  and it was slow loading and throwing errors… I reached out to my ISP if they could furnish some insight into what was going on..  well… apparently the server that my blog was on.. was having some unusual spikes in usage.. and on top of that the database for my blog was split between  two different servers..  they have moved the entire database to one server and hopefully will resolve some of the access issues that has been plaguing my blog…

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Not quite “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” – not PG rated

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Florida Residents Form Human Shield to Prevent Police from Arresting Man for Weed

http://www.hightimes.com/read/florida-residents-form-human-shield-prevent-police-arresting-man-weed

An army of Florida police officers was nearly impaled and used to decorate the lawn of a Delray Beach residence last weekend, when a mob of angry neighbors stepped up and formed a human shield to prevent cops from arresting an individual accused of smoking marijuana.

The rowdy scene took place last Saturday night when officers in an unmarked patrol car pulled up to a house and began harassing nearly 30 people attending a birthday party. According to a report from The Sun Sentinel, officers got out of the car and began to shake down people standing outside because they claimed someone they had witnessed smoking a joint minutes earlier had run inside the house.

Residents told police that no one at the party was smoking pot, and would not give officers permission to come inside the home. Yet the cops refused to vacate the premises and radioed for backup. “There was a lot of shouting back and forth,” Cory Provost, who posted a video of the incident on YouTube, told the Sentinel. “The residents were asking the cops to leave the yard and they didn’t do so.”

At one point, nearly 20 residents banded together to form a human shield in order to keep police from gaining control and arresting their friend – an alleged “drug user” that officers claim to have encountered in the past. In the video, a resident can be heard telling police to, “Please, leave the yard,” a command that is given with a few more expletives as the incident becomes more intense.

Delray Beach Police Sergeant Nicole Guerriero told the press earlier this week that the video is not an accurate record of the incident because it only reveals a small part of the events that transpired. “Someone hit [an] officer and pushed him away, they were throwing bottles, they were cursing and screaming at them,” she said. “The next thing they know, there’s 70 to 75 people out there. The officers had to use pepper spray to get people back.”

In the end several people were arrested and charged with obstruction and assault on a police officer, but no one went down for possession of marijuana. Recent controversy surrounding the murders of Eric Garner in New York City and Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO are rumored to be at the root of the residents’ frustration and hostility towards Delray Beach police. Yet the fact that none of these people were found in possession of marijuana indicates their animosity towards police may have simply been driven by innocence and the desire to stop being bullied by the boys in blue.

Arguably, while the individuals taken into custody may be guilty of “obstructing” police officers from doing their jobs, let’s not forget the entire situation took place because the cops may or may not have witnessed someone smoking weed–a plant that nearly 60 percent of Florida voters were in favor of legalizing during the November 2014 general election.

 

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Michael Reinstein: Doctor Who Prescribed Forms Of Clozapine That Killed 3 Patients Pleads Guilty To Accepting Kickback Money

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

michael-reinstein-md-chicago-illinois-teva-ivax

Michael Reinstein: Doctor Who Prescribed Forms Of Clozapine That Killed 3 Patients Pleads Guilty To Accepting Kickback Money

http://www.inquisitr.com/1843439/michael-reinstein-doctor-who-prescribed-forms-of-clozapine-that-killed-3-patients-pleads-guilty-to-accepting-kickback-money/

Michael Reinstein, a well-known doctor who was paid to prescribe Clozaril (aka Clozapine) to his elderly patients, has pleaded guilty to accepting kickback monies from a pharmaceutical company. The Daily Mail is reporting that 71-year old Michael Reinstein lived an incredibly lavish lifestyle all because he agreed to promote a risky anti-psychotic drug that had detrimental effects, and ended up killing at least three of his patients.

 

According to the federal court documents, Reinstein was paid exorbitant fees for randomly prescribing the drug. The pharmaceutical companies Ivax and Teva paid for boat cruises, expensive dinners, and trips for Reinstein because he was so good at prescribing the risky drug to elderly victims, which included nursing home and mental health patients, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Now the elderly Chicago doctor faces up to four years in prison and must pay back almost $600,000 for the scheme. In 2012, Reinstein was accused of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare by filing false claims. In March of 2014, Teva was ordered to pay almost $28 million dollars because high paid consultant Dr. Reintein over prescribed anti-psychotic medication. The court documents paint Dr. Michael Reinstein as a greedy, money-hungry psychiatrist whose only goal was to make money off of his elderly patients in order to pad his rich lifestyle. The doctor is currently under suspension.

Clozapine should not be prescribed at whim, but only when it is a last alternative for patients who have severe cases of schizophrenia, psychosis, and bipolar disorder, and who are showing signs of suicidal tendencies. The accompanying side effects could cause fainting, seizure, and even death in some patients.

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You thought that you had that tiger by the tail – but he BITES !

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

xxx-gUERRILLA lEAFLET

Click on image to enlarge

Remember all those hard years of studies ?

Getting that PharmD…. becoming a Licensed Pharmacist…. becoming a Pharmacist in Charge (PIC)

One of only a couple hundred thousand licensed Pharmacists.. a rather small “fraternity”..

Such knowledge … such responsibility… so much ability/capability to help patients improve/manage their health..

How did REALITY.. get so far removed from THEORY ?

 

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We are getting close – blame the wholesalers !

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Legitimate patients say they are living with pain after pharmacies turn them away

http://www.abcactionnews.com/money/consumer/taking-action-for-you/legitmate-patients-say-they-are-living-with-pain-after-pharmacies-turn-them-away

Legitmate patients say they are living with pain after pharmacies turn them away..  from the headline on website

Would someone please explain to me how someone can develop a relationship with a Pharmacist by having your prescriptions filled in a large mail order facility thousands of miles away.. I doubt, if you tried, you would not even be able to get one of those mail order Pharmacists on the phone… let alone develop a “relationship”…

The accident took place decades ago, yet the pain is constant.
 
Maria Phipps said she lives in agony and only hydrocodone will take the edge off. Her doctor prescribed it but six pharmacies turned her away.
 
Eric Meyers said his wife, who is disabled and lives with chronic back pain, faces the same uphill battle when it comes to getting her schedule II medicines filled.
 
The Meyers have traveled to every local and chain pharmacy within 25 miles of their Brandon home. Most have turned them away without explanation.
 
Dan Fucarino the owner of Carrollwood Pharmacy supports the DEA’s crack down on pill mills in Florida but said the fight to reduce overdose deaths led to tighter controls at national drug distribution centers.
 
According to the Florida Pharmaceutical Association Pharmacists across Florida are turning away patients legitimate or not over supply issues.
 
So what can you do to improve your chances of getting your prescription filled?
 
1. Establish a relationship with your local pharmacy before you need medicine.
 
2. Don’t call ahead as it appears you are pharmacy shopping.
 
3. Utilize a mail order service, perhaps one through your insurance.
 
Congressman Gus Bilirakis supported the shuttering of Florida’s pill mills. Oxycodone deaths are down 86 percent. Now he’s worried about those who can’t get their medicine.
 
Bilirakis is pushing legislation introduced in January. It would establish a safe pharmacy access program, which prevents high-risk patients from abusing controlled substances but allows them to get their medicines.
 
The DEA told us it has never limited the quantity of drugs a pharmacy may purchase from a wholesaler but the agency confirmed in an email that it “establishes quotas to drug manufacturers to provide for the legitimate medical needs of the citizens of the United States.”

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