http://www.painmattersfilm.com/
Could not find a way to embed video directly on this post …
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Meth use up 70% in three years.. are we winning this drug war yet ?
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
Meth Use Statistics: DEA Reports Record Seizures, But Are More People Using Methamphetamine?
But the unprecedented figures don’t necessarily mean that meth use is on the rise in the U.S. Americans are using the synthetic drug at about the same pace in recent years, although there was a large increase from 2010 to 2011, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In 2013, 595,000 Americans said they used meth in the past month, compared to 440,000 who used the drug in 2012. In 2011, there were 439,000 Americans who said they used meth in the last month, a steep increase from the 353,000 who said the same in 2010.
The number of new meth users within the last year is about on par with estimates from 2007 to 2012, according to the institute’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health. There were 144,000 new users of the synthetic drug in 2013, “which was similar to the estimates” in the previous five years, the survey
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extortion is only illegal for those outside of the judicial system ?
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
South Indianapolis pharmacy facing lawsuit over improper record keeping
The government is suing the company for failing to act as a gatekeeper over potent painkillers and narcotics. 13 Investigates shows you why the U.S. Attorney is demanding action over improper record keeping and other technical violations.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says despite the technical violations, no criminal activity was detected and the brothers have agreed to step up the record keeping. If they comply, the U.S. Attorney will recommend a $100,000 fine as part of a settlement. If they don’t, the lawsuit will stand and even higher fines are possible.
Under the lawsuit, the Marwood Pharmacy could be ordered to pay up to a million dollars. A potentially costly lesson for the Abu-Mahfouz brothers and a message sent to pharmacies all across central Indiana.
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Have You Been Harmed in a Medical Facility?
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
Have You Been Harmed in a Medical Facility?
You could fill a baseball stadium many times over with the number of people who have been harmed while undergoing medical treatment each year. And that’s why we’re investigating the state of patient safety in the U.S. If you or a loved one has suffered patient harm, you can help inform and guide our reporting by filling out the form below. It asks quite a few questions, but please don’t be intimidated. Just do your best to summarize your story and one of us will follow up if we have additional questions. We promise we’ll keep your information confidential unless you give us permission to share it.
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Soldiers Help Grow And Protect Poppy Fields for heroin production
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
Soldiers Help Grow And Protect Poppy Fields for heroin production
We spend money to protect poppy production.. so that it can be produced into Heroin and Cocaine … so that it can be illegal imported into our country and we can spend more money going after those that are selling it on our streets via the war on drugs ?
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Oregon docs to feds: Hands off our prescription drug info
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
Oregon docs to feds: Hands off our prescription drug info
The Oregon Medical Association is the latest group to voice serious concerns about federal drug enforcements of the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program’s database.
Eight other state medical associations and the American Medical Association signed on to support the OMA in the brief it filed last month. The suit is pending before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The State Attorney General’s office filed the original suit in U.S. District Court in Portland in the fall of 2012.
Since DEA subpoenas do not need to be based on probable cause, Oregon sued to determine whether the state needed to comply. The American Civil Liberties Union also weighed in on behalf of several patients and a physician, arguing the subpoenas violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. The judge agreed and the DEA appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
“If the DEA walked into my house and rifled through my medicine cabinet, that clearly would be a violation of the Constitution,” Wessler said. “The rules shouldn’t be be any different because the records are sitting in a secure state database.”
Cole also expressed concern about confidentiality and doctor-patient privacy.
“You could have providers and patient unfairly targeted by law enforcement because their information is an outlier in the data, even though it’s a legitimate case,” he said.
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P&P are there to protect the employer, Fed/State laws there to protect employee
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
Your Days Are Numbered: Beware Disciplining Employees So Soon After FMLA Requests
When it comes to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), courts always pull out their stopwatches and calendars to see how closely the employee’s protected activity (requesting or taking FMLA leave) coincides with the adverse action (discipline or firing). As this new court ruling shows, the smaller the time, the bigger your risk of liability …
Case in Point: Lori worked as a pediatric pharmacist at the University of Maryland. During one of her shifts, she experienced increased back pain related to her degenerative disk disease. She tried to contact her supervisor by phone, texts and pager but to no avail. Eventually, she asked another pharmacist to monitor her station while she ran home to get her medication. (Leaving her station without approval was a violation of the employer’s policy.)
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Employer condoned hostile work environment legal ?
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
‘Third-Party’ Harassment: Is the Customer Always Right?
http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/39507/third-party-harassment-is-the-customer-always-right
There is only one boss. The customer. But what if the customer or another outsider is harassing one of your employees? Can your organization be held liable? One court recently warned employers against adopting the “hear no evil, see no evil” strategy.
Freeman sued her employer for third-party harassment. A lower court dismissed the claim, saying the behavior stopped once HR got involved. But Freeman appealed and won because the supervisor failed to take action when she learned of the harassment.
As the court noted, “An employer is liable under Title VII for third parties creating a hostile work environment if the employer knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take prompt remedial action reasonably calculated to end the harassment.” (Freeman v. Dal-Tile Corp., 2014 BL 119739, 4th Cir., 4/29/14)
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Have you ever noticed ?
Posted on January 9, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
There is a estimated 40,000 people commit suicide in our country every year… and there is a estimated 16,000 die of overdoses .. normally a cocktail of legal meds, illegal substances and alcohol and since .. as a country .. we don’t track how many of these deaths are actually suicide by drug overdose.
Prescribers are often taken to task over their pts that die from a drug overdose…BUT… typically no healthcare professional is held accountable for a pt , under their care… that commits suicide by any other means.
Let’s face it… taking more medication than prescribed or taking less than is prescribed is NON-COMPLIANCE..
The end result of non-compliance is the same… deteriorating quality of life and eventually death..
We have seemed to reach a point where we are interfering with certain class of pt being compliant because all of sudden we have become “uncomfortable” in filling legit Rxs of certain categories of medications.
30+ yrs ago… our society was all gung-ho about DISEASE PREVENTION… now we are gung-ho about DISEASE MANAGEMENT… because we miserly failed in helping pts with disease prevention.
Should we rethink why some of us are in healthcare… how many are more interested in their personal financial health… than the pt’s physical health… I recently saw a post by a Pharmacist… stating that s/he had no interest in giving vaccinations and studied pharmacy because that way s/he could be a DOCTOR and wouldn’t have to directly deal with patients..
We were eating lunch at a local restaurant and started talking to the female waitstaff and come to find out that she had got her nursing degree in 2012 and never took her boards… because she said that everyone was so interested in money and places she worked was so understaffed that she claimed that she was unable to do appropriate pt care.
Maybe this why we spend more dollars per capita that other industrial nations and may not provide as good of care ?
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Just wants to make my heart bleed !
Posted on January 8, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve
Montana Doctor Risks Medical License for ‘Narcotic Refugees’
Elizabeth Gardner says:
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Dr Ibsen – we see so many people who are legally addicted to their meds crossing over to heroin and illegal use of drugs in South Florida. They get arrested and their life really spirals out of control and that is when myself and other criminal defense and family lawyers have to try and help them get out of the mire. Thank you for being so courageous to help. I would also like to suggest that you look into some natural substances that Dr. McCurdy of U of Miss has been researching to help addicts get off Rx opiates and deal with pain – mitragyna speciosa. It is legal, won’t kill anyone and won’t have any harm to their body and you can add it to your withdrawal regime for them. And, it is legal and doesn’t require Rx.
Dr Ibsen has this article published on the www.nationalpainreport.com and the above is a comment apparently made by a female attorney in S FL. The substance that she is suggesting common name is Kratom and according to the above video.. the DEA is going after this substance.. and they won’t be wanting to make it a C-II…. it will be C-I…
This poor attorney and other attorneys have to bill hour$ trying to help these poor addicted souls out of the trouble they are in .. that the same judicial system created for them to fall into.
IMO… another classic example of someone within the judicial system… interfering with the practice of medicine. The judicial system creates a problem (black market) then they go after shutting down the black market that they created… Isn’t it like raising chickens… as long as you don’t kill/eat all the chickens and/or eat all the eggs… you will always have a good supply of chicken & eggs to eat… If you eat half of the eggs laid and half of chickens hatched… you will soon have enough chickens and eggs to sell to neighbors to buy feed for the chickens.