“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey
passionate pachyderms
Pharmacist Steve steve@steveariens.com 502.938.2414
If you were sick and you had to chose between seeing a doctor with the skill sets and technology that was available 100 yrs ago
OR.. a doctor with the skill set and state of art technology that is available today ?
Sounds like either a rhetorical question or a down right stupid question ?
Yet our society and our judicial system is functioning on a decision made before women had the right to vote and even before the 18th Amendment … which made alcohol ILLEGAL.. That decision influenced on racism, bigotry and “war on women” made the addiction/abuse of opiates a CRIME.
Medical science today considers all addictions a mental health disease and as a society we still have trouble understanding and accepting those people who suffer from subjective diseases.
It doesn’t seem to matter the advancements of medical science, our judicial system.. and thus our society.. stubbornly clings to those non-medical decisions a CENTURY AGO.
Congress has even passed two different anti-discrimination laws The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Americans with Disability Act of 1900 and our judicial continues to ignore or circumvent those Federal laws and cling to those decisions made during our Prohibitionist Period in the early part of the 20th century.
The Harrison Narcotic Act created a “black market” for opiates.. just like the 18th Amendment created a black market for alcohol.. So we are now spending 51 billion a year and over ONE TRILLION over the past 4-5 decades.. fighting the black market of opiates and MJ… that we created.
It would appear that when it comes to the Federal government and our Judicial system.. they are both part of the problem and trying to be part of the solution… but we seem to be better at creating problems than solving them. One has to wonder if a problem was intentionally created.. so that another bureaucracy could be created to work at solving the problem.
Remember the last war that we actually won was World War II and that took TWO A-BOMBS..
Perhaps, it is a sign of the times. Husson University offers a seminar that trains pharmacy students in the preventive, legal, and emotional aspects of pharmacy robberies.
“We want to help ensure the safety of our graduates. This seminar provides future pharmacists with the knowledge they need to protect themselves, protect their businesses, and aid law enforcement,” said Katie Rossignol, operations manager for pharmacy experiential education at Husson University School of Pharmacy, Bangor, Maine.
“The combination of experts from our criminal justice and pharmacy program who are participating in these educational presentations are helping our students better understand both the challenges and rewards of working in a retail environment,” said Rodney A. Larson, founding dean of the Husson University School of Pharmacy. “By working together, we are helping to ensure that our graduates will be fully prepared for their roles and responsibilities as professional pharmacists.”
I am sure that Pharmacists will have great deal of input in how to improve the safety of the work environment at the chain pharmacy most of these future Pharmacist will end up working at after they become licensed.
But on June 16, pharmaceutical manufacturer, McKesson, cut off the Pain Management Pharmacy in Santa Maria where Biliardi would get the drugs that her son needs. Besides Huntington’s, James also suffers from Klinefelter’s Syndrome and diabetes. The drugs he took regularly until McKesson stopped its shipments included, Methadone 380mg/day, Atavan 12mg/day and Fentanyl TOFC of up to 2400 mcg/day for breakthrough pain. Biliardi says her son is allergic to some of the other pain medications that are often prescribed. “You can’t just cold turkey take them off of something like that, it’s gonna kill them” Biliardi said.
“I almost died from just weaning off my previous medications that they put me on. I don’t know what to do now. They’ve taken the only thing away from me that works,” said James as he sat in a chair and struggled to get the words out.
Why did McKesson stop its drug shipments? Scott Guess, owner of Pain Management Pharmacy in Santa Maria, says that a week before all of this happened, a McKesson senior official told him he was a finalist for their pharmacist of the year award. The next time they spoke, Guess said he expected good news, “Instead, he said we are going to suspend shipment of all controlled substances effective immediately with no reason why, no recourse. they won’t even return my calls at this point.”
Guess speculates that a recent $80 million fine against Walgreens has something to do with it. Just five days before McKesson cut him off, the Drug Enforcement Agency slammed Walgreens, the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, for failing to control sales of narcotic painkillers. “McKesson doesn’t want to be the next $80 million fine headline so they decided to shoot first and ask questions later,” Guess said.
Who’s behind it? Some in the pharmaceutical industry believe its the DEA. An estimated 16,000 Americans died from overdoses linked to pain killers in 2010 and the problem is getting worse. No one we spoke with for this story was willing to talk on camera about it, but Tony Park, an attorney and member of the California Pharmacist Association, did talk with NewsChannel 3 by phone. He believes the DEA is using intense political pressure to take the pills off the street. “I suspect the DEA has a national campaign to decrease the total amount of controlled substances in our medicine cabinets,” Park said. He also believes the federal government is using a sledgehammer approach to the problem.
Others in the pharmaceutical industry believe it boils down to simplicity. They say its easier for the DEA to target the large pharmaceutical manufacturers such as McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, than to go after every doctor and patient that’s abusing the system.
NewsChannel 3 contacted DEA officials in Los Angeles and Washington. They denied the allegations. “We have no mandates or ratio regulations that would force a supplier such as McKesson to withhold its drugs,” Sarah Pullen with the DEA in L.A. told me by phone. She then referred me to their Washington field office when I asked if the DEA was putting any political pressure on the drug manufacturers. “We don’t involve ourselves in business decisions. We enforce the Controlled Substances Act, that’s it,” said Rusty Payne DEA spokesman in Washington, D.C.
NewsChannel 3 also contacted McKesson for a comment. However, the written response did not address any of our questions. Kristin Hunter, a spokeswoman for McKesson issued the following statement: “McKesson does not fill prescriptions for controlled substances but is one of hundreds of pharmaceutical distributors nationwide. As a pharmaceutical distributor, McKesson complies with laws concerning the monitoring and distribution of controlled substances to customers.”
FOX23 investigates a crime Tulsa police say skyrocketed in the last year: violent pharmacy robberies.
Detectives told FOX23 people are at risk now more than ever as more criminals are following the trend.
FOX23’s Sara Whaley found something that could bring the robberies to a halt.
Detectives told FOX23 that in previous years they responded to five or six pharmacy robberies. This year, there have been 41.
“Pharmacies are the worst because these are desperate people trying to get whatever their particular drug of choice is, and they are willing to commit violence against other people to get that accomplished,” said Watkins
Walgreens recently made some big changes due to the problem.
“Once the safe has been activated there is a short delay in time,” she said.
All of their Oklahoma stores now have a time release safe where the pharmacy keeps the most sought after drugs.
Once the key is turned to unlock the safe, a timer starts.
So if the robber wants the pills he or she has to wait.
So robberies are up 700%… these are DESPERATE PEOPLE.. willing to be violent … and Walgreens put TIMED OPEN SAFES.. in these stores… Someone is going to get hurt !!!
Is this like the death penalty deterring violent crimes.. and we know how well that has worked…
IMO.. it shows that securing the controlled meds is more important than securing the Rx dept and the safety of the Rx dept staff …
Eliza Wheeler and several volunteers sit on the floor of her office and pack naloxone kits. They package up rubber gloves, rescue breathing masks, alcohol pads, and two atomizers.
And, of course, the key ingredient: two cartridges of nasal naloxone — an old drug that can reverse an opioid overdose in seconds.
Wheeler and her team then distribute these kits free of charge to people in the San Francisco area who are at risk of or know someone at risk of an overdose.
It costs her organization, the Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC), about $40 to make each kit. But that amount stands to rise sharply because Amphastar — the lone producer of nasal naloxone in the U.S. — will be doubling the drug’s price starting Dec. 1.
The wholesale cost of each cartridge is set to jump from about $13 to $30, an increase that could make it hard for many nonprofit programs to distribute nasal naloxone, several of those groups told MedPage Today. Amphastar did not return calls for comment.
Patients who suffer injuries, infections or mistakes during medical care rarely get an acknowledgment or apology, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report.
Another study last year in the Journal of Patient Safety estimated that at least 210,000 U.S. hospital patients a year die from medical mistakes. Yet while the problem is widespread, Makary and his research team wrote, there is little research into how patients feel about experiencing medical harm.
Malcolm MacDougall, a prominent speechwriter and creative director, was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year. Even after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, his insurance company delayed and denied cancer treatments despite MacDougall paying his premiums. This is his story, in his own words, written five days before he died.
