It was NEVER about ADDICTION. Congress decided to throw the American People under the bus

The Secret Government Study that Leveraged the Opioid Crisis- THE TRUTH Part II

It was NEVER about ADDICTION. Congress decided to throw the American People under the bus

www.medium.com/@heatherzamm/the-secret-government-study-that-leveraged-the-opioid-crisis-the-truth-part-ii-124ea4dfec91

Calls were ignored.

Politicians sent back form letters.

Specifically, I will never forget Senator Bob Casey sending me a form letter about immigration when I sent him a letter, detailing my hospital stay from hell. Great public servant, Bob. He wears flannel when he visits my hometown. You know, so he can dupe the folks at the Shop ‘n Save into thinking he is like them.

The ACLU National repeatedly refused to help a single incurable painful disease patient. It was “above their pay grade”. Or something.

No lawyer would take a case. Not sexy enough.

Reporters, by and large, jeered at us when we asked for corrections.

Only a very few journalists were brave enough to report real facts, truth, real data.

Daniel Horowitz of Conservative Review was one of those brave few. His series on the so called opioid crisis was superb. He seemed a decent person to those of us who asked questions.

But their few voices were always drowned out by the relentless hammering of The Machine.

There was plainly and obviously something wrong here.

When this concern was voiced, the person voicing it was quickly ridiculed and dubbed a “tin foil hatter”, shown quickly to stage left and told to leave.

Black holed. Even by so-called “pain” groups. What a joke.


I am here to announce we are vindicated.

There indeed is something wrong.

Something damnable.

Something so violating and outrageous, one will scarcely believe it’s true.

But it is.

It’s real. It’s happening. It’s ongoing as I type.

I wish I could say that hitting publish on this piece will end it.

It won’t. Because evil never goes away that easily. Look at the world.

But at least YOU WILL KNOW WHY.


I preface this piece with a truth, somewhat of a disclaimer.

By saying that we real advocates work in the red. No, I am not asking for money. I am telling you that we are real.

Despite what you may have been breathlessly told otherwise. Told by those so called advocates that stay a quarter step behind drama, have a screenshot convenient for every situation, and who work “tirelessly” doing absolutely nothing except keeping good people riled every day on social media.

Do they do anything else but that? No. Simply, no. I suppose they do work tirelessly, just not for you and not for painful disease patient rights.

Self aggrandizement and humble braggadacio via tweet or post is not working for patient rights.

It’s beyond the pale that our own government thinks nothing of using addicts in a “quid pro quo” of their own desperation and paying their own senatorial/representative staffers to pose as “patients with sick wives” to infiltrate painful patient groups and report back all they see and hear.

We don’t get paid for the long hours, nights, and weekends we spend digging up all this… horror. Unsnarling it so we can show you.

It’s… really just that simple.

There will be many damnable, filthy lies, many horrible character assassinations published, texted, whispered regarding me, regarding others, specifically Lauren Deluca and Shasta Rayne Harner, the ones who brought this unbelievable information to me, we all were shocked …who have risked everything, risked it ALL to bring this information to YOU.

Do you think this is not deadly serious? This isn’t a movie, a book, a video game. This is real life, with real people. People they do not give one tiny shred of care about. Because you are watching is the only reason we are breathing. Keep watching.

The government operatives peppering our patient movement who attack advocates, the ones masked as patients… it’s truly unbelievable. The backpedaling, lies, false victimhood, stealing of credit, and backstabbing has begun already in earnest. It is spinning higher and higher.

Please use critical thinking.

That is all I have ever asked of you — as you well know if you have been and are my wonderful follower all this time. I do care about you. I do.

Use your intelligent, common sense, critical thought.

If you are here for drama’s sake?

To hell with you.

Shame on you!

Go back to your pit. I know who you really are. And better yet — who you really aren’t. I have never done a single thing in regards to incurable painful disease patients that would make me ashamed, because I have been fighting for them since I became one and found out my government wanted to kill me. I have never lied or entered a back deal for powerful influence or money. I have never struck a deal to harrass an advocate for money or influence or to be “liked”.

When all this is said and done, I will retreat to my corner of Medium and resume my writing that 20 odd people may read or share. My dream of starting an advocacy group for rare painful diseases has been put on hold because of trolls, likely fake patients.

I am not a CIAAG employee or board member. I am merely a person with which Lauren Deluca and Shasta Rayne Harner share a mutual respect of shared interests and goals, who they approached to help with writing and research.

No one is being paid. Not on our side anyway.

Again- I will gladly share my tax forms this year with anyone who doubts me. It had 0 dollars next to my name for income. Lucky for me, my husband has a good job and supports me financially. I hate not working and I miss it. Advocacy work doesn’t pay bills. Being a turncoat, informant, and online stalker pays bills. Ask them. Have you ever seen them, their faces, in real life? Their taxes, the forms, in real life?

My goal also is to open the door and turn on the lights so the coyotes hiding in the corners and the roaches creeping under the tables come out, desperately trying to flee.

Good advocates have people “assigned” to them, to befriend them or to harass them endlessly.

It’s horrible and also unfortunate to find those you thought were real friends… weren’t. They only “liked” you because they were paid or told to befriend you by evil, corrupt, envious people in attempts to get information.

The real patients will finally know the truth. What was done to them and why. This is for you.

Rats in a Cage

You must check your politics here. There is NO room for partisan politics. Any reference herein to a politician is simply to point out what he/she did, or make fun of them, not to go on a personal belief tangent.

Every one of them suck. They all knew. All of them.

The United States Government, through the CDC, has implemented a massive clinical trial- a population based study, through the creation of the Centers for Disease Control’s 2016 Guidelines for Opioid Prescribing for Treatment of Chronic Non Cancer Pain. The evil plot originated in Washington State. It was hatched to flow through and be included in the ACA, and everything since that awful law was passed marched the country toward this end. The Guidelines were a conduit.

This is real and has been admitted to by our United States Congressional and Senatorial offices.

The PR machine has ran non stop since, spinning desperately to distract you and dismiss what I am telling you, to hopefully deflect blame away from politicians.

They are terrified you will not vote for them next year and likely will throw them out.

What?

What do I mean by this?

The Government (and others) wanted to study pain patients who were using opioids and they wanted to take them off their opioids.

They knew that, well…people like being pain free (and able to work- though they won’t admit that). They wouldn’t sign up willingly for that and they needed a huge pool of people to study.

What better way to get one than to push through horrendous stipulations such as the CDC guidelines… then the National Pain Strategy and…

Watch what happens and record it all. Use it for preventative health, study of disease, and a kind of “pre crime” profiling too.

This is a much faster, easier way… without getting a single signature of consent- that pesky damn informed consent.

That stupid HIPAA. The smoke and mirrors law that no one ever enforces outside a few obvious placaters.

Wanted everyone off opioids to study what happens — and also because they straight up think anyone who uses opioids is an addict, The End. We all are losers who want to get high all day and waste their (insert faux indignation) money.

They knew they could not get volunteers. So instead? They forced a horrific situation upon THE ENTIRE NATION.

That is how much they value each and every person in the vast American public. We who vote for, rally for, and pay for.

Because it doesn’t matter to them. It did not and will not affect their health or their care. They made damn sure of that in the ACA.

As I said in my previous pieces leading up to this one, socialism never affects the self appointed elites. Their personal care and family’s care was never affected. They never writhed in pain.

For crying out loud, the very recent college admissions scandals only underline what I mean when I say they truly believe they are above us all. Nailed here: The True Scandal of the College Admissions Scam — medium.com

Pretty sweet, really kind of our public servants, the ones we pay.

Obama passed the actual laws for them (sorry, guys, but he did) and then they got all their ducks in a row. The previous fellas sure helped, make no mistake.

“Keep Smilin’ Boys! They will never figure it out!” {Getty Images fair use}

The ACA (also known as the worst piece of s*** legislation in American History- aka “the insurer handout”) gave broad powers to HHS. To insurers. To private corps, like Appriss.

Well, it’s okay. No one read it. How were they supposed to know, right??? I mean, that excuse they have used for so many things…

Of course, no one said a damn word. They never did about a thing while Obama was President, let’s be real here.

Part and parcel why this plan had to happen during the Obama administration.

This would never squeak by any other White House — even Bill! The media and every person in Congress would be on them like starved wolverines on an injured doe.

HHS never enjoyed such powers as these before. George W. “Mistakes were made” Bush and Darth Cheney had nothing on this… but then again, Cheney shot a man while hunting and walked free.

After he made the man he shot apologize to him. Because, like, manners.

HHS was given powers under the ACA, mostly under Title IV, like:

  • Creating the powerful, hidden 15 person “National Prevention, Health Promotion, Public Health Council”.
  • Creating the “Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation” (with their little subgroup, ‘Institute of Healthcare Improvement’- a bean counter group interested in one thing — cutting costs, lives be damned. How Karl Marx of them!)
  • Strategized “Healthy People 2010” a group with faux smiles and one size fits all (socialist) mentality of treatment, grouping all under one treatment model-theirs.
  • Creation/Funding the infamous (to the very few advocates who have found this thing and read it) “Living Well with Chronic Illness” e-book/guide through the nefarious “Institute of Medicine” incredibly renamed the “Health and Medicine Division” on March 16, 2016, the same day as the release of the CDC Guidelines. I’m sure that was one of those fantastic coincidences.This publication is not to be confused with the book by author Joanna Charnes that has been mysteriously shoved up HIGH in Google search the past two days. We will come back to this document — note it recommends studying all groups in the USA. Well, except white males. Everyone else though! Hitler 2.0 up in here!
  • Developing the “Health in All Policies” approach with CDC, National Prevention Strategy — the government-level way of saying to every single government agency: “Remember in grade school, we all had to use the sh**ty scissors? No one was allowed to bring in a pair? If you were left hand, you got green handles, right hand, blue? Well, this is our scissors policy. Every last one of you is implementing this thing, whether you wanna or not. No crybabies,” announced at a meet of the “National Prevention Council” a snug group of leaders from every single agency in our thoughtful government (sec. 4001 in ACA)- through the Surgeon General’s Agency. His tweets make so much sense through this lens. How dare he!

Since Healthy People 2010, the Institute of Medicine (not whatever that bland, inoffensive name they imagined themselves to be the day the Guidelines they directly caused came out) recommended another initiative — “Healthy People 2020–2030”. Basically an every decade thing.

HHS has given the green light to the Office of Surgeon General that “Health in All Agencies” (HiaA) be used to craft HP ‘30.

And…

Here is where Brandeis and Appriss come in, everyone.

To make sure the goals of these programs created in 2010/2011 were actually being met, of course a surveillance system had to be put into place.

Later on, they could “hook” EHRs into this system, already tailored to carrying electronic information, and call that the gateway. Appriss Gateway, in fact. In 2012 the Kentucky State legislature made a law called the Kentucky State Prescription State Monitoring Compact (not program — COMPACT). There are stakeholders and investors in this compact, with annual reports required and generated. Not a single one of those reports exists for public perusal, nor does even a list of its members exist for review. Requests have been blatantly ignored. Oh, and Appriss is located in Kentucky. Coincidence alert!

The surveillance system was firmly under the care of another congressman, Rep. Hal Rogers– R-KY- Apprissville, Prince of Pork himself. Sure, that is a great idea.

There was the HUGE question of consent, here.

They decided to completely sidestep consent by simply pretending it didn’t exist.

By pretending that a patient who signed a form at that office for their care at that office was somehow informed and understood what was happening and the myriad of ways his/her information would be viewed/bought/sold/studied as part of the PDMP programs.

Hell, the entire premise of what was occurring was already flagrantly so outrageous.

This was nothing. A drip of candle wax on a sh**cake with ten layers.

So, what do we have thus far?

When the ACA was conceived, these people put their plan into play. These innocent sounding orgs were all created under the umbrella of HHS. Powerful men and women came in with an agenda, a very twisted agenda, under the banner of “health and wellness”.

What it really was — eugenics and population engineering, a real time study of genetics and disease markers/ indicators.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with science. Nothing wrong with study of disease. Nothing wrong with promotion of health and wellness.

It’s all monstrous when it is done to unwitting people. It’s a horror movie when people are used as lab rats and guinea pigs in experiments without their consent or knowledge. It is a crime against humanity to withhold pain medication, “to see” what happens.

Especially when assisted suicide is one of those “whats” on the table — as it is in 8 states now, NJ the latest to topple.

It’s called “gaslighting” in psychology when a person attempts to convince another person a valid, lived experience didn’t actually happen with manipulation and seeds of doubt.

Did the government learn absolutely nothing since Tuskegee?

Since the 70’s with their twisted psych personality shattering garbage goings-on?

Perhaps they did …and this is the result.

I observed before that evil always reinvents itself, improving upon the mistakes of its predecessors.

This is happening today, right now. This is not a “theory” of what happened.

We have the government with stakeholders in insurance and other private entities — but mostly insurance — who met up with physicians and said:

You know? We think these people who take opioids are just a bunch of losers who sit at home getting high all day with our disability and worker’s compensation money, while we pay it every month. We need to get these lazy jerks off their a***s and this is how we are gonna do it. And furthermore, this whole pain meds thing is ridiculous. We don’t need to be paying for pain medication period for all these people. They need to suck it up, buttercup, like their grandmas did, and figure it out themselves. I mean, of course, you know, we will be making sure we have enough for ourselves, but those people need to learn who their betters are somehow, but while we are pushing all this equality s**t.

Here’s how. Make it happen.

Do you even have a clue how much money we will make, oops, I mean, save?

Oregon has it right all along, letting people off themselves. In fact, we sure would LOVE to know how many people would off themselves if they got their pain pills taken away forever. Because that is our national, in fact, World, goal. In both respects. Let’s watch there first. Because we don’t have a solid grasp on these random suicides. CDC isn’t tracking those well enough.

Where is Kolodny in all this? Everyone knows I think Andrew could probably pass the entrance exam for kindergarten. After that, it may get dicey.

I am almost fully certain that Andrew Kolodny will be sacrificed by his handlers in this thing, and in the coming weeks, many incurable painful disease patients will see a vindication the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the news came in they caught Ted Bundy.

Unfortunate, in there is no way on earth this thing could have been machinated by the likes of him, sorry. Anyone with a whit of sense would know that.

However, you reap what you sow, Andrew. Hey, I don’t even think you are smart enough to have even come up with the names of some of these groups, if that is any consolation. I am just an incurable painful disease patient though, so you hold me in the least esteem — and you have spent the last almost 15 years attempting to convince America I am a drug addict who drools when she speaks and is unable to form coherent thoughts. My words are worthless to you.

Who would have ever believed there used to be a time when Roger Chou and Jane Ballentyne thought that painful disease patients could have long term opioids, that it was okay?

They did think this was okay — in 2009. It is simply amazing how all one believes can change like that, because of a “promise” or something else…

The biggest trigger that caused this to be green-lit, no passing go, was the Baby Boomers. Yes, I know. I have those feelings, too, sometimes. I was raised by Boomers.

The Baby Boomers are getting old, though.

The first ones started knocking on Big Government’s door for their money — the money they paid into Social Security and all that jazz in June 2012.

Well, why not? It is not entitlement when you paid your whole life into this system.The Boomers by and large did. They worked.

The Washington greed factory foresaw all their perks, expense accounts, lavish spending going into an endless dark vat that is the Baby Boomers when the realization struck them these few claims were the extreme tip of a monster iceberg with a voracious appetite.

What better way to shut off that faucet? Taking away their pain relief, demonizing opioids, making the senior baby boomers feel like addicts for taking an opioid after years of stability taking one… or not allowing any when the time arrived that one needed it.

Less opioids= pain filled, shorter life expectancy/possible suicide= less benefits paid. More money stays in the life insurance account in DC. Of course, not the Boomers lucky enough to be in Congress, but everyone else.

Health, “Wellness”, Prescribing

The race was then on, the ACA was signed into law. The plan began to hatch all its subplots and subplans.

Stakeholder groups got into the action, and here is where crony capitalism is showcased and shines.

Abt Associates was contracted by the government to help them socially engineer the country into thinking opioids were horrible, filthy things. That anyone who used opioid therapy was a drug seeking addict. That any doctor who wrote a prescription was a “drug dealer in a white coat”. DEA suddenly was off the hook for their monstrous failure in keeping illegal Chinese fentanyl out of our country, as physicians were blamed for the first time in history for the deaths of addicts, even in the face of science.

2013 Asset Forfeiture- Starting in CA, laws were weaponized against physicians, and the DEA used this liberally to seize assets of doctors who they arbitrarily decided to arrest — after they used the (now weaponized) PDMPs (prescription drug monitoring programs). The one-two punch frightened doctors into virtually no prescribing of opioids.

2015-California’s Death Certificate Project is worst of all. A classic case of scare tactics via legislation, the government combs through old death certificates looking for “inappropriate prescribing practices” that “may have contributed to demise”. A sheer fright tactic to keep docs from prescribing — all in the name of this study!! There is no opioid crisis. Just their study! How many physicians are or have been arrested and/ or jailed and/or fined all in the name of this study?!

Brandeis University and Appriss Inc. aligned through Peter Kreiner of Brandeis, worked to implement the mass surveillance of the PDMP system in each state.

Not to mention the myriad of different ways and means of study done through the PDMPs themselves — the aforementioned hyperlink under Dr. Kreiner is to one of those ACA hatchlings that was thrown to the VA, “to assess the impact of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 (VCA) on appropriateness of opioid therapy”.

Not only were the surveillance systems mass implemented without a single signature of informed consent, but the systems themselves were used in countless ways to extract reams of sensitive data from unsuspecting patients and sell it to the highest bidder on the healthcare market, as well as “study” in slanted and biased ways to forward this agenda.

As previously mentioned, Rep. Hal Rogers is the Congressional front man on this. Gubernatorial appointments were made to the KY Prescription Drug Monitoring Compact, a self serving, self enriching stakeholder group slipped through legislation.

We have no way of knowing just what data and where all this information went, because these agencies hide behind so-called “proprietary” algorithms and will not disclose their data fields.

A violation of HIPAA, privacy, human and civil rights that is incalcuble.

Healthy People 2010 was implemented with bright splashy graphics on their website. And we all fall for it every time they pull this crap. I have. We just do.

They do these things and invite public commentary — not because what we say is going to actually shape any policies.

Because we are all part of the study now, and they want us to participate in it.

It is fully Orwell’s world.

They file away the comments and move on to tweak the process based on the feedback- tweak it in a way that we won’t notice what we complained about previously.

It is not us shaping the policy. It is them shaping us through the policy.

HHS does this every time with their TaskForce Public Dockets. They post these for patients, not because they want our thoughtful comments and will listen to what we have to say.

They do this because they are required to do so by the ACA, they have to check off the box and show they received public feedback. No more. Hence why we feel ignored.

Because we are! They have absolutely zero interest in anything we have to say. What we think has nothing to do with what they are doing and will shape none of it.

This ties into the “advocate” clinicians on social media. Many patients believe that the clinicians on social media who are surveying them and studying them are on “their side”.

No.

Use of Social Media as Study Device/ Social Engineering Mechanism

The incurable painful disease patient communities exploded online in the wake of the implementation of the government’s scheme.

This was exactly what the government wanted to happen. They knew that people would be easy to study, manipulate, and also they could use the internet to their advantage socially to a large scale to push through their agenda through social engineering.

HHS and NIH, along with several college and university research departments immediately dispatched a multitude of their “finest”.

To pose as patients, troll agitators, patient sympathizers, advocates, leaders of movements… it is so thick in the incurable painful disease patient advocate movement at this point on social media between several different vested interest groups and the government, that one would be more likely to fall in with a faux advocate or faux patient than one would with a genuinely sick person in need of aid. It’s that disgustingly bad. Add in big pharma and their disinfo agents, and it truly is a hot mess.

Not to mention the junkies and the hypochondriacs that are always attracted to these groups. The junkies were immediately pressed into service. They were put to work as trolls and agitators. Paid in trade or cash to actively go after genuine leaders and effective opioid crisis advocates.

They would troll, agitate, and do as much as they could to get that person banned or deactivated off social media so their voice was silent and doing no damage to the government’s work.

These people would infiltrate every group they could, take screenshots of conversations, cause chaos in their wake wherever they went, and spent all their time on social media pretending to do good while being the very worst of human beings. It’s quite gross, the stunning hypocrisy. Lying about themselves and their lives to ingratiate as closely as they could to as many as they could. Blocking these people was like a death in the family to them. They carried on as though it was.

Many are active at this moment doing this very thing. People love drama. This won’t ever stop. The drama they provide keeps them popular.

The others were far worse.

Researchers swarmed in. Some were pretty open about what they were doing, however, patients mistook that openness to mean that person was working for the patients and helping them “gain their meds back”. Nothing could be further from the truth. These researchers had carte blanche to say whatever they had to. They were to gain the trust of patients so the patients would provide information to them — in the forms of surveys, stories, and infographics. Or better, messages in private groups that would provide a rich tapestry of accentuation to the research papers being written.

This proved to be surprisingly easy. Patients were desperate for someone to validate their experiences, especially an authority figure, someone who was a doctor or professional, and these horrible people played them like a fiddle.

Advocacy statisticians, NIH analysts, physicians from the beginning days in Washington State…so many people in the know would play both ends against the middle, dashing away to write it up and submit their pieces to JAMA, NEJM, and the like, or to provide to other physicians and psychiatrists who needed the information to plug holes in their “research”.

Patients were none the wiser.

ACA 4305 Advancing Research and Treatment for Pain Care Management

The part of the ACA that actually directly addresses pain, pain care and treatment is so short and vague as to render this entire topic rote and meaningless.

The only part of this that would raise any eyebrows to anyone is the little nugget buried in paragraph 2 under subsection (a) under 409J of 4305 says this, “ANNUAL RECOMMENDATIONS. — Not less than annually, the Pain Consortium, in consultation with the Division of Pro- gram Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, shall develop and submit to the Director of NIH recommendations on appropriate pain research initiatives that could be under- taken with funds reserved under section 402A(c)(1) for the Common Fund or otherwise available for such initiatives.”

The NIH Common Fund has a person or two masquerading as “advocates” on social media networks. It’s interesting to see the interactions being made with these people, simply because of the shark like social climber personalities known behind the profiles. With the Common Fund funding set up as such and desperation of people for money for their psychosocial projects, one has to wonder where the intersection lies? There is no shame, apparently.

The 6 Building Blocks

The day of the CDC guidelines were issued, HHS released grant money to the states for the creation of the 6 Building Blocks programs the very next day, March 16, 2016. Of course, this originates in Washington State U and is being sold as a program to help facilitate patient centered care for the complex patient who is on long term opioid therapy. And our friends from Abt Associates are here! Surely this program is in the patient’s best interest.

screencap of grant showing it was sent 3/16/2016- day after CDC Guidelines

The Definition of Bravery

The textbook definition of bravery is “the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty.”

I have heard many patients and advocates carelessly say they would do many things… XYZ… if they found out what the “real” story was behind the CDC guidelines.

Well, here is your chance to prove it. I am telling you the story, the truth, and will you do what you have told me all this time?

Jayne Flanders is the co-founder of CIAAG. She is a beautiful, medically fragile young woman with brown hair and a shy smile. Has been with Lauren Deluca since day one, helping her build the little advocacy group from nothing. She has many incurable painful diseases, mostly genetic, and to hear of what she deals with daily makes my heart hurt. Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Chiari malformation, Hyperadrenergic POTS, are but a few… and yet she works hard at home on this group, often from her bedside, as she is relatively bed bound.

She does all web design, social media content, organization of the web content and analyzing of the data. She works with Lauren Deluca of CIAAG on strategy and all decisions are made together.

Lauren Deluca and Shasta Rayne Harner, two painful disease patients, discovered everything I told you. Two disabled women.

After they discussed it with Jayne Flanders, another disabled woman, they brought it to me, yet another painful disease patient and woman they trusted implicitly.

 
Photo by Louis Velazquez on Unsplash

Then they took it to Washington, D.C. to tell Congress they knew what they were doing.

To tell them to stop.

To tell them enough is enough.

How many more have to die to end the hellish agony their lives had become?! And all for… a study? To save money? Because extremely rich people were greedy and believed a lie?

Imagine two small women walking into Congress and saying what I just told you… right now.

That is what they did.

Because to do what they did… takes courage the likes of which there just isn’t very much of these days.

With courage and determination, they took their research and saw through their task to their goal.

The United States of America owes them a deep and enormous debt of gratitude.


Downloads for all to take to their physician, to hand out, et al… are available for free on CIAAG www.ciaag.net

Now is the time to show solidarity as we unite. Our physicians need this. Our pharmacists need this. How dare they perpetuate this on a free society! Please spread this far and wide!

Use the hashtag #ViolationofANation to get their attention and let them know you know! Get it trending!


I will keep you all up to date on this profile as developments are forthcoming.

Heather Wargo is a Medium Top Writer in Government, Politics, Health, and Social Media. She is a freelance writer and advocate for incurable painful disease patients and physicians affected by governmental overreach.

Heather Wargo has been published by The Western Journal, Lifesite News, The Ascent, P.S. I love You, Publishous, Uncalendared, The Writer’s Cooperative and Writer’s Guild.

The Secret Government Study that Leveraged the Opioid Crisis

The Violation of a Nation Part I

The Secret Government Study that Leveraged the Opioid Crisis

www.medium.com/@heatherzamm/the-violation-of-a-nation-part-i-953f189ce0f0

Just about every patient I advocate for in the incurable painful disease patient community has asked me one question I was never able to answer.

Because it also danced in MY mind.

Why are they doing this to us? Why are they taking medicine away from people like us?

The data wasn’t supporting what all the pundits said on the news.

The media was desperately pushing a narrative.

But why?

The Plan

The United States Government, through the CDC, has implemented a massive society based clinical trial/population based study, largely executed through the creation of the Centers for Disease Control’s 2016 Guidelines for Opioid Prescribing for Treatment of Chronic Non Cancer Pain. This is real, it is true.

Not one Congressional or Senatorial office denied this research when confronted with the evidence.

Senator Gillibrand’s office pathetically tried to gaslight the whistleblower. While responding, the whistleblower says, “It is clear to me this is about liability, not the public’s health and livelihood.” Her staffer sneered, “Of course, it’s about liability!”

The evil plot originated in Washington State in the late 2000’s, when a group of powerful men and women met to discuss how fed up they were with paying out worker’s comp, along with their unshakeable belief that people who use opioid medication to control pain are “just sitting at home getting high” instead of being a productive worker.

Most of them firmly believe opioid therapy users are just junkies.

Participants included future PROP (Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing) members who had been studying workers comp since the 90’s, along with stakeholders in data surveillance, universities, social marketing, media, and of course, the main driver — insurers. They began pushing and publishing study after study to craft the narrative they wanted.

  • March 23, 2010, the ACA was rammed into law, unread, granting HHS, CDC, and the Office of the Surgeon General powers previously unheard of.
  • 2010/2011 Dozens of innocently named agencies were formed, all with one purpose — getting patients completely off their opioid therapy — we will see these all listed in Part II and what they “do”. Section 4305 of the ACA was about pain management and void of most targeted particulars.
  • 2010 — Present Surveillence of citizens through Brandeis’ PDMPs begins through widespread state system use. No consent obtained, of course. Surveys and studies are pushed through EHRs, every nook and cranny of medicine, all “voluntary” yet not, because patients must answer all questions to receive care. Ongoing to date. Taxpayer funded.
  • 2012- The Institute of Medicine (those sneak thieves who renamed themselves the “Health and Medicine Division” the day the CDC Guidelines were issued) quietly published an e-book titled “Living Well with Chronic Illness- A Call for Public Health Action” — basically the groundwork for the CDC guidelines, it calls for a study to be performed of every single population in America. (except WHITE MALES). It sets the stage for pain to be dismissed and for people to be gaslighted if they say they have pain.
  • 2013- ongoing The Boomers are becoming old, sick, disabled, and in pain. Many of whom were injured in war or gov. jobs. The largest working generation was going to be cashing in their legit earned Social Security. This is not wanted or desired. Instead, our eugenicists wanted to make it hell on earth for those Boomers, so their money stayed in the gov. See part II.
  • 2014 Appriss uses a study done in Ohio to unleash Narxcare, a “ranking system” that uses proprietary algorithms to practice medicine, telling a doctor whether or not a patient should or should not receive medication based on a score. Even recommending rehab. Patients are never told about this system or scoring, in fact patients are told they are not allowed to know.
  • 2016. 03.16 — Six Building Blocks Grant Funds — THE COUP de GRACE — DAY the CDC Guidelines were Issued, March 16, 2016, HHS released funding to the states. Monetary grants were given, millions of dollars. States received these from HHS to begin implementing the “6 Building Blocks” Plan through the Office of Surgeon General National Prevention Strategy’s National Prevention Council (one of those lovely ACA groups). THE DAY OF THE GUIDELINES — — The exact grants & grant numbers will be shown in Part II. (side note — remember this when FDA attempts to dazzle with their breathless release of “We pledge $20 million to fight illicit fentanyl!”) Wow, how generous to pledge pocket change to fight an actual proven killer of American teenagers/young adults. It’s like they don’t even care, or something.
  • 2010/2012/2015/2018- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)- National Guideline Clearinghouse is officially defunded on July 16, 2018 after several attempts, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016… This agency was the overseer to “produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used” as per their original mission statement- lost to the ether. Of course this place has to go. It has been replaced with a newer vision — The 6 Building Blocks!! How circular!
  • Ongoing — Pain Advocacy Groups/ Social Media infiltration by Government Agents. This will be discussed to show the real patients they have been duped by faux groups and people into believing they are “being represented” by those who want to “help” painful disease patients, when in reality they are merely being studied by these people and lied to by covert, government operated people, physicians, and orgs.
  • MORE… so much more.

Is this incredible, unbelievable? Yes.

Is it true? Yes. All of it.

Just consider one thing. Why would the CDC change any part of their guidelines after two years of nonstop begging by every single advocate group, patient and pain affiliate in America?

It is NOT because of some letter they received in November. Please. More on that con in Part II also.

CIAAG founder Lauren Deluca and board member Shasta Rayne Harner took these findings of fact they discovered independently through their very own research to Washington D.C. on Monday, April 8, 2019, to let Congress know the gig was up.

They spent three full days in meetings with Congress, Reps., & Senators, 4/8/2019–4/10/2019 while others played pretend.

Some time ago, I was informed of their findings, asked to assist with research moving forward, and asked to write about this horrific con job perpetrated upon the American people.

I am not a CIAAG member. I share a mutual relationship of shared respect and interests with its founder and board. No one is being paid — not here.

This has been an ongoing investigation by CIAAG. No one else.

What — are these others going to investigate… themselves?

In part II, you will see a plethora of findings of fact.

The ride is rough. Buckle up.

 

Pharmacist calls police because Grandson – with different last name – paid for Grandfather’s Rx with charge card.

I recently saw an old man and his grandson getting arrested outside the local CVS while I was filling one of my Rx. From what I overheard the grandfather could not afford his Rx so his grandson paid for it with his credit card. The pharmacist filled their RX of course.then called the police because the grandson had a different last name as his. The pharmacist could have warned them or not filled it but no… He filled it anyway… They surrounded them in the parking lot.
They were in no hurry to leave, they had no idea they had done anything wrong… The police had them both spread across the hood of the cop car pouring out the bottle of pills across the hood on display like it was crack or something… The wind was blowing and several times before they had them in the squad cars had to stop to pick up the old man’s pills off of the road…. God I wish my phone had not been almost dead I’d have recorded the whole thing… I have no idea if they were or were not guilty of any actual crime but from what I overheard I pray that they are found not guilty and Sue for wrongful prosecution. But I’m sure in our quickly declining morally bankrupt society they probably won’t have a leg to stand on…. God help us all….

I had to give this some thought… Other than being totally irrational.. did the Pharmacist JUMP TO THE CONCLUSION that the Senior Citizen was selling his medication to the younger kid ?

Of course now, the pt’s medication is contaminated and or destroyed regardless of the outcome. And the Grandson will have – most likely – have to pay for the medication put on his charge card.

Should/could the Pharmacist be charged with making a FALSE POLICE REPORT ?

Is this Pharmacist so anxious to “bust someone” trying to illegally obtain a controlled substances that his “common sense” has been overtaken by his paranoia ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lawsuit by Doctors in Indiana Against DEA agents and the City

Lawsuit by Doctors in Indiana Against DEA agents and the City

www.doctorsofcourage.org/lawsuit-by-doctors-in-indiana-against-dea-agents-and-the-city/

Four doctors in Carmel, IN, a suburb of Indianapolis, have sued the city and government officials responsible for the illegal attack on their clinic, Drug Opiate & Recovery Network (DORN), an addiction center prescribing Suboxone, in July, 2014.  The lawsuit asks for compensatory and punitive damages and requests a jury trial. Drs. Larry Ley, founder, George Agapios, Ronald Vierk, and Luella Bangura were all arrested and charged, in spite of years of continuous communication with DEA officials.  This shows the evil in the DEA.

“They destroyed the lives of 12 people that were actively trying to fight this disease, and they threw all the patients who were actively fighting addiction to the curb,” said Dr. Ley. In spite of the charges being dropped against them, or the acquittal of Dr. Ley, shedding the stigma of the raid has proved difficult for the clinic’s doctors and staff since the arrests, which is why they decided to take legal action. The employees have been unable to find other work, even though their records have been expunged.

The attorneys for the city and some of the officials have declared immunity in the lawsuit. That is the protective umbrella by which these unscrupulous DOJ officials are carrying out illegal attacks against legitimate practitioners across the country, and something we, the citizens, must remove. If a government official knowingly attacks an innocent citizen for illegal purposes, that official should be held accountable. If not, this country is moving into a police state. The plaintiffs’ claims of false imprisonment and arrest are also possibly barred due to a probable cause being filed in the case, even though that probable cause was created through perjury. Also, to show how the DOJ colludes in their illegal attacks on doctors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler who was first offended by the behavior of DEA agent Gary Whisenand pushing the case against Dr. Ley, is now representing Whisenand in the civil suit.

The new complaint of false arrest and violating their right to due process is against DEA agent Whisenand, the city of Carmel and Major Aaron Dietz of the Hamilton/Boone County Drug Task Force. But Dietz’s attorneys claim he was acting in good faith and is therefore immune from civil action under law. Good faith—Bull shit!! The target was picked, the case was created.

In the government’s standard propagandizing media collusion when doctors are attacked, Dietz was quoted as saying

“We make no distinction between Dr. Ley and any other drug dealer,” calling the clinic a “pill mill” and Dr. Ley “the Pablo Escobar of Suboxone.” “This type of ruse of a clinic perpetuates the problem.  Those people are still addicted to the drug and this is what’s happening.  This is not fixing the problem,” “Opiate drugs and prescription medication is a gateway to heroin.  That’s why we have heroin is because people get addicted to the opiate drug prescription medication and then go to a cheaper, readily available heroin.”

Now all of those statements are lies stated in public to defame a proper, law-abiding citizen. Shouldn’t that perpetrator of illegal activity (Dietz) have to pay for his crimes?

Dietz and Whisenand worked for months to create a case against the doctors. This is an example of tax dollars being wasted. They spent nine months watching hundreds of patients comes and go from the clinics, compiling more than 26,000 hours of video surveillance in the process. But they were unable to identify a single individual who was paying for a drug they didn’t legitimately need. So they invented some by sending undercover officers to lie about being dependent on opiates. So probable cause was a creation of the government.

Then, despite being told twice by the U.S. attorney’s office that they didn’t have a case against Ley, they arrested Ley and 11 of his employees for “providing Suboxone prescriptions to the undercover officers who had no legitimate medical need for them.

This is a standard practice in all attacks on doctors, and primarily what they are being convicted of: “illegitimate medical practice” because the DEA agents lie to get drugs prescribed that they don’t really need. Who’s committing the crime here? But as the suspected “ringleader” of the operation Ley was booked on $1 million bond, his assets seized, and he spent a month in jail.

One by one the cases against Ley’s 11 co-defendants fell apart, as prosecutors failed to provide enough evidence that a crime had been committed. Dr. Ley was the only DORN defendant to go to trial. The charges against him applied to just 22 prescriptions for Suboxone—all written to police officers pretending to legitimately need them. That fact was not lost on Hamilton County Judge Steven R. Nation, presiding over Ley’s trial.

“I struggled with this case the minute I started to watch the surveillance videos [of the undercover agents],” Nation said, prior to announcing Ley’s acquittal. “I’ve got conditions that people were asking to be treated for [and] the drug that was issued was appropriate for what they were being asked to be treated for.”

Why aren’t more judges seeing this fact? Maybe because they ride the gravy train of convictions too?  Judges are not unbiased in these cases where money is funneled into the Department of Justice and their own courts. Ethics and morals are found less and less in the legal profession.  But at least in this case under this judge, Ley was cleared of all charges after an eight-day bench trial and all other charges against him in other counties where he ran clinics were dropped.

Jim Crum, Dr. Ley’s defense attorney stated what every defense across the country should be stating:

“Our position has been, and the judge agreed, that the judges point that if there was a violation of anything here it’s a licensing issue.” Is the doctor following the rules exactly? “Even if he wasn’t that doesn’t rise to the level of a criminal offense. There was no intent to deal, everything was in the confines of the normal practice of medicine.”

James Brainard, Mayor of Carmel

Dr. Ley was acquitted in August 2016, two years after the raid. Similar clinics across the country are being attacked and the doctors incarcerated. But here, the reason is obvious—a politically motivated effort to help developers in Carmel, directed by Mayor James Brainard. I won’t go into the possible collusion between Mayor Brainard, the Carmel Redevelopment Commission, and Pedcor here. But a detailed review of public records showed that the city had its eye on the property before Dr. Ley became a subject of a criminal investigation. In 2016, just months before the start of Ley’s trial, the city of Carmel revealed a takeover of the property across the street and construct a new mixed-use development called the “PNC Block Redevelopment” involving condominiums, commercial office space, underground parking, and an outdoor beer garden. If the goal was to force Ley out of Carmel, a conviction wasn’t necessary. DORN’s main office in Carmel never reopened, and Ley sold it for a loss to a real-estate investor.

So what is the result of attacks on legitimate clinics like this on the occurrence of addiction? Use Indiana as an example. Thanks in part to the policies of former Indiana Governor Mike Pence, treatment options in Indiana were limited even before Dr. Ley’s arrest. The state ranked 47th out of 50 states for availability of drug and alcohol treatment and Suboxone treatment was among the worst in the nation. Hamilton County ranked ninth out of 92 counties for heroin overdoses. In Indianapolis drug overdose fatalities increased seven-fold since 2000. Hamilton County alone has seen a 45 percent increase in heroin-related deaths. In 2015 more than 300 non-fatal overdoses were recorded in the four counties where Ley practiced. Two years after the closure of the DORN clinic, fatal overdoses in Indiana have risen by double digits, with only three providers certified to prescribe Suboxone in the entire city of Carmel.

This is a excellent example of the mindset of our society.. ONCE CHARGED – ALWAYS GUILTY .. REGARDLESS OF BEING INNOCENT IN THE END ! Did the City of Carmel and the bureaucrats of that city wanted to have the property that Dr Ley owned for development so that the city could generate more property tax revenue  and they would not have to go thru imminent domain and have to pay “fair value” for the property ?

It is claimed that “JUSTICE is BLIND” … but apparently for those within our justice system appear to be driven by GREED and monetary gains the judicial system can reap by “going after” certain segments of the population that has assets/resources that they can fabricate a case against and according to this article many judges and prosecuting attorneys are more than willing to be willing participants in this ruse.

At one time, Indiana was ranked NUMBER ONE in pharmacy robberies and NUMBER ONE in meth lab busts and then in 2015 had 200 people show up being HIV positive along with Hep B & C..  in small (pop 25,000) Scott County in south central Indiana.. which DNA testing showed that abt 85% was from a single source. Meaning that most of those people where involved with sharing needles.

Then Gov Pence – now VP Pence – his response to that outbreak was quite interesting ..  basically he was CLUELESS about how to proceed at first. It was like the fire dept showing up with a 5 lb fire extinguisher when your house is on fire.

Corporate choice: pt safety or bottom line profits – guess which they chose ?

CVS Pharmacy just announced their pharmacist working hour cuts. “Verification sharing”, a technological workload share computer program, is now leading to sweeping hour cuts and overlap diminishes across our district and our neighboring district, and I’m certain the whole company chain. In my store, hours has been cut 8 full RPh hours, many others are seeing more hours cut. For a company that says they value patient safety, they are not giving us the tools we need to keep people safe. By cutting pharmacist hours, this will increase wait times and our current inabilities to get medications into the hands of our patients that need them. A deliberate move to continue lining the pockets of the top executives.

We leave 150+ undone every night, give or take…

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.ncpanet.org/home/find-your-local-pharmacy

 

Trump’s claim of ‘amazing’ success in cutting opioid prescriptions

Trump’s claim of ‘amazing’ success in cutting opioid prescriptions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/02/trumps-claim-amazing-success-cutting-opioid-prescriptions

The president earns Three Pinocchios.

“One year ago, we pledged to cut nationwide opioid prescriptions by one-third. Already during my time in office, we have reduced the total amount of opioid prescribed by 34 percent. That’s a pretty amazing number.”

— President Trump, speaking at a drug abuse summit in Atlanta, April 24, 2019

During a recent speech on the administration’s efforts to ease the opioid crisis, President Trump asserted that his administration had already achieved its goal of cutting nationwide opioid prescriptions by one-third.

Trump’s original goal, made on March 19, 2018, was to reach this target within three years. So obviously we were curious about whether the claim about already reaching the milestone within a year was valid.

Here’s what we found out. It’s an interesting tale of how data generated in the administration loses its nuance the closer it gets to the president’s lips.

The Facts

The president, after noting the goal to cut prescriptions by one-third, framed this achievement in personal terms: “Already during my time in office, we have reduced the total amount of opioid prescribed by 34 percent.”

But a White House fact sheet, issued the same day, pitched this less as an administration achievement and mentioned no goal, though it kept the time period: “In the first two years of the Administration, we saw a 34 percent decrease in the total amount of opioids prescribed.”

Finally, the agency that generated the statistic, the Department of Health and Human Services, was even more careful in its own fact sheet. It cast the percentage decline as tentative and requiring additional research: “From the President’s inauguration in January 2017 through February 2019, initial market data suggests that the total amount of opioids being prescribed monthly has dropped by 34 percent. While we need more data to confirm this snapshot, it shows we may have succeeded in meeting this [three-year] goal already.”

As you can see, it is a bit like a game of telephone, with the accuracy of the statement getting diminished with each retelling. Our eyebrows went up when we saw that the statistic apparently was based on monthly data points.

An HHS spokeswoman provided the numbers. The data reflected the nationwide prescribing of opioids measured in MMEs (morphine milligram equivalents — a measure of opioid amount/intensity), drawn from the IQVIA National Prescription Audit, a database for retail pharmacy and mail pharmacy channels only.

January 2017: 13,627,002,271

February 2019: 8,967,556,436

(Technical note: These numbers are not comparable to prescription data on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website because it does not include controlled long-term care environments — nursing homes and skilled-nursing facilities — or prescriptions for buprenorphine, which is primarily used for patients in treatment.)

That’s certainly a decline of 34 percent. Experts said that using an MME measure is probably the most useful (though a prescribing rate rather than raw numbers might be more informative).

But there are several problems.

First, two monthly data points are not especially useful to measure long-term progress. We were able to review all of the monthly data, though not publish it. February in recent years for some reason appears to experience big drops, and that happens to be the end point. A three-month rolling average shows a decline, though not as stark as 34 percent.

“Measuring the decrease using monthly prescriptions is absolutely legitimate,” said an HHS spokesman. “We focus on leading indicators to help us better and more quickly respond to this crisis, rather than waiting a year to evaluate what we are doing.”

But, more important, time did not start with the Trump administration. Opioid prescriptions have been declining for years, having reached a peak in 2010 or 2012, depending on what data set you use. The declines especially began to accelerate after the CDC in March 2016 issued new guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain — 10 months before Trump took the oath of office.

HHS has published quarterly fiscal-year data for MMEs dispensed since the second quarter of fiscal year 2013. It shows that decline really sped up in early 2016, about the time the CDC guidelines were issued. The number of MMEs dispensed has fallen about 30 percent from the second quarter of the 2016 fiscal year (January-March) to the end of 2018.

Just looking at second quarter of fiscal year 2017 through the end of fiscal year 2018 — essentially Trump’s first two years — the decline amounts to 22 percent, from 41 billion MMEs a quarter to 32 billion MMEs.

Finally, we would argue that the president’s pledge was to reduce opioids by one-third in three years dating from his speech in March 2018, because he said: “We’re going to cut nationwide opioid prescriptions by one-third over the next three years.” We reviewed administration briefings after the speech and news coverage and can find no indication it was anything other than a three-year goal starting in 2018. Reporters identified 2021 as the end date.

That would mean at least a reduction of 12 billion MMEs — from 35 billion MMEs a quarter at the time of the speech to 23 billion. Backdating to the start of Trump’s presidency seems to be moving the goal posts, as the decline in MMEs on a monthly scale since Trump’s speech is about 20 percent, not 34 percent.

Asked whether progress should be measured from March 2018, the HHS spokeswoman replied: “While the March 2018 date marks the release of ‘President Donald J. Trump’s Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand,’ efforts to combat the opioid crisis were already well underway. The opioid epidemic has been a top priority for the Trump Administration since taking office in January 2017.”

Experts in the field said the decline in prescriptions is less impressive than it sounds because the trend significantly predates the Trump administration — and because the more important metric is reducing overdoses.

“By itself, the number of prescriptions is not a public-health outcome,” said Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. “You can’t say mission accomplished because the number of prescriptions has gone down.”

Sharfstein noted that even as prescriptions have begun to shrink in recent years, overdoses have soared. (Recent 12-month rolling provisional CDC data touted by the administration indicates the overdose increase may have plateaued and even begun to decline.) The reasons for this disconnect are the subject of dispute among medical professionals, with some arguing that cutting back on opioid prescriptions may have led some people to switch to heroin or synthetic opioids. Other experts say the data does not support that analysis.

In any case, they said, Trump is wrong to suggest this is an administration success story, even if it has taken steps such as pushing for a reduction in opioid manufacturing.

“I don’t think the Trump administration deserves credit for the more cautious prescribing of opioids,” said Andrew Kolodny, co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. “The reduction in prescriptions began in 2012 and improved a bit in 2016. Everything we are seeing is trending in the right direction, but no other country prescribes as much as we do.”

The Pinocchio Test

There are several problems with the way the president framed this statistic. He should have indicated the data was tentative, as HHS responsibly did, but instead he suggests a goal has already been achieved. (As we noted, the goal posts also appear to have been moved.) Moreover, he once again takes credit for a trend that started in the Obama administration, in part because of actions taken under that administration.

The president earns Three Pinocchios.

Nevada: I-Team: Feds back-pedal on opioid crackdown

I-Team: Feds back-pedal on opioid crackdown

https://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/local-news/i-team-feds-back-pedal-on-opioid-crackdown/1971009919

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Millions of Americans suffering with chronic pain are hoping for relief, now that the CDC has clarified its guidelines led to a nationwide crackdown on prescription opioids.

The overwhelming majority of opioid related overdoses are caused by illicit drugs, including heroin, not prescription medication, but Nevada and other states have imposed restrictions on legal pain management. Now, state lawmakers are working on changes in the law that will allow doctors to do their job and ease the suffering of legitimate pain patients.

“There are tens of thousands of patients that have been involuntarily tapered down or off their opioids and they’re suffering. They’re in pain,” said Rick Martin, retired pharmacist.

Retired pharmacist and patient advocate Rick Martin relates to the tens of millions of Americans coping with chronic pain since he is one himself. When the CDC issued its supposedly voluntary guidelines in 2016, it never meant for states to enact them into law, or for insurers and pharmacy chains to impose even harsher limits on pain medication, but that’s exactly what happened.

Now, three years later, CDC has admitted its guidelines have been misapplied in Nevada and elsewhere. The FDA and surgeon general have also weighed in, confirming what the I-Team has been reporting for years — that millions of Americans suffering with legitimate intractable pain have had their lives destroyed, and in some cases, ended.

In particular, Martin cites military veterans, many of them injured in combat, now cut off from pain relief by the Veterans Administration. Martin thinks it is no coincidence that 20 veterans commit suicide every day.

“They go back, some of them, as far as the Vietnam War, veterans who’ve been under medication for years and years, 20 years without any problems and they’re all of a sudden taken off. These are our veterans. They fought for our country. They deserve to have pain relief,” he said.

Nevada joined the anti-opioid bandwagon by enacting a law which placed excessive requirements on doctors, not as strict as in other states, but enough to cause some doctors to quit prescribing opioids altogether or to leave medicine.

“There are hundreds of patients who are not able to get into a pain doctor. We have a waiting list that’s a year long. We had a guy on the phone the other night crying because he can’t get into a pain doctor and he’s tried everywhere,” said Dr. Dan Laird. I felt terrible but there’s nothing I can do. The hysteria that’s been whipped up about opioids and continues to be used as a talking point among politicians continues to hurt patients.”

Dr. Laird is encouraged by recent statements by the CDC and the FDA urging physicians and states to back away from forced tapering of pain medication, but he worries changes will come too late for many patients who are in pain now. Public policy consultant Terry Murphy thinks Nevada lawmakers have received the message.

“In Nevada, there’s a real recognition there needs to be safeguards but physician discretion must be balanced with that,” said Terry Murphy, Strategic Solutions.

She is tracking two bills in the legislature which would strengthen a doctor’s ability to prescribe pain medication. Murphy says that is a call to be made by physicians, not the government.

“No person responds to a disease the same as the next guy on the bench and no person responds to a medication the same as the next guy. that’s where all the education and experience of your doctor comes in,” Murphy said.

Dr. Laird and other advocates urge pain patients to contact their legislators and let them know how they feel. One bill, AB 239, has already been approved by the Nevada State Assembly and Wednesday had its first hearing in the Senate.

Let’s talk about why doctors are terrified.

https://www.facebook.com/pharmaciststeve

if you are using Firefox… it doesn’t like some other browser or go to my facebook page

 

Example of a pharmacist providing “denial of care” … because they can.. no other reason(s) needed

My pain med refills were supposed to be picked up yesterday. Got a call from my PM doctor this morning saying I need to fill them at another pharmacy. Dropped them off on Monday, pharmacy manager said I can pick them up the 1st. So, called the Walmart where I’ve been getting ALL my prescriptions filled for for the past 6 yrs; same prescriptions every month. Although they did force me to stop taking my meds for severe insomnia; I was told to choose which medication and condition was more important. Sleeping 2 hrs a day, sometimes up for more than 36 hrs w/o sleep is incredibly bad for your health and overall well being (not that they give a shit)…but was forced to choose. I had hour long discussions 6 yrs ago with the pharmacy manager about why I needed them; was post-op from a 9 hr spine surgery, my 4th, had to show medical records to prove my conditions etc. I’ve been given pages and pages of docs over those 6 yrs, telling me about the dangers of opioids, the limits, etc., listened to degrading lectures and the manager telling me my son will find me dead on the floor etc.(I’m on VERY low doses compared to others), and suddenly, the other pharmacist decided after 6 yrs, he’s not going to fill my Opioid prescriptions anymore. He told me I have to have the pharmacy manager fill them bc he refuses to. The pharmacy manager is the one I dropped them off with and he said I could pick up on the 1st. So, suddenly after 6 years, only he can fill them bc the other refuses, for no reason at all. Never filled early, only use the one Walmart, same Dr, same prescriptions for 6 yrs, suddenly he refuses to fill them. Problem is the manager only works every other weekend. So, if I need to fill them and he’s off or pn vacation, I’ll have to wait days or weeks until he returns. If he gets transferred or quits, I’m screwed. This freaking pharmacist, after 6 yrs of no issues, has been suddenly delaying almost every one of my prescriptions for weeks, even for the hydroxyzine that I take for itching, for no reason at all, so I now often go without. Even Lunesta, he said I should only take as needed, and I said no, my doctor said 1 per day for a reason. He didn’t care, I was forced to go out of town for 2 weeks w/o my sleeping pills, which is extremely bad for my health as I said, I can go days without sleep. So, having showed the mgr ALL my medical records 6 yrs ago, explaining all my conditions, having many discussions, having a friendly relationship for 6 yrs, and carefully following the “rules” to avoid any issue that would raise red flags or denials, I thought I would be safe from denials and refusals to fill medically necessary Opioid medications. I was wrong, doesn’t matter what you do, you can follow all the rules, shown them medical records proving why they’re needed, never fill early, never take more than needed, stick with one doctor, one pharmacy, on and on, it DOESN’T MATTER ONE BIT!! A pharmacist can take away your treatment any time they feel like it, after 1 yr or 20 yrs, even if you follow everything “rule” to the letter, it doesn’t matter. ONE pharmacist controls your entire life, every aspect of it, and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it. They decide if you get out of bed, play with your kids, suffer excruciating pain…ONE human being who isn’t even medically trained, should NEVER have that kind of power..EVER!!! I’m absolutely fuming and pissed off. It’s out of control when legit patients are forced to suffer because of 1 person w/o the knowledge or training to know if it’s medically necessary or not! If a Democrat wins in 2020 and we’re forced onto govt, single payer healthcare with no choice, I can guarantee all pain relief will be banned and taken away from every single American. Screw those legit, responsible, law abiding ppl suffering, all they care about is the drug addicts who abuse legal drugs so they can take them away from all of us. Don’t see them cracking down on illegal drugs do you? They’re perfectly fine and doing zero with the tons of illegal drugs coming over the border. I for one am f’ing sick of this shit!!

This is from a Wal Mart Pharmacist in central FL..  At the end of 2015 the Florida Board of Pharmacy implemented new regulations that every Pharmacist was to have 2 hr of continued education every 2 yrs and that Pharmacist were not suppose to start looking for a reason to NOT FILL A PRESCRIPTION… I was at the board meeting in mid-June of 2015 and I heard the then “head” executive director ? – paid staff member… state that they were going to “teach Pharmacists COMMON SENSE”..  To the best of knowledge the FL Board of Pharmacy has never taken any action against a Pharmacist for refusing to fill a controlled substance with the reason “just because I can”…  Maybe they are not violating that regulation because they don’t even start looking for a reason to refuse to fill a controlled substance… the standard reason is the same for all pts ?

It was reported last year that Wal Mart was implementing a new “abuse score” on pts using Narxcare provided by the company https://apprisshealth.com/solutions/narxcare/.  Maybe this artificial algorithm has given this pt a HIGH SCORE and company policy mandates that they have to refuse to fill some of her controlled substances to get her “score down”..who knows…

It only appears from this message that the pt is suffering and the pharmacist is “gloating” that he “cut off another potential substance abuser”

http://www.ncpanet.org/home/find-your-local-pharmacy

 

pt with Stage 4 cancer.. going to same Rite Aid for decades – being screwed with by Pharmacist ?


Find your local independent pharmacytypically won’t screw with pt’s medically necessary meds