Each lawsuit names the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

Four drug distributor lawsuits removed to federal court

http://wvrecord.com/stories/511144093-four-drug-distributor-lawsuits-removed-to-federal-court

CHARLESTON – Four lawsuits against drug distributors for allegedly contributing to the opiate epidemic have been removed to federal court.

The lawsuits were filed by Mayor Charles Sparks, on behalf of the town of Kermit; Mayor Vivian Livinggood, on behalf of the town of Gilbert; Mayor Reba Honaker, on behalf of the city of Welch; and the Lincoln County Commission.

 

Each lawsuit names the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy; McKesson Corporation; AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation; and Cardinal Health 110. Miami-Luken is also named in Gilbert, Lincoln and Kermit’s lawsuits. Dr. Harold Anthony Cofer Jr. is named in Welch’s. Chip RX and George W. Chapman III is named in Lincoln’s. Cameron Justice was also named in Kermit’s.

The lawsuits all allege the defendants contributed to the opiate epidemic across the state by flooding pharmacies with Hydrocodone and Oxycodone. The BOP allegedly failed to timely investigate and resolve suspicious order reports.

The defendants played a significant role in creating what amounts to a public nuisance by flooding the area with excessive amounts of dangerous and addictive medications, according to the suits. The plaintiffs claim the defendants’ actions are a serious breach of the public trust, which has resulted in drug abuse, misuse, overdose deaths and untold expenses for the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs claim as distributors of inherently dangerous products like prescription narcotics, the defendants bore a significant duty to ensure that the drugs did not end up in the wrong hands and failed to do so.

In exchange for promising to honor their obligations, each of the defendant distributors was licensed and/or registered by the Board of Pharmacy and ultimately received compensation in the form of millions of dollars per year for shipping volumes of drugs well beyond what a reasonably company would expect, according to the suits.

The plaintiffs claim they were there to enforce codes, clean up streets and neighborhoods and repair and/or replace damaged and destroyed property.

In the notices of removal, the defendants claim complete diversity exists between the plaintiffs and defendants.

The plaintiffs are represented by H. Truman Chafin and Letitia N. Chafin of The Chafin Law Firm; Mark E. Troy of Troy Law Firm; Harry F. Bell Jr. of the Bell Law Firm; and John Yanchunis, Patrick Barthle and James Young of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.

The defendants are represented by Brian A. Glasser and Steven R. Ruby of Bailey & Glasser; Enu Mainigi, F. Lane Heard and Steven M. Pyser of Williams & Connolly; Thomas Hurney Jr. and Laurie K. Miller of Jackson Kelly; A.L. Emch and Adam J. Schwendeman of Jackson Kelly; Meredith S. Auten and Eric W. Sitarchuk of Morgan Lewis & Bockius; Russell D. Jessee and Devon J. Stewart of Steptoe & Johnson; and Geoffrey Hobart and Matthew Benov of Covington & Burling.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 2:17-cv-03369, 2:17-cv-03372, 2:17-cv-03366, 1:17-cv-03364

The vast majority of Boards of Pharmacy ( BOP) takes their primary charge to protect the public’s health and safety in a very limited manner.  If this BOP is found liable for contributing to the opiate epidemic  in WV.  This could open the flood gates for BOP’s to be sued for a number of issues that they have chosen to ignore  that should be within their primary charge.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Dayton Ohio area: 99% of opiate OD’s tested positive for ILLEGAL FENTANYL ANALOG

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

Dayton Ohio area: 99% of opiate OD’s tested positive for ILLEGAL FENTANYL ANALOG

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://ndews.umd.edu/sites/ndews.umd.edu/files/update-on-fentanyl-outbreaks-in-dayton-ohio-ou-r21-da042757-05-02-2017.pdf

 

Filed under: General Problems | 6 Comments »

Popular stomach acid blockers linked to higher death rates

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2017/07/03/26_GAMBLE_PRILOSEC_OTC.JPG_I1jfV5p_t2500.jpg?6913dd5f0afa17a0b7a91a88b4e808d586264d13

Popular stomach acid blockers linked to higher death rates

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/jul/04/popular-stomach-acid-blockers-linked-to-higher-dea/

A higher risk of death is associated with long-term use of popular stomach acid reducers known as proton pump inhibitors, according to a study of prescribed drugs published Monday.

These drugs are sold under brand names such as Prilosec, Nexium, Protonix and Zegerid, along with generic versions such as omeprazole, lansoprazole and pantoprazole. Originally sold only by prescription, they are increasingly available over the counter. The study didn’t examine over-the-counter use.

Previous studies have indicated elevated disease risks from PPI use. This study goes further by linking them to higher death rates.

Use of the drugs was associated with a 25 percent greater risk of death, compared with those using another class of acid reducers called H2 blockers. H2 blockers are sold under brand names including Pepcid, Tagamet and Zantac. They are also sold under generic names, including famotidine, cimetidine and ranitidine.

Millions of veterans’ prescription records were examined across an average of nearly six years for the study. It was published in the journal BMJ Open. The senior author was Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of VA Saint Louis Health Care System. Go to j.mp/acidppi for the study.

Doctors shouldn’t be deterred from prescribing these drugs when medically indicated, the study said, but only long enough to provide benefits that outweighs the risks. The increased mortality associated with PPIs was proportionately linked to their duration of use.

Acid reducers treat painful ailments including GERD (gastroesophogeal reflux disease), heartburn and peptic ulcers. According to prescription records, more than 15 million Americans are estimated to use proton pump inhibitors, a number that doesn’t include those who buy them over the counter.

For the study’s main analysis, Department of Veterans Affairs records of 349,312 patients were used. Of those, 275,977 were prescribed PPIs, and 73,335 prescribed H2 blockers. This produced the 25 percent increase in death rate among PPI users.

Two secondary comparisons were also made. One found a 15 percent increased death rate for PPI users compared to those who didn’t use PPIs but may have used another kind of acid suppressor. Records from 3,288,092 patients were examined for that comparison.

In the other comparison, the death rate was 23 percent higher among PPI users compared to those who didn’t use any acid suppressors at all. A total of 2,887,070 patient records were examined for that analysis.

The study’s comparisons were observational, so the conclusions are not as definitive as a randomized placebo-controlled study.

Another limitation is that the patients were “mostly older, white male U.S. veterans,” the study said, so the results may not apply to a larger population. Also, the study didn’t get information on the cause of deaths.

However, the study is consistent with previous ones finding long-term use of PPIs, but not H2 blockers, is associated with higher disease rates. These include kidney disease, dementia, infection by the antibiotic-resistant superbug C. difficile and other ailments.

Proton pump inhibitors work by a different mechanism than H2 blockers, explaining the differing responses. PPIs block stomach cells called parietal cells from releasing positively charged hydrogen atoms, or protons, into the stomach. This inhibits production of stomach acid, chemically known as hydrochloric acid.

H2 blockers stop the action of histamine, which stimulates parietal cells to produce hydrochloric acid. This indirect method is less efficient than that of PPIs, but is sufficient for many patients.

A 2016 study in JAMA Neurology found a 44 percent increased risk of dementia among those using PPIs.

PPIs can cause nutritional deficiencies, since acid is needed to release essential nutrients such as vitamin B12. Since stomach acid kills pathogenic bacteria; use of acid reducers has been linked to increased rates of food poisoning.

A 2015 study led by Stanford University researchers found that use of PPIs, but not H2 blockers, is associated with higher risk of heart attacks.

And in one of the most unusual side effects, proton pump inhibitors have been found to cause visual hallucinations in some patients with wet macular degeneration.

Dr. Anne Hanneken, a San Diego ophthalmologist, co-authored a 2013 study describing the phenomenon in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. Go to j.mp/retinappi for the study.

It started with an 89-year-old patient who suddenly developed vivid hallucinations of little black polka dots. The hallucinations were severe enough to prevent her from living independently.

Hanneken couldn’t find a cause, but kept the record until she encountered another macular degeneration patient with a similar complaint, and found they were both taking PPIs.

After teaming up with retinal expert Wallace B. Thoreson, they figured out that the PPIs reached the retina through leaky blood vessels caused by wet macular degeneration. There, the PPIs interfered with proton pumps in retinal cells.

These hallucinations occur in a minority of patients, Hanneken said. Moreover, if people stop taking the PPIs quickly, the hallucinations dissipate readily.

In another twist, Hanneken discovered that the hallucinations can be suppressed with the drug gabapentin, sold under the trade name Neurontin. This drug reduces neuronal activity, and is used to treat epilepsy and neuropathic pain. However, the drug can also caused blurred vision, because it can also interfere with visual processing.

“Every year I see about three people who come in for unexplained visual loss,” Hanneken said. “They say everything’s sort of blurry and they don’t know why. And it turns out that their neurologist started them on Neurontin for some leg pain.”

Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »

I Love FACTOIDS… they are typically so easily BUSTED

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

There was enough opiate prescriptions filled in ONE YEAR to give each resident a bottle of OPIATES

https://www.statista.com/statistics/261303/total-number-of-retail-prescriptions-filled-annually-in-the-us/

In 2016 there was 4.51 BILLION prescriptions filled in the USA… with a population of abt 320 MILLION that comes out to abt 14 prescription for EACH PERSON.

Let’s assume that the one prescription per person is a FACT… meaning that there would be 320 million opiate prescriptions filled..

BUT WAIT… a chronic pain pt would need – TWELVE PRESCRIPTIONS PER YEAR – presuming 30 days supply of each…  Suggesting that those 320 million prescription would only take care of abt 26 million chronic pain pts..  or about EIGHT PER-CENT OF THE POPULATION.

BUT WAIT… there are people having to deal with acute… surgery, broken bones and the like..  let’s presume that 15% of the 320 million are for acute pain…  subtract 48 million … leaving 272 million for chronic pain pts…or  some 22 million chronic pain pts get 12 prescriptions a year..

BUT WAIT… standard of care and best practices indicates that a chronic pain pt should be getting both a long action and short acting – for breakthru – opiate.  Which would mean that abt 11 million chronic pain pts would get opiate therapy that conforms to accepted best practices and standard of care.

BUT WAIT… there is an estimated 100+ million chronic pain pts…

BUT WAIT… when the bureaucrats state that having enough opiate prescriptions to furnish everyone a prescription…  IS A BAD THING…  Are they really saying that they support/endorse under treating/un-treating the vast majority of chronic pain pts is a GOOD THING or a BAD THING ?

Since PAIN is generally considered a part of TORTURE… are our politicians and bureaucrats encouraging the TORTURING of our citizens ?

FACTOID DISPELLED !!

 

 

Filed under: General Problems | 6 Comments »

This Congressman REPRESENTS WHO … not all the VOTERS ?

Posted on July 3, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

Vet With Chronic Pain Denied Access to his Congressman

www.nationalpainreport.com/vet-with-chronic-pain-denied-access-to-his-congressman-8833959.html

by Ed Coghlan

A veteran with chronic pain wants to talk to his Congressman—and another attempt to do that on Monday failed.

Robert Rose is a 51-year old Marine who believes the Mountain Home VA Center in Johnson City, Tennessee has been denying him care and has been quite vocal about it,

Congressman Roe was scheduled to speak at the Mountain Home VA Center at 11 am—and Rose–well known to the VA authorities because of his protests about his care—arrived early, he said, to speak with other veterans.

Rose called me and told me that he had been told by the VA law enforcement people that he would be arrested if he said anything at the Congressional hearing and asked me what I should do.

“I told him I was a reporter not an advocate and it wasn’t my job to advise him about that–but let me know what happened.”

That call came at 9:41 EDT.

My phone rang again at 9:57 and again it was Rose who told me he was being escorted into the building by three officers–and I asked him to put me on speaker. We were on the phone for nearly 30 minutes to hear the exchange between Rose and VA law enforcement.

A VA policeman, later identified as Sergeant King, said to Rose,

“You are not being arrested,” but he was being urged to come with them to discuss the situation.

Sgt. King wanted to know who I was and said I could not record a conversation on federal grounds and wanted to end the phone call. I assured him I wasn’t and if I was recording anything I would have to let him know that and he agreed to let me continue to listen.

Essentially Sgt. King told Rose that he had received a complaint about him yelling and being disruptive at the Congressman’s entourage.

Rose, with some passion, explained that he was 30 feet from the roadway (a fact confirmed by a VA official) and wasn’t even on the sidewalk and that he had been talking with a fellow vet and his wife.

Rose asked twice (and I asked a third time) who had made the complaint and Sgt. King said he couldn’t say.

Later when I asked him, the Sergeant said that the “Congressman’s staff felt on edge,” but did not elaborate.

Rose, who is in a wheelchair, was told that they didn’t want to arrest him and was asked essentially to behave.

During the speech, he behaved but he silently protested.

During Congressman Roe’s speech, Rose, sitting in his wheelchair, turned his back on the Congressman–who by the way in an Army veteran himself and–importantly–Chairman of the House Committee on Veteran Affairs.

After the speech, Rose said his path to the Congressman was blocked by the VA Police and he wasn’t allowed to speak to him.

I asked Rose if he had any photos and he said that he was told he would have been arrested had he taken any, although local media did attend and took photos and video.

Rose, who said he’s lost count of how many times he’s tried to speak with Congressman Roe, believes the VA Police were trying intimidate him and illegally detained him before the meeting.

The National Pain Report called Roe’s office in Kingsport, but received a recording because they are on holiday today and tomorrow (July 4).

If they call back, we’ll let you know what they say.

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

DOJ civil rights division: IS Dreiband “the wrong person for the job.” ?

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

Civil rights advocates concerned with Trump’s pick to lead DOJ civil rights divisionCivil rights advocates concerned with Trump’s pick to lead DOJ civil rights division

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/340402-civil-rights-advocates-concerned-with-trumps-pick-to-lead-doj-civil

Civil rights advocates are raising alarm over President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

Trump nominated attorney Eric Dreiband, who has represented corporations on matters such as civil rights and employment discrimination, to lead the DOJ’s civil rights division on Thursday.

Dreiband has represented various corporations such as Bloomberg, CVS Pharmacy and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. He also served in George W. Bush’s administration as general counsel for the Equal Opportunity Commission.However, the official who led the division under former President Obama issued a statement saying Dreiband is “the wrong person for the job.”

“He has opposed important legislation to safeguard our civil rights. And he has no known experience in most of the Civil Rights Division’s core issue areas, such as voting rights, police reform, housing, education, and hate crimes. He is the wrong person for the job,” Vanita Gupta, who now leads the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said in a statement.

“Dreiband’s nomination, however, continues the Trump administration’s disturbing trend of retreating from — if not outright undermining — fundamental civil rights priorities,” the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said in a statement on Medium.

The White House pushed back on the claims against Dreiband saying nominees are selected based “on the merits of their character and not on the clients they once represented as counsel.”

“Mr. Dreiband is highly qualified to run the civil rights division, and we are privileged to have his service,” White House spokeswoman Kelly Love told CNN.

Should all the those in the chronic pain community and others that are covered under the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disability Act start to align with each other… to CAUSE CHANGE ?

 

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

Cost Containment by the Insurance Industry ?

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

This was a post on a FB page for chronic painers today:

Our world is going to crap. An insurance company just proposed to a doctor that two patients that needed treatment in another state, that they wouldn’t pay for treatment but would pay for assisted suicide. Look out everyone. When our laws are willing to let someone die that is suffering from a disease called addiction and kill another two that needed expensive treatment we are all in trouble. Wake up Americans

 

Filed under: General Problems | 7 Comments »

What happened to the OBESITY EPIDEMIC ?

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

Image result for cartoon obesity empidemic

850 will die from OBESITY — TODAY 

Remember a year or two ago… nightly in the media… there was WARNINGS about our OBESITY EPIDEMIC ?

But it is estimated that  850 DIED EVERY DAY IN 2016 from OBESITY.  Obesity is the FOURTH LARGEST CAUSE OF DEATH.. behind Heart Disease, Cancer & Tobacco/Nicotine.

Since 850 deaths per day … would appear to be AT LEAST TEN TIMES the number of opiate OD death per day that is being reported…  as an EPIDEMIC

I guess that a EPIDEMIC is in the eye of the beholder and what they can get the media to believe

Does that mean that the MEDIA is pretty gullible or the public is pretty gullible about all the fake epidemic(s) that various parts of our society is allowed to fabricate and promote.

Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »

The 800 lb gorilla in the room ?

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

PALLIATIVE CARE diagnosis – exempts pt from daily opiate limits

The above post was about two Maine residents that threatened to sue the state over their mandated daily opiate dosing limits.

Most/many/all of the state’s opiate dosing limits and the “guidelines” published by the CDC and which many entities are adopting as their standard of care and best practices for treating chronic pain pts have pt’s conditions that would exempt them from the daily mgs limits.

That is the GOOD NEWS… but the 800 lb Gorilla in the room may be that I have not seen anything from the DEA that they are going to recognize those exemptions.  Are the going to continue on their hap-hazard approach in determining who is operating a “pill mill” ?

The DEA still have to continue their work to protect/grow their 81 billion/yr war on drugs and could their job security trump any concerns for chronic pain pt’s health/safety and quality of life ?

We always seem to hear about the number of  “bodies” that are suppose to be attached to an accused “pill mill” office.. but.. we never seem to have the numbers of “bodies” that result from the DEA shutting down a prescribers office as pts from those offices are thrown into cold turkey withdrawal and elevated untreated pain.  It is also a fairly well known situation where those pts that had been seen by the closed practice often have the sigma of that RED “A” on their forehead and will not be accepted as a pt by another physician practice or clinic  

 

Filed under: General Problems | 4 Comments »

Are criminals SMARTER ….or… Bureaucrats just DUMBER ?

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve

DEA official: ‘Marijuana black market has increased exponentially’

http://beatricedailysun.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/dea-official-marijuana-black-market-has-increased-exponentially/article_1eecc057-12c5-5aae-98d2-1958872bd4fc.html

DENVER — A mammoth marijuana trafficking ring that pretended to be growing weed for sick people was instead illegally shipping the drug to a half-dozen other states and bilking investors, including former NFL players, Colorado officials announced Wednesday.

A Denver grand jury indicted 62 people and 12 businesses in the case that involved federal and state agents executing nearly 150 search warrants at 33 homes and 18 warehouses and storage units in the Denver area.

“The black market for marijuana has not gone away since recreational marijuana was legalized in our state, and in fact continues to flourish,” state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in a statement.

 

The indictment targets the largest illegal marijuana operation discovered since Colorado legalized recreational pot in 2012, Coffman said.

It says the enterprise produced more than 100 pounds of illegal pot each month for shipment to Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and other states.

The ring operated from 2012 until 2016 and raked in an estimated $200,000 a month, Coffman said.

The defendants were charged with 31 felony counts of money-laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes. Most are now under arrest awaiting trial dates in Denver District Court.

Prosecutors say that one of the conspirators, Connor Brooks, duped friends, including two former pro football players, into investing in his scheme.

Brooks got money from Erik Pears, a free agent most recently with the San Francisco 49ers, and Joel Dreessen, a former Denver Broncos tight end, the indictment says.

Neither football player is accused of a crime, and the indictment does not say how much the two invested in what they thought was a legal marijuana business. Other investors gave money, too, the indictment said.

“These individuals each provided tens of thousands of dollars to Connor Brooks to fund an allegedly legal grow operation, and they did not receive any of their invested funds back from Connor Brooks as promised,” the indictment said.

It was not immediately clear if Brooks or any other defendants had an attorney.

 

In addition to growing black-market pot in private homes, the indictment says, some defendants ran phony marijuana consulting businesses or leasing agencies.

Some held partial ownership in a suburban Denver store that sells marijuana growing supplies, which the indictment says allowed them to have ready access to nutrients, pesticides and other supplies. The name of that store was not listed.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, along with the Kansas State Patrol and Nebraska State Patrol, participated in the investigation.

“Since 2014 there has been an influx of these organized criminal groups to Colorado for the sole purpose of producing marijuana to sell in other states,” said Barbra Roach, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Denver Field Division.

In a statement, Roach said “the marijuana black market has increased exponentially since state legalization.”

The indictment was returned June 9 and announced Wednesday by Coffman.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »