BY
NORMAN J CLEMENT RPH., DDS JACK FOLSON RPH
THIS PRESENTATION CONTAINS MUST-SEE VIDEOS WHICH SUPPORT THE NARRATIVE OF THIS ARTICLE
Black Pharmacy Owners, Lincourt Pharmacy LLC, Clearwater Fl., LewLadson owner, AT Cost Pharmacy, Ft. Myers Fl., Aaron Howard PharmD owner, Gulf Med Pharmacy Cape Coral Fl., Ricardo Fertil PharmD owner, Pronto Pharmacy LLC, Tampa Fl, Norman J Clement RPh., DDS, owner, have joined together in suing Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for harassment, and malicious targeting and return of Properties unjustifiably seized.
THE PROFILING OF LINCOURT PHARMACY, CLEARWATER FLORIDA
They have forced drug wholesalers to stop doing business with small pharmacies based on fictions quotas or sole because they perceived a Black pharmacist to be uppidity, arrogant, and making too much money.
Such is the case of Lewis Ladson, owner of Lincourt Pharmacy Clearwater Fl., in (black-own) business for some 35 years and was one of the largest Compound specialty sterile-non sterile pharmacies in America. Yet, Lincourt Pharmacy is not the only business this was happening all over the country everywhere. Ladson states,
“Congress must get character and stop being intimidated by DEA, and oversight is needed investigation by Inspector General is needed, The War on us (drugs) must be put to an end.”
While all 3 Pharmacies have been in business for more than 10 years yet, suddenly in 2019 Acting DEA Director Uttam Dhillion signed orders calling these and other Black-owned Pharmacies an “Imminent Danger to Public Health and Safety” or “Un-resolvable RED FLAGS.”
Pharmacist, Aaron Howard, says, ” this whole issue is based on an erroneous presumption of Red Flags…..that we are improperly dispensing control medications.” “This totally ridiculous; we check all prescriptions in my pharmacy. I’ve been a pharmacist for more than 15 years, and I am not a “PILL MILL.”
Patient drives miles to get medications “i was shot ran over by a car and I’m not a Junkie”
Pharmacist Ricardo Fertil states, ” this is a way of stereotyping black-owned businesses who are health professionals.”
While Pharmacist Norman J Clement points out they are using google maps to illegally track our patients and harassing our wholesalers. All 3 Pharmacists are graduates of Florida A&M University College of Pharmacy.
The Federal Court challenge in Florida is led by Attorney Dale Sisco of Tampa and based on the Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy of Oak Hill, West Virginia. Oak Hill is Black’s own pharmacy, which has successfully prevailed in several Court proceedings against the DEA and is lead by Attorney Issac R. Foreman.
Jack Folson RPh., a Pharmacist expert and activist who has testified in Michigan Courts on behalf of several Black Pharmacy owners, states, “This comes down to practicing Pharmacy while Black. In the past years alone at least 7 black-owned pharmacies we know of have been an attacked in a similar manner by the DEA, there are likely more. Black-owned Pharmacies are less than 1% of all American pharmacies but seem disproportionately targeted by the DEA.”
DEA’s RED FLAGS OF OLD JIM CROW
Red Flags – Distance
Due to the DEA’s aggressive policing of community pharmacies, most are reluctant to fill legitimate narcotic analgesic prescriptions for non-acute pain patients. Some patients are known to spend days on end looking for a pharmacy to fill their prescriptions to no avail. This has caused massive concern in the medical community.
ONE PATIENT Jklingenhofer WROTE:
“Thank you for speaking up on behalf of chronic pain patients and also acute pain patients. Another important side effect of this war on opioids is that surgical and post-surgical pain is being undermedicated by our doctors no hospitals, including some of our best hospitals in the country.
I am a chronic pain patient with a lifelong disease requiring many surgeries in my lifetime. I remember when pain wasn’t managed well, the short period when it was given the importance of a vital sign, back to being under medicated. I live in terror if having to have another surgery and have put off a needed surgery for well over a year now.“
One of the goals of therapy is continual treatment without gaps. When gaps in therapy occur, many deleterious effects occur. Indeed, pain management is much more difficult when anxiety and diminished mobility complicate the treatment plans.
Therefore, the real-world consequence is that when patients find a place to treat their pain with dignity and respect, they often share that information with others.
Pharmacies understand what needs to be accomplished in treating these patients with these critical needs. The DEA agency lacks an understanding of the basics of medical care for patients with chronic pain.
Red Flags – Cocktails, PatternS OF Prescribing
Pain Management is a very complex issue. More often than not, in chronic (non-acute) pain, comorbidities must be addressed. Therefore, when a practitioner finds a combination of medications that successfully treat chronic pain, they are reluctant to stray from that protocol.
It’s akin to other protocols that are used in medicine that address chronic conditions such as cancer protocols, ALS protocols, hypertension step-care therapy, anti-coagulation protocols, and others.
HECTOR PIETERSON: “TO PAY THE PRICE FOR FREEDOM”
Typically, there is inflammation, and therefore, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories are used. Patients often experience anxiety, so anti-anxiety agents such as benzodiazepines or tricyclics are used. In nociceptive pain, Gabapentin is often the first drug of choice. In lower back pain, whose underlying causes can be quite different from each other the presentation of muscle spasm or hypersensitivity, muscle relaxers such as cyclobenzaprine, metaxalone, baclofen, carisoprodol or others represent standard therapy.
It is unreasonable to expect a Diversion Investigator to completely understand these complex issues with their 6-week course when Physicians and Pharmacists require years of training to make adequate choices in this arena.
Red Flags – Non-resolvable red flags
As shown here, there is no such thing as a non-resolvable red flag. Any testimony to the contrary is either ill-informed or dishonest. For an expert to testify that they can determine diversion without looking at the prescription, interviewing the prescriber, or understanding the patient’s condition lacks credibility.
As has been shown in recent cases, “suspicion of diversion does not raise to the level of actual diversion.” This is accomplished by eviscerating the physician-patient relationship to establish illegitimacy and suspicion.
LIVING IN THE SPIRIT OF SANKOFA
for now,
you’re within the norms
