BY
NORMAN J CLEMENT RPH., DDS, NORMAN L.CLEMENT PHARM-TECH, MALACHI F. MACKANDAL PHARMD, BELINDA BROWN-PARKER, JOSEPH SOLVO ESQ., REV. C.T. VIVIAN, JELANI ZIMBABWE CLEMENT, BS., MBA., WILLIE GUINYARD BS., JOSEPH WEBSTER MD., MBA, SHELLEY HIGHTOWER, BS., Beverly C. Prince facs., MD., PHARMD., LEROY BAYLOR, ADRIENNE EDMUNDSON, WALTER L. SMITH BS., NATASHA DUVALL, PHARMD., LEROY BAYLOR, BS., MS., MS., BRAHM FISHER ESQ., MICHELE ALEXANDER, ESTHER HYATT PH.D., CUDJOE WILDING BS, DEBRA LYNN SHEPHERD, BERES E. MUSCHETT, STRATEGIC ADVISORS
CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY DEFINES SYSTEMIC RACISM AS:
Systemic Racism noun /sɪˌstem.ɪk ˈreɪ.sɪ.zəm/ /sɪˌstem.ɪk ˈreɪ.sɪ.zəm/
Policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race:
We must address the racial inequities and systemic racism that exist in our criminal justice system.
There were frequent claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality, and systemic racism at the tech giant.
The group challenged government inaction, political hypocrisy, and systemic racism while offering peace to a grieving community.
“CHANGE CANNOT WAIT”
AG MYRICK GARLAND, EXPOSING THE PATTERN. OF UNLAWFUL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL POLICING IN MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT IS IDENTICAL TO THE BEHAVIOR OF THE DEA
The US ‘War on Drugs has had a profound role in reinforcing racial hierarchies. Although Black Americans are no more likely than Whites to use illicit drugs, they are 6–10 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses. Meanwhile, a very different system for responding to the drug use of Whites has emerged.”
A group of Black Pharmacy Owners found themselves under racist attack by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They organized together along with a diverse group of Black Scholars into a Think Tank called the North Star Pharmacy Group and began identifying and exposing systemic racial drug policies and injustices in healthcare delivery policies within both DEA/DOJ. They’ve further exposed a long history of racial targeting of black community leaders, black-owned pharmacy businesses, and physicians by DEA/DOJ; there is a demand for Congress to ACT, to investigate this agency.
EXPOSING THE PAIN OF RACISM AND ITS MINDSET IN TREATMENT OF THE TERMINALLY ILL BLACK AND HISPANIC PATIENTS
The year is April 2002, Karen O. Anderson Ph.D. and her colleagues Stephen P. Richman M.D.Judith Hurley M.D.Guadalupe Palos R.N., Dr.PH.Vicente Valero M.D.Tito R. Mendoza Ph.D.Ibrahima Gning D.D.S.Charles S. Cleeland Ph.D. published in the Journal of American Cancer Society, an article called Cancer Pain Management Among Underserved Minority Outpatients ;Perceived Needs and Barriers to Optimal Control, examiing the role of bias and the mindset of medical clinicians in the treatment of pain in terminally ill cancer patients stating:
“Minority patients with cancer are at risk for undertreatment of cancer‐related pain. Most studies of patient‐related barriers to pain control have surveyed primarily non‐Hispanic Caucasian patients. The purpose of the current study was to explore barriers to optimal pain management among African‐American and Hispanic patients with cancer through the use of structured patient interviews. Structured interviews allowed the authors to probe for previously unidentified barriers to pain management in these populations.”
Pain due to cancer often is under-managed, especially among minority patients. Data from outpatients collected through the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) indicate that 42% of patients with recurrent or metastatic carcinoma and pain are treated inadequately for their pain. We identified a number of factors that increase the risk of under management of cancer pain, including receiving treatment at an institution that serves primarily African‐American and Hispanic patients and a patient‐physician discrepancy in the estimate of pain severity.1 Because minority patients are at risk for under management of pain, we completed a second ECOG outpatient study of minority patients. Analysis of this minority extension revealed that 59% of African‐American outpatients and 74% of Hispanic outpatients with cancer‐related pain received less than adequate analgesic prescriptions.2“
RACIAL INDIFFERENCE IS CORRUPTION
“Recent data suggest some improvement in analgesic prescribing practices for African‐American and Hispanic patients who have cancer. A multisite survey of minority patients with cancer who experienced cancer‐related pain revealed that most of the patients were receiving analgesics of appropriate strength.3 However, 65% of patients reported severe pain and limited pain relief. The reason for the discrepancy between the analgesic and pain intensity data may be due to inadequate dosages and/or patient nonadherence to analgesic regimens. In addition, the patients’ physicians underestimated pain severity for over half of the Hispanic and African‐American patients. The patients’ physicians and nurses identified inadequate pain assessment, patient reluctance to report pain, and patient reluctance to take opioids as major barriers to pain management.
Similarly, studies of ECOG and Radiation Therapy Oncology Group physicians revealed that significant barriers to cancer pain control are inadequate pain assessment, patient reluctance to report pain, and patient reluctance to take pain medications.4, 5 In a study of patients with cancer pain who required opioid analgesics, concerns about addiction and other possible side effects of opioids (e.g., mental confusion, increased tolerance) were associated strongly with reluctance to report pain and willingness to experience pain rather than take opioid analgesics.6 A separate study of patient‐related barriers in a sample of patients with cancer found that the majority of the patients held beliefs that may be barriers to pain management.7 Patients who were less educated or who had lower incomes were significantly more likely to hold these beliefs.
Most studies of patient‐related barriers to pain control have surveyed primarily non‐Hispanic Caucasian patients. Although minority patients share the same concerns that limit pain control in non‐Hispanic white patients,8–10 data from the ECOG outpatient studies described above suggest that some of these concerns may be reported more frequently among minority patients.1, 2 Similarly, a recent study of patients with cancer who received analgesics from home health or hospice agencies found that Hispanic patients were more likely than Caucasian patients to report beliefs (e.g., take pain medicines only when pain is severe) that may hinder effective pain management.11“
THE APRIL 2002 STUDY SHOWS DON’T GET CANCER IF YOU ARE BLACK OR HISPANIC
Patient Perceptions of Pain Treatment
“There were no significant differences between the two ethnic groups with regard to their medication use. Forty‐three percent of African‐American patients and 24% of Hispanic patients did not know the name of their pain medication. However, most Hispanic patients (94%) and African‐American patients (92%) could report how often they took pain medication and how much they took. Over half of the patients in each ethnic group (69% of African‐American patients and 59% of Hispanic patients) reported that they took their pain medication as prescribed by their physicians. However, 29% of Hispanic patients and 15% of African‐American patients stated that they took less medication than prescribed. Fifteen percent of African‐American patients and 12% of Hispanic patients indicated that they took more pain medication than prescribed.
The majority of African‐American patients (75%) and Hispanic patients (76%) reported some problems with side effects from pain medicines. Constipation was the most commonly reported side effect by both African‐American patients (50%) and Hispanic patients (59%). Sedation (grogginess) was described by 42% of African‐American patients and by 24% of Hispanic patients. Nausea was reported by 35% of Hispanic patients and by 25% of African‐American patients. Less frequently reported side effects were emesis, dizziness, and stomach pain.
Forty‐two percent of African‐American patients and 29% of Hispanic patients described some difficulty obtaining pain medications. The most frequently reported barriers were physician reluctance to prescribe opioids, cost, and limited availability. Difficulty obtaining prescriptions for opioids from their physicians was described by 25% of African‐American patients but by none of the Hispanic patients. Cost was described as a barrier for 17% of African‐American patients and by 6% of Hispanic patients. Limited availability of opioids in a local pharmacy was a barrier for 12% of Hispanic patients and for 8% of African‐American patients. Theft of medication was not a major problem. One African‐American patient and two Hispanic patients reported that someone had taken their pain medication from them on at least one occasion.
Twenty‐five percent of African‐American patients and 12% of Hispanic patients reported that they received an analgesic prescription that they never had filled. The reasons for not filling the prescription were similar for patients in the two ethnic groups: spontaneous improvement in pain, they had tried the analgesic previously and did not find it helpful, and fear of opioid medications. Forty‐two percent of African‐American patients and 18% of Hispanic patients admitted that they had filled a prescription for pain medication but had not taken it. The nonadherent patients in both ethnic groups reported similar reasons for discontinuing the medication: unacceptable side effects, no improvement in their pain after trying the analgesic, and spontaneous improvement in their pain.”
Meaning of Cancer Pain
When they were asked to describe what pain meant to them, 73% of African‐American patients talked about pain as hurt. Another 27% of African‐American patients described pain as limited activity and impaired function. Only one African‐American patient described pain as suffering. In contrast, 53% of Hispanic patients described pain as physical and/or emotional suffering. Another 18% of Hispanic patients defined pain as part of their disease or sickness. Twelve percent of Hispanic patients described pain as nothing. The remaining Hispanic patients (17%) described pain as death, hurt, or a way to get closer to God.
Eighty‐eight percent of Hispanic patients and 82% of African‐American patients reported some thoughts about why they had cancer. Many African‐American patients (45%) and Hispanic patients (24%) questioned whether their cancer had resulted from exposure to toxins in their work or home environments or from lifestyle factors (e.g., smoking). Another 29% of Hispanic patients and 18% of African‐American patients described their cancer as due to the will of God or fate. Other patients (24% of Hispanic patients and 18% of African‐American patients) indicated that they had wondered why me but had not answered that question. None of the patients reported thoughts about why they had cancer pain. When they were asked to describe changes in their lives caused by pain, 45% of African‐American patients and 41% of Hispanic patients reported general activity and work limitations due to pain. Fifty‐five percent of African‐American patients and 24% of Hispanic patients described changes in family and social activities and responsibilities caused by pain. Mood changes due to pain were reported by 18% of Hispanic patients and by 18% of African‐American patients. Only half of the African‐American patients and 57% of Hispanic patients had told their physicians about the changes in their lives caused by pain.
When they were asked what information should be included in educational materials on cancer pain, the patients in both ethnic groups suggested information about pain medications, working with physicians to manage pain, and using religious faith to cope with pain. Other suggestions were to encourage patients to keep going and to have a positive outlook. Several patients suggested that educational materials should include suggestions for helping family members to understand about cancer pain.
DISCUSSION
Our results provide important information on the perceived pain‐management needs and barriers to pain management for socioeconomically disadvantaged African‐American and Hispanic patients with cancer. Although most of the patients in each ethnic group were prescribed analgesics that were appropriate for their pain intensity, more than 75% of the patients in both groups reported severe pain intensity. Both patient groups also reported that their analgesic medications provided less than optimal pain relief. The discrepancy between the PMI data and reported pain intensity and pain relief is consistent with our previous findings and may be due to several factors.3 It is possible that the patients were not receiving adequate dosages of their analgesics. One limitation of the current study is that we did not assess actual dosages of analgesics. Another possible reason for the discrepancy is that patients were not adhering to their prescribed regimens. Over 40% of Hispanic patients and 30% of African‐American patients reported nonadherence to the prescribed regimens. Although some of these patients took more medication than prescribed when their pain increased, they often failed to take their analgesics around the clock as recommended by their physicians. These patients typically did not understand the benefits of taking pain medication on a regular basis.
In addition, patients sometimes took less medication than prescribed due to side effects of analgesics. Although most of the patients reported some difficulty with side effects, very few patients were told in advance about possible side effects or how to manage them. For example, no patient reported receiving dietary recommendations for preventing constipation, the most common side effect associated with opioids.
The majority of the interviewed patients in each ethnic group reported many concerns about taking opioid medications for their pain. A belief in the importance of stoicism was evident. Over 75% of the patients in each group agreed to some extent with the belief that one should be strong and not lean on pain medications. Concerns about possible addiction and the development of tolerance also were frequently endorsed beliefs. Most patients indicated some reluctance to complain about their pain to their health care providers and questioned whether pain medications would be effective. Although more African‐American patients than Hispanic patients wondered why their doctor did not know about their pain and treat it effectively, this difference was not significant (P = 0.07).
IN 2021 HAS ANYTHING CHANGED???
Unfortunately, 25% of African‐American patients described physician reluctance to prescribe opioid medications for their pain. Some of these patients commented that their physicians warned them about possible addiction to pain medication. Although no Hispanic patients reported physician reluctance to prescribe opioids, 35% of Hispanic patients were receiving analgesics that were inadequate for the severity of their pain. When opioid analgesics were prescribed, most patients did not have difficulty obtaining them from the hospital or clinic pharmacy. Lack of availability of a prescribed opioid in a neighborhood pharmacy was described as a barrier by 10% of the interviewed patients. The cost was described as a barrier to obtaining pain medication by another 10% of patients. Most patients, however, were able to obtain financial assistance with the costs of medication.
These attacks upon African American own Pharmacies in Florida is raced based
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BLACK-OWNED PHARMACIES
“WE ARE PHARMACISTS, NOT DRUG DEALERS“
The Department of justice DEA office has claimed that pharmacies have ignored their legal duty to prevent the diversion of narcotic painkillers for illicit uses.
The Agents of the DEA have deceived the courts to secured search administration warrants and Search Warrants. Within the State of Florida, the agents claim they raid Pharmacies to slow down the Opioid crisis within Florida. This claim is so far deceptive that it fails to document the facts that illegal fentanyl has sales as increased. Also, in Florida DEA agents have be illegally been employed by Drug Cartels.
This combination of efforts has caused the DEA to be the gatekeeper and sub-recipients of drug sales into the United States. Their efforts to undermine legal sales have promoted the sales of illegal sales. They have caused this by means of searches and seizures based on reasonable suspicion to remove all Class 2 medication and equipment. The multidimensional levels of corrupted behavior have allowed the DEA to view themselves as enforcers of justice within their own eyes, they see no wrong.
As this agency continues on its trajectory, it will soon develop into murderous acts to protect the agency or themselves from detection. This agency has subordinated the laws in exchange to justify their actions. Right or wrong they stand behind what they do and believe. This deliberate drive to be has shifted a once know and professional agency, to accept ‘deviant, dishonest, improper, unethical or criminal behavior.
The men and women of this once well-known and respected agency would understand the impact of deception. Today the DEA does not and cannot accept errors of their ways.
Corruption causes blindness to the facts of the laws. This blindness has caused the DEA to become numb and not objective at viewing right from wrong.
Why did DEA deliberately make their way into African American-owned pharmacies and seize medication and equipment? After seizing pharmaceuticals medication and equipment this agency cannot find the medications and equipment. What did they do with it? A poorly managed and poorly run law enforcement organization functions with a handicap of corruption.
What are the real reasons behind the DEA efforts to shut down African American pharmacist?
LINCOURT PHARMACYCLEARWATER, FLORIDA
Lincourt Pharmacy of Clearwater, Florida has been in business for nearly 40 years. They are a specialty pharmacy in compounding sterile and non-sterile products and were doing over $15 million per year with sales all over the world. Louis Lassiter, who is the pharmacist-owner states that “his business dropped dramatically when the DEA came around and began targeting and harassing his wholesalers.” Let’s not be fooled. This the work of Susan Langston and demonstrates how the DEA begins to target Black Own Pharmacy Businesses.
THE DELIBERATE WRONGDOING EXPOSING DEA CORRUPTIONTHEIR INTIMIDATION OF WHOLESALERS
These tribulations are no different from what our forbearers experienced, Predatory Policingthat enforces Regulatory Racism. Therefore, it is not a matter of what you’re doing right, it is about putting you in your place. A place of eternal servitude, despair, and the maintenance of generational subjectivity (we are but low-hanging fruit). There is absolutely no evidence of diversion not in Pronto, At Cost, Superior Drug Pharmacy, Lincourt Pharmacy what interpretation that corresponding responsibility act as a cop and results in withholding of medications without putting anything in writing.
35 AGENTS OF DEA RAID PRONTO PHARMACY AUGUST 29, 2019.
On August 29, 2019, waged a well-coordinated attack implemented by both the DEA and Florida Department of Health on Pronto Pharmacy. The Agents of the DEA have deceived the courts to secured search administration warrants and Search Warrants. Their actions were beyond the scope of service of a certified law enforcement agency. Upon entering, a DEA Agent is videotaped removing and disabling Pronto Pharmacy’s camera systems, wherein they damaged and destroyed several articles of equipment. (SEE BELOW VIDEO)
DEA Diversion Investigator Richard James Albert so entered the premises of Pronto Pharmacy LLC., based on the assumption that lead Pharmacist Norman J Clement, his family, and those employed were illegally manufacturing Oxycodone and Hydromorphone based on suspicion and dispensing high doses of illegally controlled prescriptions.
The DEA has learned the rewards are even better against a doctor, dentist, pharmacist, manufacturer, or hospital using RICO and Justice Department intimidations. Further, the DEA has its own Court System ( that Operates as a Kangaroo Court), which does not adhere to Federal Rules of Civil Procedures. Their Judges answer solely to the head of the DEA.
https://videopress.com/embed/noz5NgRf?preloadContent=metadata&hd=1 MR. GERALD KILEY
We Demand hearings from Congress as the activity of the DEA affects the lives of all of America during this Covid pandemic by creating disparity and shortages and the majority of the times this has been done by race.
Yet it is clear that the DEA agents were operating in absence from the law whereby Richard Albert, testified on January 28, 2020, in a DEA Federal Court Hearing that he did not “Know or understand the law(s) or how any law apply to the practice of Pharmacy.” There is no evidence that any medication was being diverted. (6)
9/17/opinion/drugs-dea-defund-heroin.html
DEA: THE INTIMIDATION AND CORRUPTION
THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE “WAR ON DRUGS” AND THE LONG HISTORY OF FUNDING CORRUPTIONS-FRAUD AND WHY IT IS TIME FOR CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATION
The year is 2003 Tulia, Texas site of one of the largest miscarriages of justice in America. This CBS 60-minute broadcast, narrated by the late journalist Ed Bradley points out a “War on Drugs” program funded by the United States Department of Justice, was being used specifically use to target arrest and imprison black citizens on cocaine charges. (Watch below CBS 60 miniutes Video broadcast 2003)
THE ECONOMIC LYNCHING OF OAK HILL PHARMACY OF OAK HILL, WEST VIRGINIA A BLACK-OWNED PHARMACY
In West Virginia, a state hard hit by the overdose crisis, the DEA raided and temporarily revoked a dispensing license for the Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy in August 2019 until a federal court intervened. The pharmacy dispenses buprenorphine, and a federal judge agreed that DEA’s actions created barriers to lifesaving addiction treatment in an area with few providers. Martin Njoku, the pharmacy’s manager, said the license suspension and legal costs nearly put the pharmacy out of business.
SO WHY IS OAK HILL PHARMACY STILL BEING PROSECUTED
Oak Hill Home Town Pharmacy, Oak Hill, WV owner Martin Ndoku in business 15 years, raided August 6, 2019 “an imminent danger to the public health or safety”
A. judge-dissolves-iso-against-west-virginia-pharmacy-suspicion-of-diversion-not-enough-to-support-sus-1“OAK HILL PHARMACY DISSOLVING ISO ORDER”
Oak Hill Home Town Pharmacy, Oak Hill, WV owner Martin Ndjoku in business 15 years, raided August 6, 2019 “an imminent danger to the public health or safety”
A. judge-dissolves-iso-against-west-virginia-pharmacy-suspicion-of-diversion-not-enough-to-support-sus-1“OAK HILL PHARMACY DISSOLVING ISO ORDER”
Despite prevailing in the Federal District Court, the DEA pushes on against scientists and true medical experts to harass and prosecute Martin Ndjou, owner of Oak Hill Pharmacy. Repeatedly, the DEA has been found to have abused its authority. The agency has a history of human rights abuses, lavish payments to confidential informants, and Americans’ surveillance with no suspected connection to illegal drug activities.
OAK HILL PHARMACY PREVAILED IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT
OAK HILL PHARMACY, OAK HILL WEST VIRGINIA
THE SAGA OF OAK HILL HOMETOWN PHARMACY IS THE SAGA OF THE BLACK-OWNED PHARMACY TARGETED FOR EXTINCTION
These Black-owned pharmacies fall well within the foundation of the American System of Caste, “The Origins of Discontent,” described by author Isabelle Wilkerson, “where their degraded station justifies their degradation, as they are consigned to the lowest, dirtiest jobs and thus were seen as lowly and dirty and everyone in the caste system absorbed the message of their degradation.” (8)
“….BOTH HOUSE AND SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEES MUST GIVE OVERSIGHT, INVESTIGATE AND REORGANIZE THE DEA….”
Many of these Black-owned Pharmacies have been in business for more than 10 years.
In just the past 6 months at least 7 or more Black-owned Pharmacies have been attacked and classified as “Public Health Threats” and their Control Substance Registration suspended. See below Order to Show Cause Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy
misc-iso-oak-hill-1“OAK HILL PHARMACY SHOW CAUSE”
These Black-owned pharmacies are not public health threats nor imminent dangers. Yet had their certificate of registration was suspended (supposedly) for ignoring alleged red flags in filling narcotic analgesic medications.
2580383b-4c5b-448d-8d64-855dbdc9929b“NARC SCORES”
EAST MAIN STREET PHARMACY, COLUMBUS OHIO
DEA-DON SULLIVAN vs. HAROLD EUGENE FLETCHER
The year is 2010, the case docket 09-48, Columbus, Ohio The United States Drug Enforcement Agency vs East Main Street Pharmacy (‘‘Respondent’’), of Columbus, Ohio Harold Eugene Fletcher PharmD from the record it reads,
The Government called Donald Sullivan, R.Ph., and Ph.D., as its expert witness. Dr. Sullivan, who holds active pharmacist licenses in both Ohio and Florida. Sullivan obtained a B.S. in Pharmacy from The Ohio State University, as well as both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Administration, also from The Ohio State University.
Before this Court Professor Dr. Sullivan testified that under both Ohio and Federal law,
there ‘‘is corresponding responsibility between the physician and the pharmacist.’’ He further explained that ‘‘a lot of pharmacists think that just because the physician wrote it, I have to fill it.’’ However, Dr. Sullivan stated that there is nothing in Ohio law that says you have to fill any prescription.’’ He then explained that ‘‘one of the first things we try to get the students and pharmacist to understand is that under Ohio law, and federal law 50 percent of the responsibility falls on the pharmacy, the pharmacist, 50 percent falls on the physician. Don’t just fill it because the doctor wrote it.’’
Similarly, in his report, Dr. Sullivan, after discussing the CSA’s prescription requirement (21 CFR 1306.04(a)), explained that:
The State of Ohio has similar language in its laws and regulations. Ohio Law states that: The pharmacist who fills any prescription has a corresponding responsibility with the physician to make sure that the prescription has been issued for a Legitimate Medical Purpose. The responsibility to ensure that a prescription is for a legitimate medical purpose in the usual course of a prescriber’s professional practice is equal for both the physician and pharmacist. (Fifty percent of this responsibility is on the pharmacist and 50% is on the physician). The argument that ‘‘Just because a physician wrote the prescription,
DONALD SULLIVAN’S LONG HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL, ACADEMIC FRAUD AND JUDICIAL PERJURY CONTINUES
However the DEA Judge wrote in her observations of Dr. Donald Sullivan in 2010:
While the Ohio courts may have interpreted State law as described above, as explained below, Dr. Sullivan’s testimony that Federal law allocates fifty percent of the responsibility to the physician and fifty percent to the pharmacist is not a correct statement of the law, which has been amply explained in numerous decisions of the Federal courts and this Agency. To make clear, Federal law does not apportion the responsibility for dispensing unlawful prescriptions between a prescribing practitioner and a pharmacist. Rather, Federal law imposes separate and independent duties on the prescriber and the pharmacist.
More specifically, the prescriber must act within the usual course of professional practice and have
a legitimate medical purpose to lawfully issue a controlled-substance prescription. 21 CFR 1306.04(a). As the Supreme Court and numerous federal courts have made plain, to lawfully prescribe a controlled substance the physician must act ‘‘in accordance with a standard of medical practice generally recognized and accepted in the United States.’’
My central observation would be that if this physician is making unusually high numbers of prescriptions for Schedule II opioids, it is because so many of his colleagues have been coerced by DEA into not treating severe pain at all. Likewise, the AMA is on record with Board of Directors Study #22 (June 2019) in which they declare that the practice of “high prescriber letters” from PDMPs and State prosecutors is legally invalid because it constitutes a denial of due process intended to blacklist physicians and their sickest patients.
According to Richard Lawhern PhD, an non-medical advocate for pain patients:
“Sullivan is also flat wrong on requirements of Federal regulation with respect to shared responsibility for inappropriate prescribing. He is obviously a “hired gun” who will say anything that prosecutors want him to, to earn a fee. “
“There is presently no accepted standard of care for the employment of opioid analgesics in treating severe chronic pain. Lacking such a published standard, no doctor or pharmacist may reasonably be prosecuted for “inappropriate” prescribing.”
“This is why Walmart has filed a petition for relief in Federal courts, from arbitrary and malicious prosecution that is grounded on nothing more than unqualified opinions of DEA and its hired stooges. There is presently no accepted standard of care for the employment of opioid analgesics in treating severe chronic pain. Lacking such a published standard, no doctor or pharmacist may reasonably be prosecuted for “inappropriate” prescribing.”
At Cost Pharmacy, Ft. Meyers, owner Aaron Howard in business 10 years, raided January 7, 2020 “an imminent danger to the public health or safety”, (see below Order to Show Cause At Cost Pharmacy Ft. Meyers, Fl.)
ah_1072020_aarric_dea_dsa“AT COST PHARMACY SHOW CAUSE”
This search warrant was decrepitude in that it failed to illustrate and support the rudimentary descriptions defining Probable Cause. The investigator wrote, “Application having been made, and probable cause as defined by 21 U.S.C. § 880(d)(1) having been shown by the affidavit of Diversion Investigator Norita N. Persaud, United States Drug Enforcement Administration, for an inspection of the controlled premises of Aarric, Inc., dba At Cost Rx, 16970 San Carlos Boulevard, Suite 110, Fort Myers, FL 33908, with DEA number FA2125640, it appears that said inspection is appropriate under 21 U.S.C. § 880”. ah_1072020_aarric_dea_dsa-2“ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE AT COST PHARMACY” 01/03/2020
The investigator agent clearly expressed his limited knowledge of probable cause as defined by 21 U.S.C. § 880(d)(1). Yet, he did not, within the search warrant, describe the place to be searched and the descriptive elements to support and clearly identify any elements of a crime which would provide a reasonable officer to conclude that probable cause exist.
The signed warrant authorized the investigating Agent “to seize from the above-described controlled premises such of the following records, information, reports, documents, files and inventories, as are appropriate and necessary to the effective accomplishment of the inspection, and for the purpose of copying or verifying their correctness, or that are used or intended to be used in violation of the Controlled Substances Act whether in electronic or printed media format as noted above”. The Supreme Court has defined “probable cause” as an officer’s reasonable belief, based on circumstances known to that officer, that a crime has occurred or is about to occur. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 149 (1925).
GULF MED PHARMACY TARGETED AS IMMINENT DANGER TO PUBLIC SAFETY
norm523901“GULF MED PHARMACY SHOW CAUSE”
Gulf Med Pharmacy, Cape Coral, Fl owner Ricardo Fertil in business 10 years, raided Nov 19, 2019, “an imminent danger to the public health or safety,”
ALL PRESCRIPTIONS ARE VALID
Pronto Pharmacy LLC, Gulf Med Pharmacy of Cape Coral, Florida, Oak Hill Pharmacy of Oak Hill, West Virginia to this date have neither violated nor broken any laws. All control medications in these pharmacies have been dispensed according to CSA guidelines, and all prescriptions filled by these pharmacies were legally written by licensed medical/dental practitioners.
According to Michael Krause Law Professor at the George Mason University, Scalia Law School, an article on December 27, 2021, Wall Street Journal titled, A Case Against Walmart Mocks Justice, “The federal government sues the chain for filling valid prescriptions in compliance with state law” (2)
” Under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, when there’s a contradiction between valid federal and state law, the former prevails. But there’s no federal law requiring that Walmart pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions that state law requires them to fill. The Controlled Substances Act creates only two circumstances in which pharmacists commit a federal crime by filling facially valid prescriptions for controlled substances.“
” First, if they “knowingly fill” a prescription that wasn’t issued by a doctor “in the usual course of professional treatment”—for instance, if a doctor hands out his entire Rx pad without examining any patient. Second, if they fill a prescription outside the “usual course of” pharmacy practice—for instance, if a “pill mill” dispenses opioids without checking the DEA number of the prescribing doctor. Not only isn’t Walmart being sued for such infractions; it has adopted innovative opioid-stewardship programs and worked with law enforcement agencies including the DEA to root out corrupt doctors.”
As written December 29, 2020, by the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board which was in a stark rebuke of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit filed in federal court in Delaware claims that:
” Walmart “failed to detect and report at least hundreds of thousands of suspicious orders” and that as a pharmacy it “unlawfully filled thousands upon thousands of invalid controlled-substance prescriptions.” These actions enabled opioid abuse and “helped fuel a national crisis,” the feds say. (1)
“The complaint further alleges:
“Violations of the Controlled Substances Act and its accompanying regulations, but it is really a 160-page exercise in scapegoating a company because it is well-known and has deep pockets. Walmart doesn’t push pills on opioid addicts. Its pharmacists fill valid prescriptions written by doctors who are licensed by their states and registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).” (1)
Similarly, in the actions of Pronto Pharmacy LLC, Tampa Florida the DOJ/ DEA has shown absolutely NO proof these prescriptions written by licensed practitioners and patients having been diagnosed with a disease condition are illegitimate. Neither the DOJ/DEA found any prescription medications were being diverted for non-medical use.
norm j clement dds
“…racism wears many masks, it is called Jim Crow one decade…only to be disguised as voter ID in another century, preventing election fraud, when no fraud ever exists…when wisdom becomes a threat, the knowledgable are deem arrogant and those learned are imprisoned…in healthcare, we must lead the fight for justice by connecting the dots of injustice…uncovering the unique, cleverly designed barriers erected to inhibit people from seeking treatment and preventing those licensed professionally and whom are capable from delivering proper healthcare…requiring them to view humans as algorithms to be uncared, then only have systemic injustices wage war upon both their souls an affording neither of them dignity and respect…”
Joe Madison.
” The question is??? What are we going to do about it”
FOR NOW, YOU ARE WITHIN
THE NORMS
