BY

NORMAN J CLEMENT RPH., DDS, NORMAN L.CLEMENT PHARM-TECH, MALACHI F. MACKANDAL PHARMD, BELINDA BROWN-PARKER, IN THE SPIRIT OF JOSEPH SOLVO ESQ., INC.T. SPIRIT OF REV. C.T. VIVIAN, JELANI ZIMBABWE CLEMENT, BS., MBA., IN THE SPIRIT OF THE HON. PATRICE LUMUMBA, IN THE SPIRIT OF ERLIN CLEMENT SR., WALTER F. WRENN III., MD., JULIE KILLINGWORTH, LESLY POMPY MD., NANCY SEEFEDLT, WILLIE GUINYARD BS., JOSEPH WEBSTER MD., MBA, BEVERLY C. PRINCE MD., FACS., NEIL ARNAND, MD., RICHARD KAUL, MD., LEROY BAYLOR, JAY K. JOSHI MD., MBA, ADRIENNE EDMUNDSON, ESTER HYATT PH.D., WALTER L. SMITH BS., IN THE SPIRIT OF BRAHM FISHER ESQ., MICHELE ALEXANDER MD., CUDJOE WILDING BS, MARTIN NJOKU, BS., RPH., IN THE SPIRIT OF DEBRA LYNN SHEPHERD, BERES E. MUSCHETT, STRATEGIC ADVISORS

” The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey

THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY INTIMIDATION

Richard “RED” Lawhern Ph.D. has written:

“The 2016 CDC Opioid Guidelines were fatally flawed by anti-opioid bias, political agendas, and naive reliance on junk science.  Recent efforts to update these guidelines are equally flawed by the same factors.  There is compelling evidence that CDC violated its own standards on conflicts of interest when selecting the current guideline writers’ group, and continues to resist public transparency in forming its policies for pain treatment.

For Board Members:  I write to urge your organization to take a public position on behalf of the millions of US pain patients — and the thousands of physicians — who have been needlessly harmed by the 2016 CDC guidelines on the prescription of opioid analgesics to patients with chronic non-cancer pain.  This proposal applies at least equally to guideline revisions now in work at CDC (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control) and to State guidelines and legislation derivative from the CDC document. 

This communication is intended for sitting Board members of medical academies and associations affiliated with the AMA Task Force on Pain and Substance Use.  Website Administrators please forward.  This will also be filed in forms-based portals at some organizations that do not yet identify a contact email on their respective websites.”

Steve Ariens, RPh.

pharmacistSteve (12/05/2021) writes:

Many believe that the CDC did not have the statutory authority to generate those guidelines. Shortly after they were published, the then head of the CDC Tom Frieden, sent out a press release clearly stating that the guidelines were NOT LAW.

But our medical/legal system allows a common practice by practitioners to become defacto standard of care and best practices. Thus the DEA started after the guideline was published – using their power of intimidation to get practitioners to believe that the guidelines were in fact “law.”

“So once the DEA believed that >50% of practitioners were following the guidelines – as if they were law – then the DEA could go after practitioners – accusing them as not following standard of care and best practices – which the DEA determined that the practitioner(s) were prescribing without valid medical necessity. 

The DEA is a bureaucratic “unicorn”… they were given – or they took – the authority to create new interpretations of existing laws – specifically the Controlled Substance Act – and then proceed to use these new interpretations and enforce it.

SEE BELOW VIDEO POWER OF INTIMIDATION

Our Founding Fathers created our bureaucracy to be three different and distinct branches – executive, legislative & legal. The DEA seems to be able to function in both the legislative & legal branches without any push back from other parts of our bureaucracy. It is claimed that Congress is typically made up of 40% attorneys.”

Could it be that Congress has chosen to turn a blind eye and deft ear to what the DEA is doing?

FROM CDC APRIL 24, 2017:

CDC Advises Against Misapplication of the Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain

Some policies, practices attributed to the Guideline are inconsistent with its recommendations

Embargoed Until: Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 5 PM, EDT
Contact: Media Relations
(404) 639-3286

” The Guideline was developed to ensure that primary care clinicians work with their patients to consider all safe and effective treatment options for pain management. CDC encourages clinicians to continue to use their clinical judgment, base treatment on what they know about their patients, maximize the use of safe and effective non-opioid treatments, and consider the use of opioids only if their benefits are likely to outweigh their risks.

CDC is raising awareness about the following issues that could put patients at risk:

• Misapplication of recommendations to populations outside of the Guideline’s scope. The Guideline is intended for primary care clinicians treating chronic pain for patients 18 and older. Examples of misapplication include applying the Guideline to patients in active cancer treatment, patients experiencing acute sickle cell crises, or patients experiencing post-surgical pain.
• Misapplication of the Guideline’s dosage recommendation that results in hard limits or “cutting off” opioids. The Guideline states, “When opioids are started, clinicians should prescribe the lowest effective dosage. Clinicians should… avoid increasing dosage to ≥90 MME/day or carefully justify a decision to titrate dosage to ≥90 MME/day.” The recommendation statement does not suggest discontinuation of opioids already prescribed at higher dosages.”

• The Guideline does not support abrupt tapering or sudden discontinuation of opioids.  These practices can result in severe opioid withdrawal symptoms including pain and psychological distress, and some patients might seek other sources of opioids. In addition, policies that mandate hard limits conflict with the Guideline’s emphasis on individualized assessment of the benefits and risks of opioids given the specific circumstances and unique needs of each patient.
• Misapplication of the Guideline’s dosage recommendation to patients receiving or starting  medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. The Guideline’s recommendation about dosage applies to use of opioids in the management of chronic pain, not to the use of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. The Guideline strongly recommends offering medication-assisted treatment for patients with opioid use disorder.”

ABOUT RICHARD “RED” LAWHERN PH.D

My Qualifications to Comment:  I speak and write widely as a volunteer non-physician patient advocate and healthcare writer with 25 years of hands-on experience moderating support groups for pain patients, caregivers, and medical professionals.  I have communicated with tens of thousands of patients.  I sit as an invited patient advocate on two Journal editorial boards.  With ~150 published papers, articles, and interviews in a mixture of medically oriented journals and mass media,  I am regarded by many as a subject matter expert in public policy for regulating prescription opioid analgesics and physicians who employ them. See the publications link in my signature below.

CONGRESS MUST CLEAN UP THIS MESS

” The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey

LOW HANGING FRUIT

DECEMBER 2019

FOR NOW, YOU ARE WITHIN

THE NORMS