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
“WE ARE NOT POWERLESS AND THROUGH OUR VIDEOS, WRITINGS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS WE WILL EXPOSE THE ABUSES AND TYRANNY OF UNITED STATES DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY
JUST AS THE VIDEO WAS RECORDED BY THE CELL PHONE CAMERA OF YOUNG DARNELLA FRAZIER, BORE WITNESS TO THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD THE BLOG youarewithinthenorms.com BARES WITNESS AND BOTH ALLOWS THE SYSTEM TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE”
BY
WALTER F. WRENN III., MD
I have been on several radio talk shows about addiction and the assault on physicians by the DOJ/DEA and state AG’S. I have listened to individuals including physicians put forth opinions that ignore the truth and what is happening in the streets.
Fortunately, I am a product of the streets. I have known some of the biggest drug dealers in the United States. I also know people who have sold and used every illegal drug on the market. Some have been my patients. Ignorance is no excuse.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?517837-1/ruan-v-united-states-consolidated-oral-argument
But acting like an expert and using your position as a professional to give out bad information is just as bad and maybe more harmful. Addiction is poorly understood because it is complex. In medicine, if you make enough noise or write enough papers or books you are soon believed to be an expert.
Your theories are taught in physician training programs and given on certification exams. The problem is that you have spent no time on the streets or spent limited time with addicted individuals. I on the other hand have not written any books or papers.
No one quotes me or has to answer my questions on a certification exam. My knowledge comes from actual experience in the streets and an understanding of how the forgotten population functions.
When I was 14 I saw my friend inject himself with heroin. He said I should try it. I thought he was an idiot. I’ll use his initials P.A. He lived across the street from me. His father was a postal employee and his mother was a school teacher. P.A. was very smart and got accepted to Lincoln University in Oxford Pennsylvania but the heroin addiction interrupted his educational pursuits.
He moved to California and we only had intermittent contact through his father until his father died several years ago. Down through the years, I knew other heroin-addicted individuals. One Flyright was born under the sign of Leo like me and when he saw me would call out loudly until I responded.
He would get in my car and ask me to take him somewhere. I knew that he either had drugs on him or was going to get drugs. I couldn’t wait until I got him to his destination. You may be asking the question why didn’t I just avoid him. That means you know nothing about the streets. Ignoring someone you grew up with or judging them was a no-no.
Even when I became a physician I lived by the rules of the street. One weekend I took Flyright to pick up his methadone. Upon returning to his house, he got out of my car. A white couple got out of their parked car and followed him into his house. The methadone bottle fell out of the bag and burst on the step. All three of them got down on their hands and knees and tried to suck up the methadone. I drove away with a new understanding of addiction.
The individuals that I was initially exposed to that were addicted to opiate pain medication were not related to me and therefore had a minimal effect on my life. Then the unthinkable happened. Two of my children started using crack cocaine. My oldest daughter found a way to use the system in Delaware, where I moved to avoid living in a bad neighborhood, to become a ward of the state of Delaware at the age of 14, and be taken from my custody and rules.
When she turned 18 the state informed me that they no longer had jurisdiction over her. Neither them nor I knew where she was. She showed up and was in and out of my house. When she showed up she only had the clothes on her back.
Unfortunately what I told the 24-year-old white social worker came true. I told her that if they took my black daughter away from me that prostitution and drugs would be her future. On October 27 2017 my daughter died of a drug overdose 10 days after her 53rd birthday. This was in spite of participating in numerous drug and alcohol and mental health programs.
My oldest son still has a drug problem even though he has been in many drugs, alcohol, and mental health programs. I have been the medical director for several drugs, alcohol, and mental health programs. For 5 years I was the medical director for Inpatient detox at Misericordia Hospital. For 14 years I was the medical director for 2 drugs, alcohol, and mental health treatment centers.
At one of the centers, I treated mental health patients for 2 years. I had the opportunity to interview thousands of individuals suffering from many forms of substance abuse and mental health issues. I watched the revolving door of addiction.
The individual using a substance is legal or illegal. They enter into a program. They were homeless before entering so they move into a recovery house. The recovery house exists to make money. They take the individuals’ food stamps and any monetary awards. They sleep on cots jammed into a room.
Their food is provided by the recovery house except for lunch which is provided by the treatment center. The halfway house is associated with a treatment facility. They undergo counseling three times a week. This counseling is mandatory.
Weekly urine drug screens are done. Drug counselors are people who previously used drugs or alcohol and have supposedly recovered. They use the 12 steps textbook and are rewarded with some examples showing various periods of being “clean”. Common among those in recovery is a 9th-grade education and no job skills. 90 percent of the females in the program have been sexually abused.
Getting a disability is a major goal of individuals and being in a program is a major part of being awarded a disability. When the individual leaves the program they have a 9th-grade education, no job skills, and no housing. They return to the neighborhood and drug dealers they left before they entered the program and soon begin using drugs again.
a) They then reenter a program and the process begins again. What is the percentage of success?
b) Why continue with a failed process?
c) Why hasn’t a program been developed which improves the education, employability, and housing of the addicted individual?
Let’s look at the common sense issues and how reality is overlooked. We live in a society of the haves and have nots. Success in our society is measured by material things. Poor and disadvantaged individuals want the same things as millionaires. Unless they steal they have no way to achieve this.
They use what they have available in the system to make up the deficit between what they have and what they need to support their lifestyle. One thing available is food stamps. These can be sold for fifty cents on a dollar so they sell their food stamps.
Another thing available is controlled medication. So they sell their medication. Every physician who has written a controlled medication and every pharmacy that has filled a controlled medication has contributed to this process. No exceptions regardless of any intervention by the prescriber, pharmacies, or law enforcement can change this.
The other problem is the belief that there is a way to prevent addiction to opiates. Lost in the understanding of how opiates work and the role of opiate receptors in the brain and body. No process, law, or program can change the actions of these drugs. If an individual is addicted to opiate pain medication give it to them. They will not use heroin. If an individual is addicted to heroin, give them heroin.
They won’t use fentanyl. If individuals want to use a medication-assisted treatment program Suboxone is the best medication to use.
You must prescribe enough Suboxone to prevent not only withdrawal but more importantly cravings. You need twice the plasma level of buprenorphine to prevent cravings as you do to prevent withdrawal so give adequate doses to achieve my 4 goals.
Prevent withdrawal. Prevent cravings. Prevent relapse. Prevent crime.
My experience says unfortunately there is no cure for addiction. There are proven medications for some addictions primarily opiate addiction. Otherwise, we can only pray that the addicted individual will seek a higher power to help them with a problem that neither they nor the so-called experts have an answer to.
Walter F. Wrenn III M.D
FOR NOW, YOU ARE WITHIN
THE NORMS
