Thursday, November 16, 2017

Volume - 93 One year later.......Time to write...Opioid crisis: Part #1 Introduction & Legislation

It has now been one year since the passing of my daughter Kelly.  It feels like yesterday but it is time to write.......



THE OPIOID CRISIS: PART #1  INTRODUCTION & LEGISLATURE

As is the case with all investigative work, the correct questions must be asked:

 What is the Opioid Crisis?  Until that question is answered there is no direction to the problem.  You might be asking yourself everyone knows what the Opioid Crisis is....Everyday there are hundreds of death across this nation... politicians are involved with new legislation....everyday a new crisis center is open...everyday new recovery centers are opened...everyday we see overdoses in the news....everyday some parent is crying over their child, everyday there is more outcry for rehab and treatment, Police now carry narcan, etc. etc. etc.

The fact of the matter is that very few people can  define this so-called Crisis because they only see it through their own narrow minded point of view.  Examples you ask?......First of all, within all of the "opioid deaths" how many were actually overdoses of a licit drug versus illicit drug (You better know the difference)?  On the illicit drug side, what was the toxicology report (an actual breakdown of each substance by percentage)....was it heroin? or was it the cutting agent (such as Fentanyl)?...if it were the cutting agent would this not be investigated as a homicide? An active crime scene?  On the licit drug side did the dead party overdose from their prescription?...was the licit drug obtained 'on the street'? And, the questions continue...but they will be answered and not by some media news person who has little if no real experience but by someone who has spent five years working undercover narcotics and dangerous drugs directly involved in 500 felony/convictions; by someone who is highly bright and yet has chronic pain; by conversations with two Common Pleas Judges; and, conversation with  a DEA agent......

Lets start by pursuing the Legislation by our politicians to solve this 'Opioid Crisis'....it is my opinion that as usual they (Beltway Idiots as well as State and Local amateurs) are clueless......examples both in Ohio and Louisiana....In both cases, aside from the Governors and Attorney Generals fighting for TV time and pressure being applied to Judges to reduce or eliminate jail time for drug offenders, they attempt to legislate the problem.  Example of these attempts give the following results (and, as a side note, remember the phrase 'Follow the Money'):

Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act sponsored by Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa. signed into law by former President Obama without a single objection from EITHER SIDE OF THE ISLE but opposed by the DEA.  This law changed the standard for identifying dangers to local communities, from "imminent" threats to "immediate" threats which changed the DEA's authority to go after drug companies that didn't report suspicious and very large orders for narcotics.  Wholesale drug distributors since  can and do send millions of pills into everyone's community.  Reports by the DEA have shown one such company shipped 20 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone to pharmacies in West Virginia which included 11 million doses in Mingo County.  The DEA initially got the bill killed (twice) but then a change in leadership took place and Loretta Lynch took over the AG's office and enormous amounts of pressure was being placed on the DEA by Capitol Hill to pass this bill at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry, then 'coincidently' a new DEA administrator appeared.  It should be noted that the bill was written by a pharmaceutical industry attorney (D. Linden Barber) who used to be a senior DEA attorney (interesting).

Speaking of the brain trust in the Beltway, it should be noted (again) to 'Follow The Money'....In 2016 there were over 11,000 U.S. lobbyists.  In that same year annual lobbying payments were approximately $3.5 BILLON.  This averages over $5 Billion for every single lawmaker. Now to make matters worse Ohio and Louisiana legislators running into one another for TV time not only pushed to treatment and rehab but attempt to push Law Enforcement and the Judicial system away from jail time to legislation that dictates those receiving Opiates in a prescription from a doctor who treats chronic pain, spinal injury, cancer and other seriously injured many of whom there may  not be a 'cure' nor a 'better' situation to their serious long-term and complex medical issues. must now do with 30 less pill per month.  Therefore the thousands of people with chronic pain, spinal injury, etc. must now suffer while those who satisfy themselves with 'getting
high' get treatment facilities.  Where has the idea of ACCOUNTABILITY gone? We continue to reinforce the idea that someone else will take care of the problem and the specific individual has no consequences of behavior.

In the words of  a very special friend (who obviously writes much better than I) and who has chronic pain and who understands the harm that is being put on innocent people with this nonsense legislation, I quote (from a recent conversation) "While I feel for those with addictive personalities and issues, and I empathize with the loved ones of those who elect to over dose, those patients do not remotely represent the hundreds of thousands of patients nationwide with valid, serious and long term complex medical health issues who require these medications for treatment.  The fact is, sweeping medical decisions are being made regarding the general public's health care, that have NO BUSINESS being made by those without any medical knowledge, nor any knowledge of that single individual's medical history.  The repercussions of which will never end up being reporting to the public.  By which I mean the long term increase in suicide rates, or illegal drug sales resulting from patients in chronic pain, no longer able to effectively control their pain levels through legal valid medical means.  All because of decisions  being made by Politicians with their own hidden monetary agendas (and State Governments with huge budget deficits that are seeing visions of future billion dollar legal payoffs/settlements) both of which have absolutely nothing to do with the proper medical treatment of real, serious and often incurable medical issues."

Let's not forget legislation from the UN and the World Health Organization who attempted to pressure the U.S. with small arms treaties directed towards the removal and banning of firearms from the US. general public's ownership, and yet they repeatedly dragged their feet when it comes to imposing regulations on big pharmaceutical companies historical records of unethical activities in third world countries.

Next we will look at the enforcement side, or lack there of, in this discussion of the crisis.  It should be noted that Ohio can't even execute a man on death row with an injection drug yet hundreds die monthly/yearly with a needle....maybe that should talk with the 'street'..........

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Volume 92 - Kelly

On November 1, 2016 our daughter Kelly passed away

In my 7 plus decades of living and experiencing life, both good and bad, I was never prepared to live through my daughters nightmare of fourteen plus months of incurable cancer.  It has taken me four months even to attempt to write about this horrible passing.  Having seen death before as a civilian and also as a former law enforcement officer nothing hits the limit as does your daughter's death.

 I wonder why there is a word for children who lost parents, but not for parents who have suffered the greatest loss of all.  I wonder why at age 47 an incurable type of cancer is diagnosed.  I wonder why it took so long for her to see a doctor.  I now understand that when a father walks his daughter down the isle and gives her arm to her husband the meaning is more than just symbolic.

For those that have lost a child, I fully understand how everyday forward is a day without.