Body Bags for Christmas Courtesy of Big Pharma

If I have offended anyone with my body bags at Christmas -- please know I do not apologize.

(MYRTLE BEACH, SC) - We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Gift of Body Bags Compliments of:

Bob Rappaport, MD
Lynn R.Webster, MD
Perry G. Fine, MD
Scott M. Fishman, MD
Russell K. Portenoy, MD
J. David Haddox, MD
Curtis Wright IV, MD

These body bags will be flying off the shelves if the U.S. Senate, the Congress, Attorneys General and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) continue to turn a blind eye to the loss of lives in the tens of thousands to addiction and death due to lies and distortions perpetrated over the years by the above mentioned individuals.

Bob Rappaport, MD - FDA's Director of the Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Addiction Products

Rappaport

Dr. Rappaport approved a powerful painkiller called Zohydro ER which will be unleashed in the U.S. and Canada in early 2014. This approval by Rappaport was made without consideration of the painkiller epidemic plaguing the U.S. for the past decade plus. Zohydro will come in doses close to 10 times more heroin like narcotic than other hydrocodone painkillers.

It will deliver a swift and crippling punch at one time and will be the new poster child for opioids in deaths, addictions and ability to be abused. When will the FDA be charged for gross disregard for lives by approving Zohydro ER even though their Advisory Committee voted against approval?

A few years ago then Attorney General and now U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal was quoted as saying -- "The FDA needs to be swept clean." Let me rephrase that a little -- the FDA needs to be "turned upside down" until the money from pharma falls out of their pockets.

Please accept a body bag and their wishes for a Merry Christmas from Dr. Rappaport and the FDA.

Lynn R. Webster, MD and Perry G. Fine, MD

Webster and Fine

Dr. Webster conducted a study and Dr. Fine was a co-investigator where they stated "Our goal is to reverse the national trend of unintentional overdose deaths while advocating for appropriate therapy for the one in three Americans who experience chronic pain."

One in three Americans experience chronic pain? Seem outrageous and are you wondering where the good doctors came up with that figure? I do and my hope is the Senate, the Congress, the Attorneys General and the DEA question it also. But back to Webster and Fine's study on unintentional overdose deaths.

The doctors wrote that flaws uncovered in the current method of rotating opioids included prescriber error and use of inaccurate dose conversion ratios found in published protocols. Webster serves as medical director of Lifetree Clinical Research in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fine is a professor of Anesthesiology, Pain Research and Management Centers in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah.

Concluding that most fatal outcomes during opioid rotation are preventable, the researchers suggested three easy-to-remember steps that eliminate the need to use a conversion table:

1. Reduce the original opioid dose by 10% to 30% while beginning the new opioid at the lowest available dose.
2. Reduce the original opioid dose by 10% to 25% per week while increasing the dose of the new daily opioid dose by 10% to 20% based upon clinical need and safety.
3. Provide sufficient immediate-release opioid throughout the rotation to prevent withdrawal and keep pain levels down so the patient is not tempted to take too much medication.

I am curious as to the doctors reference to preventing withdrawal while patients are taking opioids since they both have long advocated a low if any addiction ratio which would preclude the word "withdrawal" in their joint study.

Dr. Webster is currently under DEA investigation for suspicious deaths at his Lifetree Pain Clinic in Utah and recently has been the subject of CNN investigative reporting by Sanjay Gupta, MD and Anderson Cooper.

Dr. Fine was an expert witness for the defense in celebrity Anna Nicole Smith's death. He testified that 1,500 prescription medications including painkillers did not make Ms. Smith an "addict."

Please accept two body bags and their wishes for a Merry Christmas from Drs. Webster and Fine.

Scott M. Fishman, MD of the University of California Davis wrote in July 2013

Fishman

"The definition of “drug addiction” is the compulsive use of a drug that causes dysfunction, and the continued use of the drug despite that dysfunction. And the definition of “pain relief” is an improvement in functioning due to analgesic treatment. Pain is essentially an alarm that gets your attention and, with enough pain, makes it impossible to do anything beyond attending to the pain. If you have been in pain day in and day out, you lose function in your life. When you treat the pain, their functioning improves. And that is the complete opposite of what we see with addiction. If a patient is taking an opioid and has improved function, you really can’t make the argument that he or she is addicted unless there is increased dysfunction elsewhere in their life. There may be physical dependence or tolerance, but these are pharmacological properties of the drugs, and must not be confused with addiction."

Physical dependence? Tolerance? Not to be confused with addiction? Just a note to the Senate, the Congress, Attorneys General and DEA -- if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck -- you are dealing with a quack.

Please accept a body bag and his wishes for a Merry Christmas from Dr. Fishman.

Russell K. Portenoy, MD, Beth Israel Hospital, NY

Portenoy

Dr. Portenoy has had "second thoughts" about his remarks such as opioids could be safely taken for months or years by people suffering from non-cancer chronic pain. He also was a part of the brigade of paid physicians and pain foundations funded by the pharmaceutical industry who pushed opioids to the medical profession as being safe to take by patients and there was less than a 1% chance of addiction. In addition to preaching that opioids were easy to come off of and overdoses were extremely rare in pain patients.

Portenoy now admits his claims and the claims of his cronies in the medical profession were not based on scientific evidence. "I gave innumerable lectures in the late 1980s and '90s about addiction that weren't true," Dr. Portenoy said in a 2010 videotaped interview with a fellow doctor. "Clearly, if I had an inkling of what I know now then, I wouldn't have spoken in the way that I spoke. It was clearly the wrong thing to do," Dr. Portenoy said in the recording.

Apology not accepted Dr. Portenoy. Ask the families of those loved ones lost to addiction and death if they are buying what you are selling after the damage you caused.

Please accept a body bag and his wishes for a Merry Christmas from Dr. Portenoy.

J. David Haddox, MD employed by the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma

Over the years I have referred to Haddox as the "gatekeeper" to the opioid epidemic and the loss of life. Haddox coined a word called "pseudo-addiction" with virtually no scientific research and convinced the medical profession that if their patients exhibited signs of addiction while taking opioids, it was actually "pseudo-addiction" and the patient needed to have their opioid doses increased. By increasing the dosage, any signs of withdrawal were eliminated.

The problem with his distortion of this coined word was patients became horrifically addicted to the opioids. Haddox is still gainfully employed by the maker of OxyContin and I have no doubt that he has been very rewarded financially over the years in speaking to medical professionals about "pseudo-addiction."

Please accept a body bag and his wishes for a Merry Christmas from Dr. Haddox.

Curtis Wright IV, MD. one time Acting Director of Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA

Wright

Dr. Wright was responsible for the approval of the notorious opioid OxyContin resulting in a national disaster of death and addiction in the U.S. and Canada. He left the FDA and ended up working for the maker of OxyContin - Purdue Pharma violating FDA policy.

If you are curious about consequences to Dr. Wright's violating FDA policy by approving an opioid and then working for the pharmaceutical company, there were no consequences. In fact, in a telephone conversation with an FDA official, I challenged them to give me a reason why Wright was not sanctioned by the FDA.

The official denied that Wright had gone to Purdue Pharma. When I led them step by step on the Internet to Wright's work history which showed I was correct, it was a moment of stuttering on the phone by the FDA official.

Please accept a body bag and his wishes for a Merry Christmas from Dr. Wright.

So if I have offended anyone with my body bags at Christmas -- please know I do not apologize. We are losing our youth, our loved ones and a generation to greed, collusion and conspiracy. Will it take members of the Senate, the Congress, Attorneys General and the DEA to take action before they too have body bags in their family? It will happen -- just ask the families of lost loved ones how they became victims of lies and deception and how they try to live with their grief. Think they will be having a Merry Christmas?

LP - On Christmas Day I will not have to open any presents. My greatest gift is being loved by you and peace - such peace.