DEA Employees Fail Drug Tests

DEA Employees Fail Drug Tests, Shockingly Face No Serious Consequences – Sept 2015 – By Nick Wing

I found this amusing, but not really surprising. There seems less and less difference between the DEA and the drug dealers it so intimately deals with.

A number of federal employees with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have failed drug tests over the past five years, only to receive short suspensions or other minor reprimands, newly released documents reveal.

According to a Huffington Post review of internal DEA discipline logs, first uncovered by USA Today over the weekend, there have been at least 16 reported instances of employees failing random drug tests since 2010.

Let’s drug-test the rich before approving tax deductions

This is a repost of an article from June 2016 that makes a suggestion even more appropriate and even necessary these days (see Elon Musk at Tesla). In today’s America, the richest people are running amok to rape, pillage, and plunder what’s left of the middle class, the economic group essential to sustain a democracy.

Let’s drug-test the rich before approving tax deductions, US congresswoman says | US news | The Guardian

Milwaukee congresswoman Gwen Moore; “We’re not going to get rid of the federal deficit by cutting poor people off Snap. But if we are going to drug-test people to reduce the deficit, let’s start on the other end of the income spectrum.”

Moore plans to introduce a bill on Thursday that she thinks will even the playing field or, at least, “engage the wealthy in a conversation about what fair tax policy looks like”.  

Drug Tests for Dollars, Results Ignored

Doctors Make Big Money Testing Urine For Drugs, Then Ignore Abnormal Results – Nov 2017 – by Fred Schulte, Kaiser Health News

In April 2014, state and federal drug agents raided Jeffrey Campbell’s medical clinic in Jeffersonville, Ind. Some of the seized records would show that Campbell endangered patients by prescribing opiates without any medical need, according to federal prosecutors.

Campbell, who collected millions of dollars from Medicare for urine tests run at his office lab, also failed to act when test results revealed patients were abusing prescription and illegal drugs, according to a government medical expert’s report.  

Liquid Gold: Urine Drug Screening for Profit

Liquid Gold: Pain Doctors Soak Up Profits By Screening Urine For Drugs | Kaiser Health News – Nov 2017 –  By Fred Schulte and Elizabeth Lucas

The cups of urine travel by express mail to the Comprehensive Pain Specialists lab in an industrial park in Brentwood, Tenn., not far from Nashville.

Most days bring more than 700 of the little sealed cups from clinics across 10 states, wrapped in red-tagged waste bags. The network treats about 48,000 people each month, and many will be tested for drugs.

Gloved lab techs keep busy inside the cavernous facility, piping smaller urine samples into tubes. 

New Tools to Tackle the Opioid Crisis

New Tools to Tackle the Opioid Crisis: Chemists Develop Method to Quickly Screen, Accurately Identify Fentanyl and a Broad Range of Other Drugs of Abuse

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new drug screening technique that could lead to the rapid and accurate identification of fentanyl, as well as a vast number of other drugs of abuse, which up until now have been difficult to detect by traditional urine tests.

The method, outlined in the current edition of the journal Analytical Chemistry, addresses a serious public health emergency related to opioid addiction and unintentional overdose deaths: the lack of a reliable and inexpensive test that allows for comprehensive surveillance of synthetic drugs flooding the illegal market.  

Drug Testing Guideline Warns Against Fraud

New Drug Testing Guideline Warns Against Fraud — Pain News Network – June 02, 2017/ Pat Anson

A new guideline on the use of drug testing by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) warns against expensive and unnecessary tests that have led to “unethical and/or fraudulent activities.”

The ASAM is a professional society that represents over 4,300 physicians and specialists in addiction treatment. Its new guideline – the first attempt to set national standards for clinical drug testing – could also influence primary care providers and pain management specialists who are increasingly testing their patients for opioid misuse.  

The new guideline, developed by an 11-member expert panel, is published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.  

Defective Opioid Metabolism in Pain Patients

Here are two more articles about the great variety in individuals’ ability to metabolize opioids (and a list of 6 previous posts about this), which leads to great variety in the pain relief they achieve from opioids.

This is the scientific arguments against the CDC opioid guidelines and other such “standards” limiting opioid doses to some arbitrary standard.

Genetic Mutations in Cytrochrome P 450 2D6 – P1 – Practical Pain Management – March 2014

The majority of opioid medications are metabolized by one or more of the CYP450 isozymes.  

Medicare May Adopt Flawed CDC Guidelines

Medicare Takes Big Brother Approach to Opioid Abuse — Pain News Network

Just the thought of this makes my stomach lurch.

Politicians, bureaucrats, and financial interests are determined to control how much pain we must suffer by restricting access to the most effective relief.

Various industries which stand to gain from opioid restrictions (addiction-rehab, pharmaceutical, medical device, drug-testing) are colluding with political powers to pass legislation restricting opioid dosages to arbitrary limits.

Investigations of abuse or inappropriate prescribing would be shared with insurers enrolled in the giant Medicare/Medicaid system, even if the allegations are never proven. 

The Drug Testing Industry and Marijuana Reform

The Drug Testing Industry and Marijuana Reform

Public support for marijuana legalization is at a record high in the United States, but not everybody is embracing reform.

Certain industries have a financial interest in keeping weed illegal — private prisons, law enforcement, and Big Pharma, for example — but there’s another opponent to legalization that most people don’t think about: the drug-testing industry.

Against mounting evidence that drug testing is not cost effective, and that it unfairly targets marijuana users, the industry remains steadfast in its opposition to legalization.

The reason? The industry has a lot at stake. There are those who argue it has a conflict of interest in opposing legalization efforts and is ignoring the facts to justify its fat revenues.  

Let’s drug-test the rich before approving tax deductions

Let’s drug-test the rich before approving tax deductions, US congresswoman says | US news | The Guardian

Milwaukee congresswoman Gwen Moore; “We’re not going to get rid of the federal deficit by cutting poor people off Snap. But if we are going to drug-test people to reduce the deficit, let’s start on the other end of the income spectrum.”

Moore plans to introduce a bill on Thursday that she thinks will even the playing field or, at least, “engage the wealthy in a conversation about what fair tax policy looks like”.

The bill, called the Top 1% Accountability Act, would force taxpayers with itemized deductions of more than $150,000 – which, according to 2011 tax data compiled by the IRS, would only be households with a yearly federal adjusted gross income of more than $1m – to submit to the IRS a clear drug test from a sample no more than three months old, or take the much lower standard deduction when filing their taxes.