String this guy up by his balls

[Barb Dwyer]

I have searched the board but can't find any threads about this.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20010820/us/diluted_drugs_31.html

I am still just so angry and shocked by the news story of the pharmacist who diluted chemotherapy drugs to his customers so he could skim money. I tell myself every day that nothing will shock me anymore, yet I am proven wrong time and again.

I find it hard to believe that his admission involves only 35 patients. I am of the belief that he has been doing this for a very long time. How does a pharmacist earn $10 million?

To pray on the sick and infirm - the terminally ill patients is despicable. I hope the government pursues this to the fullest extent of the law.

And, if that weren't bad enough, today I heard a story about a car dealership in Oregon that cheated an elderly man out of over $100,000 by selling him 7 different cars in a single month. They have been ordered to give him restitution, thank goodness.

 

[TWB]

Pharmacist from hell.

I too am sickened by this asshole. I have a client whose 36 year old daughter just died of cancer, and her husband, a pharmacist of 50 years now has alzheimers. Anyway, it threw her into all sorts of doubt regarding the treatment her daughter received, rational or not.

It makes me fucking sick.

I hope the judge puts him on full strength chemo as a punishment.

 

[Starfish]

Evil prick.

I am not impressed at all though greed knows no boundries, does it?

 

[miles]

Hard to believe that a human being could crawl so low.

 

[OUTSIDER]

there's only one word for that person.......EVIL

 

[d_arthur]

"The only estimation I can give of my son, Robert Ray, is that outside of preying on the terminally ill he is an ideal son in every sense of the word,'' said Courtney's father, Robert L. Courtney, a retired Assemblies of God minister.

It amazes me how much parents will dilute their sense of relaity just to continue to believe their children are without fault

 

[YoungGun69]

I heard it on Howard Stern this morning.

It was the pharmaceutical company thet blew the whistle.
they saw how much he was selling and said how can he sell that much when he hasnt bought that much.

 

[faith]

sick mothers....

how inGods name can these people look a themselves in the mirror...Oh wait I get it they're Vampires feeding off others misfortune...maybe we could just stake 'em....nah they deserve more pain than that.

 

[batter]

talk about taking advantage of another persons misfortunes!

paybacks can be a bitch sometimes.

someone needs to stake him out near a fire ant colony somewhere and let just one of the ants get up his asshole!

 

[Siren]

Hes a criminal

 

[ranajja]

String him up by his balls...

...and y'know, maybe if he really was strung up thusly, perhaps others really would think twice about doing this kind of atrocity...

 

[1handedtyper]

Hold on a sec...

This is all fine and good, but how about we stop bitching about it and do something. Whining is one thing, activism is something else entirely. What can we as citizens do to prevent it from happening again? Where were the safety controls? Who was monitoring this? What can be done to prevent it from happening again?
Rather than "string him up by his balls" maybe we ought to let the law take it's course and concentrate on what can be done now to help the victims of this crime and potential victims of similar crimes.

 

[Siren]

Okay, then you suggested it, so lets start with you.....

 

[1handedtyper]

Try this on for size...

Hmmm...

A good place to start would seem to be quality controls...write your senator and make sure something is done to implement a proccess to prevent this from happening again. Sound like a good start?

 

[Harbinger]

I don't think more government controls are the answer. It adds greater cost to provide services that are already hard to afford for many people, and even then, you still have to trust additional people to do their jobs honestly, so you're right back where you started. What is happening is far more effective: Public outrage and disgust over this vile excuse for a human being. And , I'm sure, punishment that is severe and inescapable. So write HIS congressman about THAT.

 

[Barb Dwyer]

1handedtyper...

Pharmaceuticals are one of the most heavily regulated industries there is. A pharmacist must be licensed by the state before he can practice.

There are already strict guidelines in place that they must follow for all types of meds - whether or not they are controlled substances, prescriptions, narcotics or any other class.

Accountability is built into the system at every step, once it leaves the manufacturer, to a distributor (if different) to the wholesaler and down the line to the retailer. It doesn't matter if it is a mom and pop type operation or a chain of drug stores or groceries or hospitals. Pharmaceuticals are handled differently than any other goods or products in transit.

Record keeping is required. Diversion of any sort is the highest crime you can commit concerning drugs. Whether that be forging prescriptions, stealing drugs, diverting to others for profit (or not) or diverting to yourself. The law is quite harsh as it stands now. It is a felony.

Since this man was registered and licensed, there was little more any one could have done. His case of diluting the drugs was extremely hard to discover. Unless it had caused immediate adverse medical effects, he could have gone undetected for years. It is a different case when bottles of pills disappear from inventory. He was actually making his product last longer.

In any event, his behavior was abnormal. Harbinger is correct. The public trust was assumed that he would be ethical and diligent in performing his duties. That he would adulterate a product and risk endangering his customers in exchange for a bigger profit could not have been foreseen.

I don't understand what you are promoting either. Would you propose a witness or a watchdog to oversee every pharmacist who dispenses drugs? That makes no sense.

 

[Siren]

WELL, if the guy was the one in Outsiders av

 

[Barb Dwyer]

Excellent suggestion, Sirenita!

That would be a pretty gruesome sentence.

And whoever said it in another thread was correct- Outsider does have a picture for every occasion. (I just can't figure out what occasion his av is celebrating! LOL)

 

[cymbidia]

Hang on, now...

This man is a cretin of the lowest order; we all agree on that, don't we?

And if there's one very bad pharmacist, logic tells us there must be more. Right?

However, and this is where we might diverge in our calm agreement, i believe that pharmacists (and, to a lesser extent, doctors and dentists, too) are largely a very honest, very law-abiding group. They know they exist of public sufferance. If we, the public come to see them as cheats and frauds, then they won't have our trust and we'll be looking over their shoulders and poking into their business.

Here's an example: how often do think about getting (or actually go out and get) a second opinion when faced with some medical situation? It's far more often than our grandparents thought of getting such a thing.

What has changed? There's been an erosion of public trust in the competency of doctors.

Such will happen with our pharmacists, too, if another case such as this comes to light. And those pharmacists? They *don't* want that! It's cuz they have anything much to hide but because they *want* to continue to hold our trust.

I bet they find a way to police themselves a bit more rigorously in the near future.

There are always bad people, dishonest people, those who don't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves. They exist everywhere, at every level of society, in every job. They always have. They always will.

But there are far more honorable, decent people in the world, in every profession, than bad. Please remember that before you join the lynch mob.

This man's life is over. It doesn't begin to compensate for all the lives lost due to his greed, but it's a beginning. Let's remember, too, that he has a family, kids and a wife, whose lives are ruined now because of him. He has to live with that shock and shame forever.

 

[Siren]

Yea, it is kinda scary to think what Outtie is celebrating today isnt it?

 

[Siren]

btw Cym

 

[registered "^^"]

He only faces 6 months in prison and a 250,000.00 fine. Not much for screwing with 37 lives.

 

[Barb Dwyer]

cym, you brought up some good points. I don't think anyone wants to paint the entire industry or occupation with such a broad brushstroke as you suggest. No one wants to portray them as evil, greedy, unscrupulous monsters. You are absolutely right that there are bad eggs in all professions.

However, I cannot work up any sympathy for him or his family. With a net worth of $10 million to fall back on, he can afford some decent therapy to aid in his discovery of why he would risk people's lives, sully his reputation, endanger his family's privacy and lifestyle and destroy the public trust for money.

 

[Siren]

Why would he?

 

[OUTSIDER]

you know if I was a relative of a person who this guy has killed I'd be on the "warpath" and no mistake, this man is a murderer and should be treated as such.

and Cym........damn fine post.