Are You Ready to Trust Your Doctors and Pharmacists Again?
The madness may be closer to being over with OxyContin, but are you willing to trust Doctors and Pharmacies again?
Many of you may know my story of being wheelchair ridden for several months in 2019, and my face-to-face experience with excruciating and debilitating pain. I was given the choice of using opioids to control my pain, or to handle it with more natural means. My choice was difficult, as I was not able to sleep or keep my wits about myself to make simple decisions even as to what time of day it was, let alone such an important decision to not take a drug that could take my pain away. But thank GOD when I dug deep into my soul, with my knowledge of true health and healing of the body and my spiritual strength, I was able to guide myself NOT to choose opioids. Today I am back to work and functioning normally, all the while, working to regain my muscle strength and educating patients on the ability of the body to heal on its own.
My own father suffered a fall which left him with a broken clavicle, surgery and months of physical therapy to return to “normal” all in his late 60’s. He underwent normal surgery and was given a high dose painkiller prescription when discharged from the hospital. He took ONE dose and called me the next day. He said that it knocked him out and his brain was telling him he needed more!! This is the addictive nature of these life destroying drugs that are legally on the market! Thank goodness my Dad knew better, and made the decision not to take any more of the prescribed meds. He chose to follow natural healing protocols, and made amazing progress with his rehabilitation for a man of his age!
I am sure many of you have a story similar to this; of someone you know that may have had dental surgery, minor surgical procedure, or worse, a major accident. They were almost certainly prescribed life changing addictive drugs. There is more “legal” drug abuse than illegal drug abuse in our country and this is proof! It is not one's fault that they chose to take the road of pain reduction. They were, however, following what the doctor told them to do. We have to be smarter than these multi billion dollar pharmaceutical companies, along with their marketing, to make us think that THEY are the answer, when the answer of true health and healing lies INSIDE of us since birth!
Below is an article covering the latest OxyContin Plea Deal that exposes how the awful Opioid addiction problem came to affect so many American families. We hope that you too will see through the misleading marketing and ill-gotten gains while thousands of people died from their addictive and powerful drugs. Purdue reaped more than $30 billion US from sales of OxyContin over the years, enriching Sackler family members while funnelling illegal kickbacks to doctors and pharmacies, U.S. and state officials have alleged. - Thomson Reuters · Posted: October 22, 2020
Purdue Pharma LP agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges over the handling of its prescription opioid OxyContin in a deal with U.S. prosecutors that effectively sidestepped paying billions of dollars in penalties and stopped short of criminally charging its executives or wealthy Sackler family owners.
In a far-reaching agreement, Purdue formally admitted to criminal conduct related to distribution of its painkillers and agreed to pay $225 million US to resolve U.S. Justice Department investigations.
Prosecutors imposed significant penalties exceeding $8 billion against Purdue though the lion's share will go largely unpaid.
Purdue agreed to pay $225 million toward a $2 billion criminal forfeiture, with the Justice Department forgoing the rest if the company completes a bankruptcy reorganization dissolving itself and shifting assets to a "public benefit company" or similar entity that steers the unpaid portion to thousands of U.S. communities suing it over the opioid crisis.
A $3.54 billion criminal fine and $2.8 billion civil penalty are likely to receive cents on the dollar as they compete with trillions of dollars of other claims from those communities and other creditors in Purdue's bankruptcy proceedings, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter.
Members of the billionaire Sackler family who own Purdue agreed to pay a separate $225 million civil penalty for allegedly causing false claims for OxyContin to be made to government healthcare programs such as Medicare, according to court records.
Neither the Sacklers nor any Purdue executives were criminally charged. The agreement does not release any individuals associated with Purdue from potential criminal liability. A separate Justice Department criminal investigation scrutinizing individuals is ongoing, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Purdue conspired to engage in criminal conduct over the years that kept medically questionable prescriptions of its opioids flowing, prosecutors said. The Stamford, Conn.-based company has agreed to plead guilty to three felonies, two of them violations of a federal anti-kickback law and another charge of defrauding the U.S. and violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Representatives for Purdue, its Sackler family owners and the Justice Department had no immediate comment or did not immediately respond to requests.
Purdue reaped more than $30 billion from sales of OxyContin over the years, enriching Sackler family members while funnelling illegal kickbacks to doctors and pharmacies, U.S. and state officials have alleged.
The cases against Purdue and the Sacklers reflect an attempt by officials to hold accountable alleged perpetrators of an epidemic that has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people since 1999.
Purdue's misconduct included paying illegal kickbacks to doctors and to a vendor called Practice Fusion that created a software alert designed to push the drugmaker's opioids on physicians, prosecutors said. Practice Fusion earlier this year entered a deferred prosecution agreement and admitted that it received kickbacks from an opioid company, which Reuters reported was Purdue.
Purdue also ignored doctors suspected of improperly prescribing opioids that were flagged by its internal controls and failed to report OxyContin prescriptions from these physicians to the Drug Enforcement Administration as legally required, officials said.
Purdue, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year under an onslaught of litigation, has proposed settling thousands of lawsuits in a deal it values at more than $10 billion. That is contingent on donations of opioid reversal and addiction treatment medications it has under development and a $3 billion cash contribution from the Sacklers. The Sacklers would cede control of Purdue which has asked its bankruptcy judge to approve the plea agreement, including the $225 million payment it owes.
The team at Ferguson Life Health Centers have committed our lives to making sure that you are educated and aware of the addictive forms of pharma, and we promise to address your pain in the most natural means available. We’ve witnessed too many individuals, in our immediate and extended families, become victims of opioid addiction. You are better, and deserve better, than a settlement after a drug has destroyed your life, work, relationships and more. It’s unnecessary and cruel negligence for a doctor to prescribe opioid prescriptions and not inform each and every patient that there are natural options to these pain killers.
If you, or any of your loved ones, have questions about the medicines you have been prescribed, please discuss them with one of our doctors.