Thursday, February 16, 2006

BERNARD LORD < OR WHO SUGGESTED > SHOULD BE CONGRATULATED FOR A JOB WELL DONE!!! THE NEW CABINET??? IT'S PERFECT!!!!

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Yes, I was very surprised with the new Cabinet.

In my opinion? It’s perfect!!!

Bernard Lord and staff choose a perfect Cabinet because it fits the personalities of all the individuals around the table.

You must understand that I live in a tent in front of the Legislator for six months therefore these people were my neighbors so I got to know them on a face to face value.

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I walked in the Legislator and once again all the high class of the P.C. Party were present for this affair. It was a you know who in society.

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I sat with Leo Doiron. He’s the deputy Mayor of Shediac.

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Personally, I like this guy. He’s like me in ways. He got a big mouth and don’t mind using it once he’s confronted on an issue…lol…

The gallery was full of people and I noticed many were taking pictures.

So since no one asked me for my camera? I guess we’re allowed to take pictures.

All the new Ministers came in and sat up front.

I was very surprised to see Bev Harrison and Brenda Fowlie in there.

They kept it pretty hush hush because people in the Gallery were whispering among each other.

Myself? I tried to find out before the swearing in? Who was in the Cabinet but no luck.

Each one were sworned in one by one.

The minute Bernard Lord began to name the Ministers and their new posts. I noticed everyone was on the edge of their seat. Myself included.

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The biggest surprised was Claude Williams < New Minster and Minister of Education >

The second surprised was Tony Huntjens to the post of Speaker of the House.

I was also surprised that Margaret Ann Blaney was history.

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Yes, there was some changes and big ones at that. Pether Mesheau is also history.

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Then Bernard Lord began his speech and everyone gave Elvy Robichaud a standing ovation.

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I needed to go to the washroom but I wasn’t as fast as some people in the Galley.

Once everyone got up giving Elvy a standing ovation?

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Some quickly took the occasion to make a get away from the Gallery.

Pretty smart eh? I wish I would have taught about that one?...lol

I didn’t wish to show that I was rude so I stayed for the length of the Premier’s speech.

One outside many stood around in front of the Legislator and they soon found out that it was a very cold windy place to be.

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The Premier invited everyone to the Art Beaverbrook Gallery for a little gathering.

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Hey? That includes me right? Why not?

Once there, I felt a little out of line because I had a hat and winter jacket on.

Oh well? C’est la vie.

I congratulated Bev Harrison for a job very well done as Speaker of the House and thanked him that I was allowed to stay on the grounds for six months.

I bumped into Tony Huntjens and wondered if he will lose his temper as Speaker?

Should be interesting?

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I hope that he doesn’t sign papers to evict me from the People’s House?

I don’t think so.

I also congratulated Claude Williams as Minister of Education.

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I asked for a photo but he quickly said - You want me in trouble the first day on the job???...lol….

The picture never took. The individual didn’t wait for the beep. Oh well maybe next time? But I took this quick pic. I need a good camera so I could freely use the flas for clearer picture.

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But I’m certain that Claude will do a good job.

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Maybe? Just maybe he’ll tell the Premier to do a study on Ritalin?

Who knows?

I bumped into Brenda Fowlie and I was sadden because I believed she was sick!

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My God? She lost a lot of weight.

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She told me that she lost 30 pounds!

She looked good.

I also bumped into Kirk Macdonald. I reminded the new Minister that he won’t take the time to chat with me now because he’s a Minister?

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He assured me that this won’t be the case.

I told everyone who would listen that the Cabinet is perfect.

All we have to do is get rid of the leader and everything would be truly perfect….lol….

I forgot that I was in a place full of Bernard Lord supporters…lol…

I will give them credit. They just go along with the flow.

I noticed that all heads turned towards the door and it was Bernard Lord himself.

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I congratulated the Premier for a fine new Cabinet and we had a private chat about other issues which I won’t disclose in this blog. But it was something like this...lol

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I took this quick picture of the Premier.

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I saw my favorite Minister Madeline Dube and gave her a hug. She’s the new Minister of Family Services and that post is perfect for her because she has a very
good heart.

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Jody Carr came in the fray and he’s in charge of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.

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Hey? Maybe I can give him some ideas.

Percy Mockler is in charge Department of Wellness I told the veteran P.C. that maybe he can promote fitness and not Ritalin?

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I also bumped into the new Minister of Health Brad Green. I told him that I wish to discuss the issue of Ritalin with him. Maybe he doesn’t know about Ritalin???...lol

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Maybe? Just maybe the new Health Minister will understand that many of these kids turn to crime in their later stage in life. That's what the Police Forces always tell the public.

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At the end, the Province pays big times.

Maybe as the former Justice Minister? He’ll understand that the issue of drugging our children must be confronted head on!!!

I took a few picture and a security asked me if I was a reporter?

I said - I’m a blogger!!!

He gave me a little smile and told me that I have to belong to one of the newspapers in this Province.

I quickly told the guy that I refuse to give my life and soul to the evil Irving Empire!!!!

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At the end, the guy told me they were concern because of the paintings on the walls.

I didn’t use a flash and I believe that I need a better camera.

Yes, I must say that on paper and personality wise?

This is definitely a good Cabinet. But we need action and not a showcase.

I was approached by a few telling me that I’m not fair in my blog about the Lord Government.

I should be more gentle?

All they have to do is announce a study on the issue of drugging our children and I’ll go away.

What’s wrong with this anyway?

I was told that the phrase of drugging and he killings of our children must come to a stop.

Am I far off the mark? Everyone is telling me that it’s in the papers about kids committing suicide and having cancer at a later stage in life.

If Bernard Lord would announce a committee to study these issues, I promise that I’ll stop being harsh with the Premier.

I’m not allowed to call in talk shows.

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I’m not allowed to write letters to the Irving's papers so all I have is this little blog.

Lets see and pray that this new Cabinet with their great personalities will come together and try to help the 38,000 children in this Province.

Is it a new wave of good public relation from the Premier point of view?

Time will tell!

Here's some more pictures that maybe you'll be interested in???

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ADHD Drugs - Cash Cow For Pharma!!!!!!

Evelyn Pringle: ADHD Drugs - Cash Cow For Pharma
Wednesday, 15 February 2006, 11:21 am
Opinion: Evelyn Pringle

ADHD Drugs - Cash Cow For Pharma

By Evelyn Pringle
February 13, 2006
lawyersandsettlements.com“Our society viewed with loathing those who 'pushed' stimulant drugs on children," says child psychiatrist Dr Peter Breggin. "Yet today, there are more children taking Ritalin and amphetamines from doctors than ever received them from illegal pushers,” he says.


“Parents and teachers and even doctors have been badly misled by drug company marketing practices,” he warns. “Drug companies have targeted children as a big market likely to boost profits and children are suffering as a result."

The marketing campaign referred to by Dr Breggin has proven to be extremely successful At a February 10, 2006, FDA advisory committee hearing, it was reported by Dr Andrew Mosholder, a medical officer in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, that about 2.5 million children in this country between the age 4 and 17, currently take ADHD drugs. A government survey found 9.3% of 12-year-old boys, and 3.7% of 11-year-old girls are on the drugs, he said.

In 1980, the so-called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which amounts to little more than a list of behaviors, was voted into existence as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association, so it could be included in the psychiatric billing Bible known as the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, DSM.

In 1987, an H was added to the label and the illness became, "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder." Within one year, 500,000 children in the US were diagnosed with this cash-cow disorder.

A few years later, it was classified as a disability and a cash incentive program was initiated for low-income families with children diagnosed with ADHD. A family could get $450 a month for each child diagnosed with the disorder, and the cost of treatment and medication for low-income children would be covered by Medicaid.

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Then in 1991, schools began receiving educational grants of $400 annually for each ADHD child. The same year, the US Department of Education classified the disorder as a handicap, which required special services to be provided to each disabled child.

By 1996, close to $15 billion was spent annually on the diagnosis, treatment, and study of the so-called attention deficit disorder.

Over roughly the past 2 years, public health officials in the US, Canada and the UK have issued warnings about previously known, but undisclosed, risks associated with the stimulant drugs used to treat ADHD.

In September 2005, Canadian public health officials asked drug makers to turn over data from all clinical trials and post-marketing reports for the medications by the end of 2005 to be reviewed in 2006.

The February 2006 hearings, represent the third time in 2 years that the FDA has addressed the heart related side effects of ADHD drugs. This whole charade is beginning to look more and more like a repeat of the Vioxx debacle.

Foot-dragging earned the FDA a rebuke this month from Senator, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, which has exclusive jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid programs which, according to Sen Grassley, pay hundreds of millions of dollars for prescription drugs each year, including drugs used to treat ADHD.

In a February 6, 2006, letter to acting FDA commissioner, Dr Andrew von Eschenbach, Sen Grassley said in part, "I remain concerned that while both psychiatric and cardiovascular risk signals have cropped up across this class of drugs this past year, it appears that FDA is just now beginning to 'discuss approaches' for studying these risks."

“More specifically," Sen Grassley wrote, "I question why it has taken nearly an entire year for FDA to begin to address these concerns given the serious nature of the adverse events associated with these drugs.”

In the letter, Sen Grassley noted that the FDA had recently announced upcoming meetings of two different advisory committees to examine different ways of studying adverse events related to ADHD drugs when studies showing the risks had already been done. He accused the FDA of taking a slow approach to regulating the drugs.

As examples of risk already established, Sen Grassley pointed out that in February 2005, cardiovascular concerns raised in adverse event reports led Canadian health officials to suspend market authorization of Adderall XR for six months due to a review of safety information from Shire that showed 20 international reports of sudden death and that in 2004, the FDA required Shire to include the risk of sudden death on the label.

He noted that last summer, the safety of the drugs was called into question when the FDA publicly stated that it had concerns about psychiatric side effects from the use of Concerta and specifically stated on its website that it had “identified two possible safety concerns with the methylphenidate drug products: psychiatric adverse events and cardiovascular adverse events.”

Sen Grassley also pointed out that in September of 2005, the FDA had issued an alert to healthcare professionals regarding the use of Strattera, after reviewing data showing an increase in suicidal thoughts in 12 separate studies, and directed Eli Lilly, to “revise the labeling…to include a boxed warning and additional warning statements regarding an increased risk of suicidal thinking in children and adolescents.”

As an added pressure, Sen Grassley asked for a complete list of names of participating panel members and a complete list of conflict disclosures for both the February 9-10 2006, advisory committee and the March 22, 2006, Pediatric Advisory Committee.

The latest report made public by the FDA at the February 2006 hearings, said that between 1999 and 2003, there were twenty-five deaths in persons using ADHD drugs, including the deaths of 19 children. Officials also admitted to receiving reports of more than 50 cases of cardiovascular problems, including stoke, heart attack, hypertension, palpitations and arrhythmia.

The report only covers a 4 year period and because only between 1 and 10% of adverse events are ever reported, the numbers above represent a gross understatement of actual cases of harm from these drugs.

The report could not have considered the increase in emergency room visits associated to Ritalin abuse alone over the past decade. According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, while there were 271 Ritalin-related emergency room visits in 1990, there were 1,478 Ritalin-related visits in 2001.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, in 1999, some 165 Ritalin-related poison calls were made in Detroit; 419 cases were reported in Texas, and only 114 of those cases involved intentional misuse or abuse.

While the FDA foot-dragging has continued for years, the drug companies have been making a fortune by pushing the exact same pills that have been pedaled on the street for 50 years under names like black beauties, yellow jackets, uppers, white crosses, and bennies.

These are the exact same drugs that were handed out like candy in the 1960s and 1970s, when prescribed under the guise of diet pills, and used by truckers to stay awake, by entertainers and athletes to perform, and by people who wanted to party for days in the general population, until they were banned.

The drugs contain the exact same amphetamine that was THE main ingredient in the once popular "B-12" injections given weekly to wealthy patients in doctor's offices all over the country until they were banned.

So here we are in 2006, with pharma making a killing by selling dangerous drugs that have been outlawed time and time again. What kind of profits are we looking at? As of September 2005, Walgreen's prices for a 30 day supply for the lowest dosage of the top selling drugs were:

• Methylphenidate (generic Ritalin) $15.69
• Ritalin (brand name): $27.79
• Amphetamine/dextroamphetamine (generic Adderall): $47.09
• Adderall (brand name): $94.49
• Concerta: $103.99
• Strattera: $123.99

According to Dr Mosholder, since March 2002, prescriptions written for adults rose by 90%, to about 1 million a month as of June 2005, and to about 2 million a month for children.

If the three million people are on the lowest priced Ritalin, a round number of $30 per month times 3 million would create over $1 billion a year for the drug company alone. Then add in the medical and psychological professional fees and the grand total easily exceeds $2 billion per year. And if the patients are on Adderall, the cost of the drug triples to over $3 billion a year.

The money earned by prescribing shrinks is nothing to sneeze at either. A 2003 American Psychological Association study on "financial disincentives" for psychotherapy found that doctors could earn about $263 an hour for doing three 15-minute "medication management" sessions, verses about $156 for a single 45 to 50-minute therapy session. That represents a pay cut of 41% an hour for doing therapy only, the study determined.

However, hopefully we are about to see a dwindling of the above profit margins.

On February 10, 2006, the Drug Safety and Risk Management advisory committee said that ADHD drugs should carry the strongest warning label that they may be linked to an increased risk of death and injury.

One of the committee members who pushed for the label, Cardiologist, Steven Nissen, said something must be done to curtail the prescription rates. "I feel strongly we need to slow the growth of utilization," he said. "When you have that kind of exposure for drugs that are suspicious, that does create a major public health concern," he added.

This legally prescribed speed is being passed around between students in schools and colleges all over the nation. A 2002 study by the University of Wisconsin estimated that one of five college students takes Adderall, many for recreational reasons.

On July 25, 2005, CBS News reported that "Adderall and Ritalin have in fact become "street drugs" at America’s colleges and universities, where prescription stimulants often replace coffee and CliffsNotes as the study aids for today’s college students."

According to Dr Sean Esteban McCabe, interim director of the University of Michigan Substance Abuse Research Center, a recent survey found that 6.9% of American college students have taken prescription stimulants illicitly, and up to 25% at certain elite universities with high academic pressures and admission standards.

The study canvassed students at 119 four-year colleges and universities nationwide and was published in the January 2005 issue of the journal Addiction. The specific focus of the study was the non-medical use of Ritalin, Dexedrine and Adderall.

Based on his survey, Dr McCabe found that, prescription stimulant abuse tends to lead to higher rates of other drug abuse and driving while drinking.

The survey found that students who had used a prescription stimulant non-medically in the past year were 10 times more likely to report the use of marijuana, twenty times more likely to use cocaine, and 5 times more likely to report driving after binge drinking.

On December 5, 2005, the Nashville, Tennessee based newspaper, The Tennessean reported that Athletes aren't the only ones popping pills to gain a competitive edge these days.

"College students are turning to prescription stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin to get them through late-night cram sessions, risking potential side effects and unknown long-term effects for a chance at a better grade," it wrote.

"I would say it's pretty common," says Matthew Fleischer, a senior philosophy major at Vanderbilt University. "I know people who use it; I know people who call me and ask me if I can find some for them," he told the Tennessean.

More than 50 college newspapers have already published articles describing Adderall abuse on campus according to CBS News.

For school age children, these drugs are providing a spring-board into early addiction. Over the past few years, high school students have been busted for using the legal speed all across the country.

For instance, on March 16, 2001, in Norwich Connecticut, 3 eighth-graders were hospitalized when they overdosed on Adderall at school.

On September 12, 2002, NBC TV News reported that 11 students were transported to Antelope Valley and Lancaster Community Hospital in Los Angeles California, for treatment of possible overdose from Ritalin. The school confiscated a large amount of Ritalin pills. "I would say in excess of 150," said school principal Mark Bryant.

In three separate cases in 2004, Tucson, Arizona area students were caught with Adderall. Six Catalina Foothills High School students were suspended for taking or possessing Adderall while on campus, according to reports from the Pima County Sheriff's Department reports.

Two Ironwood Ridge High School students, ages 15 and 17, were cited for exchanging Adderall in January, 2004, according to an Oro Valley, Arizona police report.

And 6 football players at Millennium High School in Goodyear, Arizona were disciplined by the Agua Fria Union High School District for taking Adderall before a game.

In both of the Tucson cases, students who had legal prescriptions for Adderall and brought the pills to school and gave them to classmates.

On October 13, 2005, a 17-year-old Waukesha, Wisconsin boy was arrested on felony charges for possession of Adderall, after the car he was riding in was stopped for a broken taillight.

On January 20, 2006, Florida Okaloosa County Sheriff Department received word that a student at Richbourg Middle School had illegally shared the prescription drug Adderall.

"Unfortunately and sadly," Sheriff Rick Hord told reporters, "the news value may not be how unusual this is but rather how common it is."

"We've had 22 cases so far that have been investigated primarily by the resource officers but in a couple of incidents by other deputies, of drugs on campus at just about every school you can name," he said.

On February 7, 2006, two Harrington, Delaware middle school students were arrested for distributing Adderall at WT Chimpan Middle School over a period of 3 months. Both students were expelled.

If children are having problems, they need therapy not speed.

William Pelham, a well-known researcher involved with clinical trials of both Concerta and Adderall, says a major study, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, showed that behavioral therapy often eliminates the need for drugs altogether.

During a one-year trial, he told The Street.com, 75% of the children who relied on behavioral treatments functioned well without the drugs. Moreover, he added, most of those children remained off the drugs a full year later.

"What this means to me is that two-thirds of ADHD kids could be taken off the medications," Pelham told Street.com. "I do think they are grossly overused as a first line of intervention," he added.

According to Dr Peter Breggin: "We are encouraging a generation of youngsters to grow up relying on psychiatric drugs rather than on themselves and other human resources."

"In the long run," he warns, "we are giving our children a very bad lesson, that drugs are the answer to emotional problems."

Strattera - 130 Reports Of Suicidality In One Month!!!!!!

But Bernard Lord will continue to ignore the prescription drug problem in New Brunswick!!!


Strattera - 130 Reports Of Suicidality In One Mont
Friday, 17 February 2006, 11:19 am
Opinion: Evelyn Pringle

Strattera - 130 Reports Of Suicidality In One Month

February 15, 2006. By Evelyn Pringle
From: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/strattera.htmlA not yet released discussion paper written by the British Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, reveals that last fall, there were 130 reports of suicidality in a single month by patients treated with the attention deficit drug Strattera.

In addition, the paper reveals that there have also been more than 760 spontaneous reports of cardiac disorders, 172 reports of liver damage, and about 20 reports of completed suicides.

The large number of adverse event reports are exposed in a December 9, 2005, paper sent to the Swedish Medical Products Agency by the British agency. The information was obtained through FOIA-requests, and was released under a court order, according to Swedish investigative reporter Janne Larsson

A press release on the British discussion paper will be issued tomorrow morning, on February 16, 2006.

Drug making giant, Eli Lilly originally sought FDA approval of Strattera as an antidepressant and was unsuccessful. The drug has since been marketed as a treatment for ADHD. Strattera is approved for use with children and adult patients. However, the drug has not been tested in children less than 6 years of age or in geriatric patients, according Lilly.

Strattera is selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, and the first non-stimulant drug approved to treat ADHD. Since Strattera is chemically similar to depression drugs linked to suicidal thoughts in children in 2004, last year the FDA ordered Lilly to analyze its data on Strattera.

The 12 short-term (6-18 weeks) trials reviewed involved more than 2200 patients, including 1357 receiving Strattera and 851 receiving placebo. The analysis found a greater risk of suicidal thinking during the first few months in those receiving Strattera. The average risk of suicidal thinking was about 4 per thousand with Strattera compared to no events in placebo-patients. There was 1 suicide attempt in a patient treated with Strattera.

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Based on the above data, the FDA determined that the following points should be included in a boxed warning:

(1) Strattera increases the risk of suicidal thinking in children and adolescents with ADHD

(2) Anyone considering the use of Strattera in a child or adolescent for ADHD must balance the increased risk of suicidal thinking with the clinical need for the drug.

(3) Patients who are started on therapy should be observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidal thinking or behavior, or unusual changes in behavior

(4) Families and caregivers should be advised to closely observe the patient and to communicate changes or concerning behaviors with the prescriber

On September 29, 2005, the FDA announced that it had directed Lilly to revise Stattera labels to include black boxed statements to alert health care providers to an increased risk of suicidal thinking in children and adolescents treated with this drug.

The FDA also told Lilly to prepare a Patient Medication Guide, to advise patients of the risks and precautions that should be taken, to be distributed by pharmacists when Strattera is dispensed.

Once the media reported the new back box warnings and the risks became well-publicized, spontaneous reports of adverse events began to pour in. It was between September 23, 2005 and October 25, 2005, that the 130 cases of suicidal and self-injurious behavior were reported.

In the 3 year period prior to the warning, between November 2002 and September 2005, only about 300 cases had been reported between. "This means that 30 percent of all reports of suicidality were received in one month," Ms Larsson points out.

In 2004, Strattera was Lilly's 6-best-selling product, raking in over $665 million in global sales. However, when the FDA ordered the black box warning last fall, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst, David Moskowitz, told Reuters News, he cut his 2006 sales forecast for Strattera to $518 million from $685 million.

Once the black box warning was announced, it apparently did not take long for sales to drop off. According to Dow Jones New Wire on January 26, 2006, sales of Strattera, fell 8% to $168 million for the last quarter of 2005.

On February 10, 2006, the FDA safety advisory committee recommended that attention deficit drugs carry a black box warning about heart-attack risks, because the panel members agreed that the public is largely unaware of the risks and may be overusing the drugs, to include Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin, and generic versions of Ritalin called methylphenidate. The committee also recommended that a medication guide for patients and parents be provided when the drugs are dispensed.

However, Strattera, is not classified as a stimulant and is therefore, not required to carry the new proposed black box warning. However, a Lilly warning on Strattera already states: "Patients with a history of high or low blood pressure, increased heart rate, or any heart or blood vessel disease should tell their doctor before taking Strattera."

It remains to be seen what will happen to Strattera once this latest devastating news about adverse reports reaches consumers.

ENDS

SPIDERMAN IN THE NEW BRUNSWICK LEGISLATURE???

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Last month, the Quebec security staff at the Legislature sure moved fast.


While in the People’s House, I noticed a terrible and disgusting site.

The Chandelier at the main entrance was full of spider web.

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I was going to take a picture but was told that I wasn’t allowed.

It was just a picture of a chandelier.

I told them that I would come back once the meetings of the standing committee are done to take a photo.

Around 24 hours later, I showed up but everything was clean.

The spider webs were all gone.

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I’m certain that the word spread and maybe the Sargeant At Arms Daniel Bussieres himself quickly went up a huge step ladder to get rid of the evidence...lol..

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It’s the People’s House.

It’s the house that New Brunswickers built and the Quebec staff should make certain that it’s clean.

Spider webs in the Leg’s???

Hey maybe it was Spiderman but we all know there’s no Spiderman in the Lord Government.

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