A sneak peak at the new ASAM criteria!
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results
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A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on”
–William S. Burroughs
In his 1969 novel The Wild Boys, William S. Burroughs writes “Under pretext of drug control suppressive police states have been set up throughout the Western world…. The police states maintain a democratic façade from behind which they denounce as criminals, perverts and drug addicts anyone who opposes the control machine.”
15 years earlier Dr. Ruth Fox formed the New York City Medical Society on Alcoholism. This organization subsequently became the American Medical Society on Alcoholism and eventually the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The organizational goal of this group has always been to convince the medical establishment of the chronic relapsing brain disease model of alcoholism (and subsequently all addictions) and that 12-step spiritual recovery as defined by Bill Wilson and the Big Book as not only a valid medical treatment, but the one and only treatment.
The American Medical Association had previously reviewed the Big Book in 1939 aptly finding it “a curious combination of organizing propaganda and religious exhortation” that “contains instructions as to how to intrigue the alcoholic addict into acceptance of divine guidance in place of alcohol.” The reviewer concludes that other that the “recognition of the seriousness of addiction to alcohol” the “book has no scientific merit of interest.”
Unable to successfully convince doctors of their ideology by swaying them intellectually due to an absence of any solid scientific methodology or genuine evidence-base, they decided on a more effective tactic. By gaining political power, promoting themselves with propaganda, spreading misinformation, and suppressing truths that don’t fit in their world view, they created a faux “medical specialty” requiring not knowledge or competence just authoritative dogma and allegiance.
They have convinced medical societies, medical boards, regulatory agencies, parole boards and others to not only accept them as experts, but to write legislation in states to declare them “the” experts in addiction medicine. They did this with a torrent of strategic lobbying efforts on behalf of the 12-step addiction treatment industry towards the AMA (and indirectly through the FSPHP towards the AMA), ABMS, APA, FSMB, ABIM, JCAO, CSAT, consumer groups, presidential candidates, state medical societies, congress, corrections agencies, social service agencies, faith-based community centers, the media and many other targets.
By proclaiming themselves “experts” and bestowing phony “Board Certification” not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, (ABMS) they have created the myth of expertise at the expense of real experts. And in doing so they have effectively lobotomized evidence-based thought and critical thinking.
This group has essentially created a despotism in addiction medicine treatment. A no choice one-size-fits-all take-it-or-leave-it pretend panacea of what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. They have additionally created a tyranny in regulatory medicine. Unsupervised and opaque, they have gained stranglehold control over individual doctors and gained sway over the culture and practice of organized medicine.
They have influenced the DSM-V, are trying to gain control of MRO education and regulation, and pose a great danger to us all. This front-group for AA and the 12-step drug testing industry is fulfilling Burrough’s prediction of a police state. As medical Robber Barons by imposition of force in numbers and money they have assumed unqualified authoritarian control and influence that is posed to create irremediable harm to both society and individual freedoms and liberty.
Alarmist call to arms about the dangers of drugs and hidden addicts protected by others and posing danger to create untrue hype is propaganda and misinformation to further the ASAM drug-testing 12-step inpatient rehab agenda and gain control.
Drug war sloganeering designed to get everyone aboard. Logical fallacy, deceptive facts, pseudoscience, and misinformation is obvious if anyone cares to look a little deeper. The conflicts-of-interest are immense. The ASAM is a front group for AA that uses ends-justifies-the-means coercion and deception to get public recognition of the righteousness of the twelve steps of recovery.
Neither doctors nor US citizens should be subject to the whims of a religion based political group composed of unqualified, inexperienced, paternalistic and biased individuals who are truncheons of dogmatic ideology and refuse to accept evidence based treatment, transparency, and accountability as important. These are self-proclaimed specialists–great pretenders. Fake it til u make it.
The problem is that regulatory agencies, politicians, medical boards, law enforcement and others have either bought into the lie or live in willful ignorance. Blinkered, ambivalent or unconcerned, most people, including those in health-care, take them at face value resulting in the misperception that they are the experts.
Indeed, they are well on the way to becoming the only experts. Within the next couple of years this will become a reality. The ASAM will eventually gain ABMS specialty certification and when this comes to fruition they will undeniably be the only recognized experts in the field of Addiction Medicine.
The Addiction Psychiatry subspecialty (the only specialty currently recognized by the ABMS) has already been pushed into a corner and will most likely have to join in rather than fade away–similar to what happened to proctology as gastroenterology evolved as a specialty. That analogy doesn’t quite work however as gastroenterology swallowing proctology represents an advancement in science based on valid methodology and evidence base. It represents evolution in medicine not monopolization in sales.
This situation is more like anti-vacciners proclaiming themselves immunologists and gaining enough support to run the real ones out. Pseudoscience, groupthink, deception, and coercion. A framework not built on the scientific method, evidence based decision making, autonomy and benevolence; but based unproven ideological dogma, righteous inflexible worldview, rigid rules, obedience, and control.
Drug testing of physicians and others will be done by ASAM, FSPHP physicians. They will demand prohibition, testing and treatment at their facilities. Complete control. Absolute power. . Even with 100% specificity and sensitivity there are valid arguments against this. But if you throw in the corruption and other issues that are obvious if one peers inside this Potemkin ASAM village, both medicine and society as we know it is going to be emasculated by dabblers and clowns. It will come in a whimper not a bang, and by then it will be too late.
They have already taken over Physician Health Programs (PHPs) by removing competent and virtuous doctors who did not conform to A.A. groupthink and held them under threats of litigation with “gag orders” not to speak of the abuse and crimes they witnessed. Claiming success with these programs they now want to move outward and onward as “Professionals Health Programs.” Any one with any sort of license will be at risk.
PHP’s function to monitor and control. . Mandating coercive 12-step ideology onto physicians is standard operating procedure. The marked rise in physician suicide over the past decade is directly correlated with the FSPHP (an arm of ASAM) taking over state impaired physician programs. A front-group for a front-group unrecognized in the sea of acronyms involved.
And the “kill em all let God sort em out” logical fallacy of saving doctors and protecting patients is propaganda with no evidence base.
This system, that encourages referring doctors confidentially for evaluation, is a nearly foolproof means to silence any physician they feel the need to. An accusation of substance abuse is made relatively easy. Then recommend an evaluation to one of your own people who will confirm the problem and force the victim into a 5 -year monitoring program with mandatory adherence to the 12-step road to salvation.
The FSPHP colludes with a list of around two dozen inpatient drug treatment centers such as Hazelden, Talbott, Marworth, and Bradford where co-conspirators will engage in “confirmatory bias” and “confirmatory distortion” to make the assessment fit the diagnosis. This provides a nearly perfect system to remove any physician from practice.
The ASAM claims an 80% success rate with the PHPs. If you look at the data on which this is based , however, it is as illusory as they are—-sheer sloganeering and propaganda with no substance or soul.
The ASAM and FSPHP are gaining power and expanding in scope. They have effectively muscled forth the “war on drugs’ agenda to further their goals by establishing a system of coercion, control, secrecy, and misinformation. With doctors the first wave was substance abusers, they then added any psychiatric diagnoses, and are now after the “disruptive physician.” The next target is the “aging physician” who will inevitably be diagnosed with “character defects.” And by calling this the “New Paradigm” of addiction medicine they want to expand their scope to other professions.
This is a system that oppresses physicians and is about to enter the domain of others including students. It will impact individual freedom, destroy the Bill of Rights, erode freedom of religion, stifle freedom of speech, and take us back decades..
By convincing others of their expertise they have strategically placed themselves in a position of power that includes the ability to remove any doctor from practice.
And unless something is done soon, every physician in the US will be at risk of losing everything at the whim of of a 12-step front group that places ideology above evidence base and dogma above virtue.
Claiming success they now want to bring it to you.
http://medicalwhistleblowernet…
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Laboratory Misconduct in Drug Testing–Processing “Forensic” as “Clinical” to Bypass Chain-of-Custody
Science vs. Pseudoscience
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Anatomy of a Forensic Fraud: The Reality of Drug Testing Doctors and what California can Expect if “Proposition 46” Should Pass
The juxtaposed documents in and of themselves reveal a number of red flags. How does one “revise” a chain-of-custody”? If you do a google search you will not find “chain-of-custody” as an object of the verb revise. It is an oxymoron. A document or opinion can be revised. A chain-of-custody, by its very definition, cannot. This collusion to fabricate a positive test has coined a new oxymoron—“revised chain-of-custody.” Go ahead and look it up. It is a novel one. As it should be.
What these documents show is, in fact, indefensible ethically, procedurally and legally. The first document signed by Dr. Luis Sanchez, past President of the FSPHP and past Medical Director of Physician Health Services, Inc. (PHS) was sent to the Board of Registration in Medicine on December 11, 2012 and is notable for two statements. The letter from Dr. Sanchez asserts that…
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Anatomy of a Forensic Fraud: The Reality of Drug and Alcohol Testing
The juxtaposed documents in and of themselves reveal a number of red flags. How does one “revise” a chain-of-custody”? If you do a google search you will not find “chain-of-custody” as an object of the verb revise. It is an oxymoron. A document or opinion can be revised. A chain-of-custody, by its very definition, cannot. This collusion to fabricate a positive test has coined a new oxymoron—“revised chain-of-custody.” Go ahead and look it up. It is a novel one. As it should be.
What these documents show is, in fact, indefensible ethically, procedurally and legally. The first document signed by Dr. Luis Sanchez, past President of the FSPHP and past Medical Director of Physician Health Services, Inc. (PHS) was sent to the Board of Registration in Medicine on December 11, 2012 and is notable for two statements. The letter from Dr. Sanchez asserts that “Yesterday, December 10, 2012, Physician Health Services, PHS received a revision of a laboratory test result,” but it did not matter because PHS was {unaware} ” of any action taken by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine as a result of the July 28th, 2011 report. However, based on the amended report, PHS will continue to disregard the July 21st PEth test result.”
The second document, addressed to Dr. Luis Sanchez, is dated October 4, 2012 (67 days earlier) and shows the first document to be a bald-faced lie.
On July 28h 2011 Dr. Luis Sanchez reported to the Medical Board that I had a positive alcohol test.
Although I knew that Dr. Sanchez had fabricated the test I had no way of proving it. I requested the “litigation packet,” which records “chain-of-custody” from collection to analysis in August of 2011. At first they refused. PHS then tried to dissuade me (“it will be costly, involve attorneys, etc). Finally they agreed but threatened me with “unintended consequences.”
I was finally able to get a copy of the “litigation packet” in December of 2011. Remarkably, it showed that Sanchez had requested my ID # and a “chain-of-custody” be added to an already positive specimen. I reported this to the Board but they ignored it. I also filed a complaint with the College of American Pathologists.
On October 23, 2012 Sanchez reported to the Medical Board that I was “noncompliant” with requirements with A.A. meetings that I was supposed to go to as a direct result of the positive test and my license to practice medicine was suspended as a result in December 2012.
On December 10, 2012 I contacted the College of American Pathologists who told me the test was “amended” from “positive” to “invalid” on October 4, 2012. I confronted Sanchez and PHS and they said they did not know anything about it.
The following day, December 11, 2012, they sent out a letter saying that the test was invalid but that they were “unaware of any action taken against my license as a result of the test.”
The documents show that on July 19th, 2011 Sanchez requested my ID # 1310 and a “chain-of-custody” be added to an already positive specimen and on October 4th 2012 the test was “appended” to “external chain of custody not followed per standard protocol.”
Please note again that Dr. Sanchez stated on December 11, 2012 that he “just learned” about this on December 10, 2012. He reported me to the Board as “noncompliant” on October 23, 2012 and my license was suspended in December 2012. These documents show he had full knowledge that the test was invalid and as an agent of the Board this is under “color of law.” Both he, and PHS, need to be held accountable for this.
Lies, Lies, and More Lies
10:19:12-Verbal Compliant Noncompliance f:u written 10:19:12–BORM Complaint Committee
The contradictory documents from Sanchez alone constitute a crime (withholding information in concealment and providing false information to a state agency). But what he did is far far worse.
I just obtained the October 4th document. Although I knew it existed, PHS suppressed it and refused to acknowledge it. But in response to a complaint I filed against PHS and the labs it was revealed by USDTL that the test in question (phosphatidyl-ethanol) was not sent as a “forensic” specimen but collected as a “forensic” specimen, then changed to a “clinical” specimen at the request of PHS Program Director, Linda Bresnahan. The specimen was kept at the collecting lab (Quest) for 7 days as a “clinical” specimen, then sent to the analyzing lab (USDTL) with specific instructions from Quest to process it and report it as a “clinical” specimen. PHS then used it as a “forensic” specimen by reporting me to the Board of Registration in Medicine and requesting I undergo an evaluation for alcohol abuse.
As a “clinical” specimen it is rendered “Protected Health Information” (PHI) and thus under the HIPAA Privacy-Rule. So with the help of the College of American Pathologists I requested my PHI from both Quest and USDTL. Quest refused (for obvious reasons) but USDTL complied. And that is how I was able to obtain the October 4th document revealing that Dr. Sanchez lied to the Medical Board. I would love to hear him, or PHS MRO Wayne Gavryck, defend the indefensible (and unconscionable).
Dr. Sanchez is correct when he pleads ignorance of any action taken by the Board as a result of the July 21st PEth result. It was his report to the Medical Board that I was “noncompliant” with attending AA meetings (that I was supposed to go to as the direct and sole result of the positive test) that he reported to the Board just two weeks after the October 4th appended test.
The test was sent as a “clinical” specimen intentionally. PHS is not a clinical provider but a monitoring agency. They cannot send clinical samples. But since clinical samples are “protected health information” and under HIPAA the lab had to give me the records and here you have them.
The distinction between “forensic” and “clinical” drug and alcohol testing is black and white. PHS is a monitoring program not a treatment provider. The fact that a monitoring agency with an MRO asked the lab to process and report it as a clinical sample and then used it forensically is an extreme outlier in terms of forensic fraud. The fact that they collected it forensically, held it for 7 days and changed it from “forensic” to “clinical” to bypass strict “chain-of-custody” requirements deepens the malice. The fact that they then reported it to the Board as a forensic sample and maintained it was forensic up until now makes it egregious. But the fact that the test was changed from “positive” to “invalid” on October 4th, 2012 and Sanchez then reported me to the Board on October 23rd 2012 for “noncompliance,” suppressed it and tried to send me to Kansas for damage control makes it wantonly egregious. (they didn’t think I’d ever find out).
Add on that the fact that I’ve been questioning the validity of the test since day 1 and they violated the HIPAA Privacy Rule over and over and this is reckless and major health care fraud.
Fax from PHS to USDTL on July 19th, 2011 asking that my ID #1310 be added to an already positive test and a “chain-of-custody” be “updated”
USDTL complies with PHS request to and adds my ID #1310 and a date of collection (July 1, 2011) to an already positive specimen
No date of collection, no unique identifier linking specimen to me. Multiple “fatal flaws.”
I file complaint with CAP January 12, 2102. CAP forces USDTL to amend test from “positive” to “invalid” which they do on October 4, 2012. PHS conceals this fact until December 11, 2012
Letter from Chief of Toxicology at MGH–Ignored by PHS, USDTL, and the BORM 11:5:12-Dr. Flood Letter–Ignored by PHS:USDTL:BORM
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Robin Williams Melancholy Suicide–Hopelessness, Helplessness, and Defeat
Please Sign Petition and Call (617-727-6200) MA State Auditor Suzanne Bump to Demand Audit of Corrupt Physician Health Services and the MA BORM Physician Health and Compliance Unit
Or better yet, sign the petition and call her. The evidence that Physician Health Services, Inc. (PHS) is committing crimes has been free-floating for the past two years. It has been posted on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, blogged, faxed, and phoned. The response? Absolute silence.
The procedural, ethical and criminal violations are clear and many. The incontrovertible evidence has been directly delivered to individuals who should address this but for some reason do not. This is not a matter of opinion folks but a matter of fact. Time and time again we hear of egregious misconduct hidden for decades because of cognitive dissonance and blinkered apathy.
What evidentiary standard is required for action? Over the past three years and under a lot of duress I have obtained indefensible documentary prima facie proof of crimes committed by individuals that should elicit immediate action but produced nothing but silence.
The crimes are many and they are of significance. Accountability necessitates both the provision of information and justification for one’s actions. This group has effectively blocked both of these. With much effort and under threat I have obtained proof of criminal activity with the expectation that the provision of this information would result in those who should and could do something about it would. They have not.
The documentary evidence of crimes is self-evident. It is indefensible. It is inexcusable that criminal activity is taking place within the walls of the Massachusetts Medical Society. The fact that PHS is unregulated and without any meaningful accountability is irrelevant. They are engaging in criminal activity within the walls of an institution that whose foundation is the antithesis of this groups actions and it must be addressed. Either support what the documents show or do something about it.
So please sign this petition and call Massachusetts State Auditor Suzanne Bump at 617-727-6200
Institutional injustice just like that being committed by Luis Sanchez, Linda Bresnahan and the corrupt MRO Wayne Gavryck is killing doctors across the country. They need to be held accountable. Help me hold them accountable.
Please Sign Petition to Expose Corruption in the Medical Profession
Disrupted Physician 