British Columbia CrackGate Payola Scam: Methadone Kickbacks Investigated for Addicts !

Opinion

Barry Artiste

And this surprises WHO? Certainly another case for the Barry Artiste, “No Shit Sherlock Files”.

It has been reported at least one Pharmacist, who like medical professionals have a code of ethics, and also take an oath are said to be giving kickbacks to addicts seeking their methadone, by paying addicts to fill out their prescription orders in their pharmacy in order to boost their own business profits and bottom line.

Drug treatment in British Columbia is taxpayer funded $54 million dollar methadone treatment industry, which in my opinion is a total fiasco.

Not to mention our “2010 Olympic Dream” Welcome Tourists, hide your wallets, bring your mace. Cause Drug addicts will be out in force to relieve you of whatever is saleable.

This recent scandal, is just a realization who many addicts walk our streets, to the tune of $54 Million dollars in treatment drugs for a drug addled population who continually move to British Columbia and make it their home.

Good weather, breathtaking scenery, free drugs, career drug addiction, free everything. The “Province of Socialism”, for a price on the backs of addicts. Where else can you rack up 128 criminal convictions and still be allowed to walk our streets, to do it all over again. Nowhere, but Beautiful British Columbia. Police, bless their “Mandated Holstered Tasering and Baton Wielding Hearts”, are pretty much powerless, when it comes to making jails available when courts release em faster than they can arrest em.

Perhaps upon further investigation, more corrupt pharmacies will show up? But then if the investigation is lead by it’s own medical body, perhaps bad public relations may shuffle some accused under the dispensing counter. Who knows, it is anyone’s guess, including mine.

Again,yet, no big surprise here, when another scandal in a Province which is beset with scandal after scandal, a Province which prostrates itself on a cross of Lefty Compassion, when it is clear, Compassion has a price.

Drug addicts have more than enough problems, when now they expect payments in the form of kickbacks for their methadone, and if not forthcoming will shop around for a pharmacy who will throw a few bucks their way.

Taxpayers pay for these treatments, and again our $54 million dollar taxpayer money is being thrown about, like a discarded “Crack Needle”.

Again, as I have always stated “Welcome to British Columbia” The Bestest Place to Live in the World to do business when it comes to Corruption, Wild West Lawlessness and No Justice for it’s victims” Rivaling Nigeria as a close second.

What will happen to the pharmacists caught up in this scandal? Most likely as is par for the course in any Criminal Justice case before bleeding heart Lefty Judges, perhaps endless taxpayer funded appeals by their lawyers, a slap on the wrist, and business as usual.

Let’s just hope this recent scandal is an exception to the rule. But I doubt it, when $54 Million dollars is at stake, and everyone wanting a slice of the Taxpayer funded pie.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=06a7a4df-c6c0-4df9-b7e3-463d37b78956

Methadone kickbacks investigated At least one pharmacy allegedly gave cash to addicts for prescriptions

Susan Lazaruk, The Province

Published: Sunday, September 07, 2008

A pharmacy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is being investigated for offering heroin addicts cash in exchange for filling their methadone prescriptions.

The methadone maintenance program can be lucrative for pharmacies, representing as much as $54 million a year in provincially paid dispensing fees. “We have received at least one complaint; there may be more,” said Health Minister George Abbott. “We received one letter from a Vancouver physician in January” about the practice at the pharmacy.

He said the ministry, the College of Pharmacists of B.C. and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which administers the program, are investigating the pharmacy, which he wouldn’t name.

“There is an investigation and all of us are concerned of any potential violation,” said Abbott. He said he didn’t know how many pharmacists are being investigated.

Spokeswoman Lori DeCou of the College of Pharmacists confirmed there was an investigation but wouldn’t disclose any other details.

The physicians’ college spokeswoman, Susan Prins, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Untreated heroin addicts who opt for methadone to reduce cravings require daily doses.

Because of the fear they will resell the drug on the streets, most are required to visit a pharmacy daily and ingest it under a pharmacist’s observation.

The pharmacist receives the regular dispensing fee of $8.60 for filling the prescription and an additional $7.70 fee for witnessing the ingestion — or up to $6,000 per user a year.

The province also reimburses the pharmacy for the cost of the methadone, at around $1.40 a visit.

That amounts to a possible $54 million in dispensing fees for the estimated 8,400 methadone users in B.C. In the 2007-2008 fiscal year, PharmaCare reimbursed pharmacists $27 million through the methadone maintenance program, according to B.C. Health spokeswoman Michelle Stewart.

Under the province’s PharmaCare regulations, pharmacists are not allowed to offer cash or other incentives, including air miles, loyalty points or bus passes, to methadone users or to advertise drugs. Some pharmacies in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside post signs in the windows advertising methadone and openly hand out cookies and coffee to those filling methadone prescriptions.

Addicts report getting cash, too. Kickbacks to addicts are a problem in Surrey. Mayor Diane Watts said there are pharmacies in the downtown area in the Whalley district that dispense only methadone. “The issue is when some of the dispensaries pay for some of the clients’ prescriptions,” she said.

Pharmacists who follow the rules have complained to the Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association that methadone clients expect payment for filling their prescriptions at their pharmacies.

“They tell them they’ve been offered money to take their prescriptions elsewhere,” said executive-director Leslie Tannen.

She said heroin addicts are typically also addicted to crack, cocaine or prescription drugs and dealers set up next to the methadone dispensaries and openly traffick to them as they leave the pharmacies with cash in hand.