So Here's An Idea About This Whole APhA Awardgate Thing

Tell me what you think.

First, we get a bunch of the books where American Pharmacist's Association Foundation award winner Lloyd Duplantis espouses his theories that birth control pills lead to more gay men, which led to the whole Horny Haitian Homos bringing AIDS to North America thing.

If you're just tuning in, I'm not joking. Click here to get the scoop, or just keep reading the next few posts here.

Then, we get the book's covers stamped with something like "By APhA Foundation award winning author Lloyd Duplantis." Like how Oprah stamps her book club picks.

Then we show up at the APhA convention and give 'em away for free, and let Lloyd's own words do the talking.

The only downers; this would involve Lloyd getting royalties, and I'd have to go to the APhA convention. I'm not sure which is worse.

I'm open to other suggestions.

Petition Started: Call APhA On Their Boneheaded Move To End All Boneheaded Moves

Click. Look. Sign. Spread around.

My Grown Up Letter To APhA

It's odd sometimes, the duality of the Drugmonkey/real life thing. You think Steven Colbert ever got confused as to which Steven he was? Probably not, but others sure as hell do over this type of thing. Rite Aid couldn't figure it out, and I will be forever grateful to them for it.

Anyway, this APhA/Lloyd Duplantis situation calls for more than the snarky Drugmonkey treatment. It's a serious problem that they seriously are gonna have to deal with. So this is the serious, grownup, not in character letter that I sent to CEO Thomas E. Menighan and the PR person who wrote the press release announcing the award.

Serious and grownup, posted at the home of the snarky Drugmonkey. You figure it out.

_________________


Mr. Menighan,

I am writing to you to express my utter dismay at the selection by the Louisiana Pharmacists Association of Lloyd Duplantis as that state's recipient of the APhA Foundation's "Bowl of Hygeia" award. While Mr. Duplantis has gained some notoriety as a member of a movement by pharmacists to refuse to dispense oral contraceptives to women, there is another, far more disturbing aspect to his work that I can only hope you are not aware of.

In 2010, Mr. Duplantis self-published a book entitled "The Pill, America's Sacred Cow" in which he outlines his opposition to hormonal birth control. While a complete debunking of the inaccuracies, use of pseudo-science to mask religious dogma, and flat out wrong statements presented as fact in this book is beyond the scope of this letter, there is a particular part of this work, which now has the tacit endorsement of APhA, that you need to hear. I start with the following quote:

"It is proposed by several researchers that the constant bathing of the female ovaries with exogenous female sex hormones affects the complex chromosome balance of the ovum while still in the ovary. This is hypothesized as a factor in the increased occurrence of effeminate men in the American population with the subsequent practice of homosexuality resulting in the rampant spread of HIV and AIDS infections."

Lest you think that was a quick statement of a fleeting thought. Later in the book there is an entire chapter espousing the bizarre theory that:

1) High dose estrogen contraceptives produce "effeminate men,"  which leads to an increase of the number of homosexuals in a given population.

2) These pills were tested in Haiti in the 1950s, leading to an above average number of gay men by the 1970s

3) A large group of Haitians traveled to the African nation of Zaire in the 70s, where errant vaccine experiments had led to the creation of the AIDS virus.

4) These Haitians then contracted the virus, brought the disease back to Haiti, and from there it spread throughout North America.

I can assure you Mr. Menighan, that is only the most egregious thing to be found in that book. There is plenty more where that came from. And now, through the APhA Foundation, these ideas have the implicit support of your organization. It would be one thing if you could claim lackluster vetting led to your foundation being unaware of this toxic work, but it is listed front and center on the press release announcing the award!!

Let me be clear. APhA has praised the notion that homosexuality is a medical disorder and lent credence to an incredulous "theory" about the start of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. You have no idea how much I wish I could go back to simply calling your organization ineffective.

I understand that you personally were most likely not involved in the decision to bestow this award on Mr. Duplantis, but that award has the name of the American Pharmacists Association on it, and as its Chief Executive Officer you are responsible and are to be held accountable for everything the organization does. It is up to you to limit the damage that has been done, and only a revocation of the honor given out in your name and complete repudiation of the repugnant ideas of Mr. Duplantis can begin to remedy this situation.

I look forward to hearing how you plan to act in this matter.

I will follow up this email with a certified letter to ensure you receive this important communication.

Lloyd Duplantis Of Gray, Louisiana Is Far Worse Than I Thought. That's Not The Problem Though. If APhA Is Capable Of Shame They Need To Bring It Out Right Now.

Fans of the blog know all about Lloyd Duplantis. For those of you that don't I'll tell you the condensed version. He was front and center in the movement a few years back of pharmacists that refused to dispense birth control prescriptions. What made Lloyd a little different though, was that it wasn't enough for him to say you couldn't have your Ortho-Novum because it went against his moral beliefs. He essentially ignored that part of his argument one night on national radio, saying he didn't dispense them "in the name of science," calling what's in your birth control pack "the most dangerous chemicals on the market."  He spewed forth bullshit and his bullshit got called here. That's old news.

There's more to Lloyd than we knew though. And thanks to the American Pharmacists Association, we all get to find out.

It seems that our friends at APhA, who seem to do nothing other than give out awards, build new headquarters, and shake hands while taking pictures,  saw fit to give out one of their awards to Lloyd. Specifically, a "Bowl of Hygeia," which is some sort of thing given out by each state association in the name of the APhA Foundation. I was gonna write me a little letter to that Foundation to ask them things like how honoring Lloyd fit in with one of their self-proclaimed values. I quote:

 "Respect for the patient’s role in managing their health is central to care."

Except when some slut wants to have a little control over her woman parts evidently, but I'm getting off track. I thought I could write a better letter if I had a copy of the book Lloyd wrote a few years back. Unfortunately I had to buy the damn thing. It isn't popular enough to be anywhere where you can borrow or steal it. Unlike mine, which can be acquired in all ways legal and otherwise.

Lloyd abandons all pretense of not basing his opposition to sexy pills on moral grounds in this page turner, but what immediately struck me was how he tried to have it both ways on the science stuff. Here's a quote from the introduction:

I have placed my own emotions and my own hypotheses here and those are based upon empirical and anecdotal observations. Since modern science and the politically correct establishment does not accept or rather has a general disdain for that type of science, I chose to call this compilation of my musings and articles that I have found interesting regarding "the Pill," a story rather than a scientific work. 

Got that? That fancy liberal science doesn't accept things like what some guy saw or thoughts he pulled out his rear end to be good enough, so this here type of science is called a story. A story about the type of science that isn't good enough for those eggheads. And a story that uses a lot of words like "empirical" and "clinical" and "hypotheses" to remind you it's just a story.

Just for kicks, let's take a look at a few of the places Lloyd's type of science leads to. These are just warm ups. The main one is coming:

-All contraceptive products have much more potential for harm rather than the possibility of benefit. 

Eh, no surprise there. We kinda figured he'd be saying stuff like this.

-In his practice, Lloyd says "every side effect listed on the package insert presented itself" 

That, my friends, is bullshit. No pharmacist has ever seen every side effect listed for any drug on the market, and every pharmacist reading this knows that as fact.

-"Oral contraceptives are steroid based chemicals and therefore create an immune-compromising situation which makes individuals more susceptible to infections of all kinds." 

Proof please. Oh I forgot. Wrong type of science.

-"I am very pleased to be able to share...some of the information I have garnered through my own personal research, clinical experience, and assessment of material done by others"

But remember, in no way am I trying to call this science.

-"The blood of women taking oral contraceptives often takes on a green color." 

Wha?

-"Any pharmacist practicing for any length of time has been approached and asked whether he has any outdated birth control pills for use on plants." 

OK this is just weird now. I've been at it 23 years and no one has ever asked me for birth control tablets for plants. So if you're interested in the world of reality you're gonna have to at least say "Every pharmacist except one..."

I could go on all night my friends, hell I could go on for a week. You wouldn't believe the amount of material in here. But that's not my point. Here's what I want you to take away from this book. I also want you to remember APhA gave this man an award

"It is proposed by several researchers that the constant bathing of the female ovaries with exogenous female sex hormones affects the complex chromosome balance of the ovum while still in the ovary. This is hypothesized as a factor in the increased occurrence of effeminate men in the American population with the subsequent practice of homosexuality resulting in the rampant spread of HIV and AIDS infections." 

Whoa. So, this guy is saying being gay is like some sort of birth defect. And APhA honored that.

"Well, APhA is incompetent remember" some of you are saying. "They probably had no idea about this book when they dished out that award."

Except it's listed front and center on their press release announcement. 

We're not done yet though. Hang with me and you'll find out how AIDS came to the United States. It's all covered in one of the last chapters, but you're gonna have to stick around for a bit. This is probably the most complex theory Lloyd comes up with. It goes like this.

1) The initial version of the birth control pill contained much more estrogen than the ones that eventually made it to market, which had much more estrogen than the ones on pharmacy shelves today. 

OK. That much is true.

2) The initial, experimental, versions of high-estrogen oral contraceptives were tested in the slums of Haiti, because there was a large, accessible population that was poor and wouldn't cause much trouble if things went wrong. 

Don't know about that, but certainly not implausible.

3) Remember, there's totally a link between high estrogen birth control and more "effeminate" men. And homos. 

That's what you said earlier. Yes I remember.

4) These experiments were done in the 50s, which means by the 70s there were more....

homos?

...than would be in the normal population. 

OK, I'm gonna quit commenting here and just let this thing play out to the end.

5) There were several vaccines being tested in the Belgian Congo in the 50s and 60s which "are offered as a catalyst for the beginning of HIV" 

6) In the 70s, which would be when the homos created in Haiti would be at peak horniness, a "unique population transfer" occurred as 47,000 Haitians were brought to Zaire to work on "health and welfare activities"  

7) Remember, there were more homos in this population than there would be normally.  

8) And they would do homo things. Because they would be at peak horniness.  

9) And so they would catch the AIDS, and bring it back to Haiti.  

10)  Then it spread throughout North America. 

OF COURSE!!!!!!!! IT MAKES TOTAL SENSE!!!!!!!!!! Big Pharma experimented on the poor people of Haiti, creating a pool of homos, who then grew up and got horny and went to Africa, where there was some sort of mad scientist or something who accidentally created the AIDS virus, and the horny Haitian homos picked up the virus and took it back to Haiti and then into our own country!!


THERE SIMPLY IS NO OTHER WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


OK lets all laugh at that for awhile, and then remember something.

APhA gave that man an award.

And they knew about this book. It's featured in the press release announcing the award's presentation.

Which means whether they meant to or not, the American Pharmacists Association just gave a tacit endorsement to the theory that horny Haitian homos caused AIDS.

This goes way beyond birth control now.

This goes way beyond calling APhA ineffective.

They have some explaining to do.

An Unhappy Customer.

Brevity seems to be the soul of wit these days in the mailbag my friends, as this message came in today. Again, complete and unedited:

"If I wanted politics I would go to another and better written blog. Stick to pharmmacy (sic) workplace issues."

Your plight tugs at my heartstrings sir. I can only imagine how terrible your online experiences have been of late. And while I, of course, am more that willing to take my share of responsibility for your discomfort, your real problem may be with whoever is putting a fucking gun to your head and forcing you to read this blog.

I certainly sympathize. It must be some unique version of hell to sit there, cold steel pressed against your temple, as you are forced to read every word I write and never to be able to just skip to the posts that interest you. How it must rip your soul to know that others can simply click on one of the category links on the right, for example, the one that says "An Insider's View Of The Profession" when they want to see only pharmacy related posts while you sit there reading left-wing viewpoints constantly in fear for your life.

Does he quiz you? This man who sits there with cocked handgun making you read my words? Is that how he knows you haven't skipped anything? If so maybe we can work out some sort of arrangement where I can provide you with a cheat sheet. Let me know how I can help. Because while I appreciate the traffic, making someone read my blog at gunpoint is wrong. You can tell that man I said that. If you're not afraid he'll shoot you.

Moving on, you may have a secondary issue with whatever internet service provider is blocking you from accessing the other, better written blogs. I've heard of this thing happening in China, but perhaps the NSA is closer to having its electronic tentacles wrapped around our collective necks than I realized.

Or maybe you could just try Comcast.

I'd probably deal with the gun at your head first though.

Asshole.

 

From The Mailbag, A Reader Concerned With The State Of My Relations To Federal Affairs.

The message, in its entirety:

So....How's Obama working out for you?! LOL

Glad you asked my friend, as I haven't had much of a chance here to tell folks  how many more prescriptions I'm filling these days from the Obamacare. Funny thing how people tend to give me more business once they're finally able to afford to see a doctor, and a little ironic how the reason I haven't had the time to tell you about all the extra prescriptions I've been filling is because of...all the extra prescriptions I've been filling.

That's the main effect I see as to how the Obama's working out for me. I'd call it a win win for me and my customers.

Of course there's more to a presidency than money for me, so I suppose we should take a minute and ponder some of the other workings out of the Obama administration:

-A quantum leap forward in rights for gays and lesbians.

- A solution to a vexing problem in the Middle East that doesn't involve a bunch of dead people.

-Long overdue recognition that pretending that the government of Cuba doesn't exist is kinda stupid.

-Acknowledgement, at the top federal level, of the idiotic gun culture so unique to us.

-Net neutrality is now federal policy.

-AT&T and T-Mobile were stopped from combining to make your cell phone service even worse than it is now.

-Comcast and Time Warner were stopped from combining to make your cable/internet service even worse than it is now.

-No more federal cheer leading for the likes of Lloyd Duplantis and his ilk. Pharmacists, you'll remember, who got their 15 minutes of fame during the Bush administration for denying women birth control prescriptions.

We'll classify those under "things you definitely wouldn't have got under a President McCain or Romney."

By the way, there have been developments on the Lloyd Duplantis front. Stay tuned.

Back to the Obama workings out though:

-A president who addresses the out of control criminal justice system we've created, and the personal, spiritual, and financial toll it takes on every American.

-An economy that didn't collapse after it was left on the brink by George The Lesser.

Those will go under "things you probably wouldn't have got under those other two guys."

It hasn't all been roses and sunshine though, to wit:

-George The Lesser's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are still limping along, although another way of looking at it would be two fewer wars have been started than during the previous administration.

-Guantanamo's still there.

-Zero action, at the federal level, regarding the idiotic gun culture so unique to us.

-A monstrosity of a trade deal is working it's way into law. If you haven't read about the Trans Pacific Partnership you should.

Those will go under "things that probably would have happened under a Republican administration."

All in all I'd give Obama a "B," mostly for the increased foot traffic going through my business these days. If I were rotting away in Guantanamo or humping around in Afghanistan, I'd be inclined to grade him a little lower.

Not quite sure why you care about my views so much my anonymous friend, but there you go.

Testify To Pharmacy Jesus My Friend......Testify......

I QUIT RITE AID!

And it was the best thing I could have ever done for myself.


Hello Mr Monkey, I asked advice from you a few years ago about leaving Walgreens for a Rite Aid position located where I wanted to live. I thought you would like to hear what happened.

It lasted 3 years. During that time, I was miserable. It got so bad, I was forced to flex my brain muscles more than I did in pharmacy school, to figure out how to get out. It is so pathetic, to spend $150k on student loans and pass classes that took all of my efforts for so many years, only to find myself equally pressured to get the fuck out of the very place I dedicated my life to be in.

I was threatened with trivial write ups over mentally ill customer complaints, sending a personal fax, putting a flu shot sign in the incorrect location, etc. These write ups, I was told, would lead to a final meeting that would possibly result in termination. I put my keys in the lock box, called the DPM and informed him I would never be back. They did not deserve a 2 week notice.


I started a home business with my wife, and all is well. I still Rph, doing some floating for the new Haggen stores. I now own my life again, sleep well at night, and wish the best for all of my pharmacy friends that are stuck in the corporate trenches.

I appreciate all of your thoughts and writings over the years, and they no doubt had a huge influence in my ultimate decision to leave and stand up for myself. For that, I thank you very much Mr. Monkey.

From The Archives, And With a Special Dedication To A Certain Mr. Trump.

We've reached bottom now, right?

Surely we have. I've said that so many times over the course of the last decade, and been proven wrong every single time. But tonight it has to be true.

Because let me recap for you where we stand in the political life of this country right now. A commie, left leaning, profane half crazy blogger who calls himself a monkey and would call John McCain a butcher of innocent lives in the service of empire, who would have surely taken part in any and all demonstrations against the stupid, unjust, illegal dance of death this country was responsible for in Vietnam.....

....who wouldn't have hesitated to shout in John McCain's face what he thought of his career choice had he been 20 years older and ever had the chance....

....still has more respect for John McCain.....

Than the man who was at the top of the last set of national polls of likely Republican voters.

Surely we can't sink any lower.

Original blogpost airdate  November 05, 2008

A True Story About John McCain I Can Tell You Now That The Election Is Over.


I don't have to tell most of you that John McCain was a fighter pilot in the Navy during the Vietnam War. I don't have to tell you that he was shot down, captured, held prisoner and tortured by the Vietnamese for 5 and a half years.

And I don't mean the kind of torture that we do in Guantanamo where we're careful not to leave any marks. The Vietnamese didn't care anything about leaving marks. They beat the living piss out of John McCain and then would hang him from the ceiling in his cell by his broken arms when they were done. That's why you never saw him raise his arms during the campaign. He can't. At one point during his captivity he weighed less than a hundred pounds. That's not the story I want to tell you though. The story I want to tell you starts in that prison cell, with the voice of a person named David Ifshin.

Ifshin was president of the National Student Association, and in 1970 he went to Hanoi to urge American troops to turn against the war. His words were broadcast over Radio Hanoi repeatedly and into the cell that was John McCain's living hell.

You might expect that the two men would have gone on to become bitter lifelong enemies. You would be wrong. Ifshin went on to be general counsel of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, a fact that didn't sit very well with many of the veterans of the war Ifshin had railed against. Some of these veterans heckled the president during his first Memorial Day speech, waving signs that read "Tell us about David Ifshin"

John McCain gave a speech on the floor of the Senate that day. “Let me tell you about David Ifshin…" McCain said. "David is a friend of mine.”

"I wanted the protesters to know that they were bearing false witness against a good man." McCain said later."His friendship honored me and honors me still."

 You see, although both McCain and Ifshin came to radically different conclusions, both men passionately believed in doing what was best for the country. Both men came to see that in the other and to respect the others' commitment.

I was going to write a tongue in cheek post tonight about kicking the Republicans when they were down. It would have been really funny. But after hearing Obama's victory speech tonight, I decided to tell you this story instead. Because my friends, I can't help but feel there was a tectonic shift in this country tonight. A much welcome shift in the tone we are going to get from our leader over the next 8 years. After hearing the man I had hoped so long for, finally making the speech that I so longed for him to make, well, a post about kicking the Republicans when they were down just seemed so.........Bushy.

And Bush already seems like ancient history, doesn't he?

I'll be dammed if there isn't a little hope in the land tonight.

The Spawn Of Lloyd Duplantis Of Gray, Louisiana Are Back. And Wal-Mart Tells A Big Fucking Lie.

The Drugmonkey is pissed this night my friends. The kind of spit in your eye hellraising pissed that was so common in my Bush administration prime. If you've been with me that long you may remember Lloyd Duplantis of Gray, Louisiana. The "pharmacist" who had his 15 minutes of fame back in the day for refusing to fill birth control prescriptions, once telling National Public Radio they were "the most dangerous chemicals that have ever been put on the market." The Drugmonkey viciously destroyed Lloyd afterwards. To the point where if you Google "Lloyd Duplantis " right now, the first two results are posts from this very blog,  above his own store's website. 

Awesome.

But I also knew the work of vigilance against these pharmacy pretenders is never done. I wrote this back in 2009:

...don't think you should stop kicking the likes of Lloyd Duplantis of Gray, Louisiana and his ilk. 

Because you and I both know they'll be back. Pat yourself on the ass for awhile and get ready to huddle up for the next play. 

Well it's playtime again my friends. From Mother Jones, the magazine that once broke the story of Mitt Romney's "47 percent" foot in mouth episode: 

When Brittany Cartrett lost her pregnancy in March, her doctor prescribed misoprostol to help her complete the miscarriage. The drug, which would allow her to avoid a more invasive surgical procedure, is the same one used to induce many abortions. Which is why, Cartrett suspects, two different pharmacies in central Georgia refused to fill her prescription.

Yup, we've been down this road. See if you can detect a difference this time though:

Cartrett slammed one of those pharmacies, the Walmart in Milledgeville, Georgia, in a Facebook post published last week. When she asked the pharmacist why she wouldn't fill her prescription, Cartrett claims, "She looks at me over her nose and says, 'Because I couldn't think of a reason why you would need that prescription.'" Cartrett says she then explained that she'd had a miscarriage, and the pharmacist replied, "I don't feel like there is a reason why you would need it, so we refused to fill it."

Did you see it? Not even pretending to have a good reason anymore. No trumped up safety concerns. No thinly veiled medical rationale. Just "I don't think you need it and you don't need to know why"

That is, until it gets to the level of the corporate spin doctor. This is where it really gets crazy folks:

Walmart, however, disputes that its pharmacist refused to fill the prescription on principal. She refused, says Brian Nick, a company spokesman, because the prescription did not follow FDA guidelines.

Everyone in the pharmacy profession just shot scotch out of their nose. Even if they were drinking water, scotch is what came out. Even if no beverage at all was around, the sheer ridiculousness of this explanation caused single malt to flow through sinuses. Because Wal-Mart, through its spokesman, just seemed to say that prescriptions that do not follow official FDA guidelines should not be filled.

Which is unadulterated bullshit. Lloyd Duplantis wasn't allowed to spew bullshit into my profession and you're not either Wal-Mart. Prepare to be called.

It's estimated 76% of all prescriptions of Seroquel are for off-label, non FDA approved uses. Which I'm sure means Wal-Mart dispenses 76% less Seroquel than its competitors. Right Wal-Mart?

Right?

I bet you never allow any amitriptyline for neuralgia to ever leave your place either, right? And no trazodone to treat insomnia. Because there are no official FDA guidelines for that either.

I could go on all night. Because the list of prescription drugs used off label is endless, and Wal-Mart knows it.

But for some reason......only the off label use of misoprostol seems to show up on your radar. What could that reason be?

Because.... that off label use of Seroquel I mentioned really has raised some serious safety concerns, unlike anything to do with misoprostol.  Yet... I don't see any Wal-Mart pharmacists taking a stand on off label Seroquel.

So again, what could the reason be?  That just this one drug......out of zillions that are used off label.....is the one to be concerned about?

Everyone reading this now knows the reason Mr. Wal-Mart corporate hack, so you can cut the crap. That pharmacist of yours didn't fill that prescription because she's an anti-abortion zealot who thinks she's entitled to put her beliefs above the people she is obligated to serve, and is also too stupid to know misoprostol has a myriad of uses that wouldn't raise her self-righteous, hypocritical hackles.

Tell the truth Wal-Mart. If you're going to take a stand and give cover to your employees when they attempt to force others to live by their moral code, at least don't lie.

Because while not everyone agrees on the abortion issue, there's a pretty clear consensus among all faiths that liars go to hell.

Fuckers.

The Potential Posts Are So Many, The Time Is So Short.

So I just got back from Hawaii. Which is awesome. I cannot change the fact some colonial imperialist stole the place awhile back so I might as well take advantage. You should too.

Many things going on in the world of pills while i was away evidently. If I don't write soon about me calling bullshit on APhA and the spawn of Lloyd Duplantis of Gray, Louisiana again rearing their ugly heads please start prodding me to do so. For now though I only have time for this quickie. This is the actual first sentence of an actual story that appeared in The Wall Street Journal I was perusing  through on the flight home:

Exxon Mobil Corp Chief executive Rex Tillerson received total compensation valued at $33 million last year, up 18% from $28 million given in 2013. 

 Hold on though, 'cause you don't get the whole picture until you read the last sentence:

In February, Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil, the largest and richest U.S. oil company reported that its quarterly profit dropped 21% as production declined. 

Read that first and last sentence again. Do it.

And so it goes my friends. Sigh......