Prescription Medication/Drug Misuse Andabuse: a Clear & Present Danger

Prescription

Medication/Drug

Misuse and Abuse

A Clear & Present Danger

Dr. James A. Mays

Copyright © 2013 by Dr. James A. Mays.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 07/26/2013

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Contents

Dedication

Thank You Page

A Man For All Seasons

Hippocratic Oath

Trapped!

Fiction Versus Reality, Dr. Alonzo Brackens Versus Dr. Conrad Murray Both Are Trapped

Los Angeles Sentinel

Michael Jackson Dies His Life And Music Celebrated Around The World

From Trapped

Novel Trapped

Twenty

Thirty-Second Tv Advertisement On Time Warner Cable For California

Medication/Drugs Abuse Sometimes Ends In Sudden Death

Cocaine And Sudden Death

The Death Sequences From Drug Abuse Cocaine, Speed, Pills And Alcohol

Sequence Of Sudden Death From Drug Abuse, Particularly Cocaine And Speed

Narrative

Sudden Death In Young Athletes

The Pdr—Physicians’ Desk Reference

Pdr Quick Reference: Pdr Patient Resource Guide For Physicians

Pdr Quick Reference: Reporting Adverse Drug Events

Access Where You Want It

Key To Controlled Substances Categories

Drug Information Centers

Controlled Substances Act

Controlled Substances Act

History

Schedules Of Controlled Substances

Sigmund Freud

Suicide

Suicide

Positive Images Of South Los Angeles

Tranquilizers

Information Sheet

Appendix 2-15 Alternative Therapies For Migraine Headache

Opiates

Drugs

Morphine

Managing Chronic Pain Safely With Opioid Analgesics

Medication Contract

Most Crimes Are Directly Or Individually Related To Drugs

Dangerous Drugs In Minority Communities

The Impact Of Dangerous Drugs On Minorities Communities

Words Of The Drug World

Words Of The Drug World

Substance

Usual Suspects, Suspects, And Persons Of Interest

Confidential Patient Information

Health Net Narcotic Drug Utilization Review

Confidential Patient Information

The Los Angeles Wall Street Occupiers And La Homeless

Homeless Center Plans Draw Fire

For Homeless

The Hundred Years’ War, The South Central And East Los Angeles Fronts

Americans Against Dangerous Drugs

Newly Founded Group (Aadd) Americans Against Dangerous Drugs

A Clear And Present Danger

City News Service

Unity Survival Action Coalition South Central Los Angeles

Americans Against Dangerous Drugs And Adopt-A-Family Foundation

The African Waterhole Syndrome

Responsibility Of The Officer (To Protect And Serve)

Immediate Emergency Contact Information

Tenth Planet Looks At Our World

Jim Hill To Host Antidrug Special

Natural High

Public Service

The Cds And Dvds

Medications/Drugs And Money

Perspective

The Dangers Of Excessive Alcohol

Federal Regulation Of Pseudoephedrine

Dangers Of Alcohol

Sexually Transmitted Diseases And Drugs

Homelessness And Aids: An La Secret

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

What Are Sexually Transmitted Diseases?

Special News Press Release

Trans Fat Awareness Campaign Takes Hold In South Central 2/21

Food Guide Pyramids

Food Guide Pyramid For Older Adults

Fda-Approved Terminology For Food Labels

Vitamins*

Integrative Therapies: Complementary And Alternative Medicine

Forms Of Herbal Preparations

Herbal Medicines

Children And Environmental Drugs

Better Child Foundation

Drugs And Youth

Chapter 14

Radian Adopt-A-Family Cocaine Seminar

Radian

A New Black Superhero

A Positive Image Of South Central Los Angeles

The Promenade Of Prominence

Chapter 6

October 10, 1994

Promenade Of Prominence Walk Of Fame

Press Release

Radian

Grand Marshalkingdom Day—Martin Luther King Jr. Parade

Grand Marshall

Press Release

Dr. James A Mays

Prescription Medications/Drug Misuse And Abuse In The Doctor’s Office

Press Release

Special Thanks To

Press Release

What Are The Answer To Prescription Medications/Drugs Misuse And Abuse

We Are Living In A Nation Of Pills

Twelve Million People Are On Pain Pills Of Some Type Over Fifteen Years Of Age

Letter Regarding Potential Endo Product Supply Disruption And Possibility Of

Rare Tablet Mix-Up

There Are One-Half Million Treated In Emergency Rooms In Drug-For-Pain-Pill Overdose

Recommendations From The Aan/Annem/Aapmr

Medication Contract

Challenging Symptoms? Speak With A Specialist.

Usc Clinical Brief

A Chilling Effect

Uapb Awards Chancellor’s Medallions

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book, Prescription Medication/Drug Abuse and Misuse: A Clear and Present Danger, to my great nephew, Stephen T. Broughton, II. In 2010 he was an honor Graduate and Senior Class President of the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluss (UAPB) and a present first year freshman at the University of Arkansaa, School of Medicine where he is keeping the legacy alive. His Great Uncle, Dr. Edwards Mays was the first, followed by Dr. James Mays, and his father, Dr. Stephen Broughton proceeds him.

I hope the contents of this Book will serve as inspiration and guide for him and many young medical students as they pursue this most noble of professions.

THANK YOU PAGE

I would like to thank my personal doctors and friends

Dr. Stella Feld

Dr. David Kheradyar

Dr. Stephen Parell

And

Dr. Anthony Reed

Four outstanding doctors

And to

Liza, Erica, Chris, Donald, Marcellus, Twilla, and Breanna

Special Thanks to:

Jackie and Jaro’s Professional Typing Service

A Man for All Seasons

Activist Dr. James Mays Dedicated to the Community

By Shirley Hawkins

For a man who has been cited for his community involvement by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, Dr. James Mays, seventy-three, is a doctor who remains humble and focused on servicing the South Los Angeles community. Whenever a crisis emerges in South Los Angeles, Dr. Mays is a familiar fixture on the picket lines or speaking at a press conference about the issues of AIDS education, the downsizing of Martin Luther King Hospital, glaring health disparities, or substandard education.

A fixture in the African American and Hispanic communities, the Pine Bluff, Arkansas, native has operated four Mays Medical Clinics for about four decades. When other physicians have packed their stethoscopes and medical charts to move to the more-prosperous West Los Angeles or Beverly Hills, the dedicated physician has steadfastly kept his services in the inner city. And community residents are grateful for Dr. Mays’s dedication—as he strolls through his medical clinics dressed in his white doctor’s coat with a stethoscope draped around his neck, patients greet him like family as he single-handedly treats forty to fifty patients a day.

And with high blood pressure, diabetes, sickle cell disease, obesity, and other health disparities impacting the black and Hispanic communities, Dr. Mays feels that the need for more medical facilities in South Los Angeles is great. There is a great need for physicians to treat the undeserved, he observed. It is my hope that South Central will receive an influx of doctors in the near future who care about the community, said Dr. Mays, who is a recognized authority in the area of the high blood pressure.

There must be a special effort to help the black, brown, and poor communities because those are the people who are in the poorest health, Dr. Mays pointed out. The black community is lacking adequate medical care. Either we will pay for the health disparities impacting the black and brown communities now, or we will pay for them later, he maintained.

Dr. Mays, who was the first chief of Cardiology hired at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in 1973, said he is troubled by the downsizing of the embattled medical facility, observing that it is located in a community where health-care needs are the greatest.

Our leaders and politicians need to come together to save that hospital, said Dr. Mays, who wrote a suspenseful book, Mercy Is King, about a fictional doctor working at MLK. It is inexcusable that there is not a full-service hospital available to assist residents in the Watts/Willowbrook area.

Many have credited Dr. Mays for being an unsung hero who never seeks credit for saving lives. While eating lunch at Queen of Angels Hospital during his residency years ago, Dr. Mays once saved the life of a man who suddenly went into cardiac arrest. The man, who was Caucasian, doggedly tracked Dr. Mays down after his recovery to thank him for saving his life.

For his dedication for servicing undeserved communities, Dr. Mays was honored with The Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge Award from Mrs. Ronald Reagan and has also served on the board of directors of the American Heart Association and the Watts Health Foundation. He is also the creator and founder of the Compton Sickle Cell and Hypertension Foundation.

Righting wrongs has always been in the physician’s blood. I got my activist spirit from my mother, declared Mays. My mother, Edna Clare, was a community organizer in Pine Bluff for seventy years. She helped poor people all her life, and she instilled in me and my siblings to do the same, said Mays, who said his mother’s contributions have been enshrined in both the Pine Bluff and Arkansas Halls of Fame.

Dr. Mays has accomplished more than almost seems humanly possible. The prolific Mays is also the author of thirteen books, including The Black Superheroes, The Mind of Mays, Mercy Is King, and Dr. Dan: Man of Steel. He has also penned one hundred medical scientific papers.

A decorated combat veteran who served as a medic in the Vietnam War, Mays also lauded local community figures as the cofounder and creator of the Promenade of Prominence Walk of Fame. The memorial, located in Ted Watkins Park in Watts, is dedicated to the accomplishments of local civic and community leaders.

In an effort to help poor families, Dr. Mays founded the Adopt-A-Family Program, where he recruited local professionals to serve as role models for thousands of families throughout the Southland.

In the ’70s, he lifted the self-esteem of thousands of black and brown children with two caped African American superheroes named Radian and Radiance. The superheroes visited inner city schools and urged black and brown students to study hard. I created the superheroes to give the black children a positive image, said Dr. Mays.

The doctor is also the co-host of The Audrey Franklin Show, which is regularly broadcast on cable television.

Always a bundle of energy, Dr. Mays recently faced his own health crisis when he suffered a mild stroke.

Dr. Mays said his fiery spirit remains intact.

And protest remains in Dr. Mays’s blood. He recently rallied friends and supporters to protest spiraling gas prices, which he maintains has especially impacted the poor and the elderly. Many elderly and disabled residents were surprised recently when Dr. Mays appeared at a Mobile gas station and gifted them with a gas card worth $25 and so to ease their gas crunch.

Gas is so incredibly high that senior citizens on a fixed income just can’t afford to fill up their tanks, Dr. Mays pointed out. I feel that churches, businesses, and other types of organizations should be coming together to offer relief for our people and to show that we are true Christian citizens.

And recognizing other soldiers in the community continues to be a labor of love for Dr. Mays, who cofounded the Third Annual Mic Awards with entertainer Georgio Washington. The Mic Awards, which were held June 8 at 4:00 p.m. at the Hollywood Park Casino to honor local entertainers and community leaders, lauded actor Bill Cobbs, Watts community activist Sweet Alice Harris, community activist.

And Dr. Mays has no plans of slowing down. I love my community, he said. As long as I am breathing, I plan to help my community as long as I can.

Hippocratic Oath

I swear by Apollo the physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant.

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art—if they desire to learn it—without fee and covenant, to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20018

Dear President Obama:

I have written you on several occasions and also sent you my ideas and books to qualify the letters. One of the letters discussed The Role of the Physician’s offices and Clinics in Homeland Security during Health Epidemic Natural Disasters and Terrorist Attacks. Another letter discussed the enhanced Medical Educational Preparation of Our Youth for the job market, which is available and more so with health reform in this honorable profession, especially underserved black and Hispanic youth. This letter concerns our most urgent problem: prescription drugs! Prescription-drugs abuse represents our nation’s clear and present danger. Drugs are a major problem, in fact a greater problem as the economy or terrorist attacks. We must immediately educate and admonish doctors, punish some, even young doctors, still in medical schools, the pharmaceutical industry and general population. We want a fix for anxiety, a fix for depression, a fix when we are high, and a fix when we are low, and many want a fix just to get a fix! Unfortunately we, as doctors, and the drug companies are providing that fix with medications/drugs! A doctor’s signature on a prescription is the most powerful legal document to obtain medical medications to treat and cure suffering and pain or used as drugs in our era of The Medications/Drug Black Death.

Elvis Presley, Anna Nicole, Russ Limbaugh, and the present televised sensational Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston tragedy has highlighted the problem. However, the prescription-drug problem also runs rampant in the general population, in asocial as well as in socials. Our home medical cabinet contains power medications/drugs, which can be abused as drugs by our naive youth. To leave those cabinets unlocked and exposed to children is like leaving a loaded cocked gun readily exposed to them.

The self-created Trap that Dr. Conrad Murray finds himself is that of many physicians. I feel that the urgent problem of prescription medications/drugs will require leadership in words and immediate action. This is it. We cannot fiddle this time while our nation and the world becomes victims of medication to relieve suffering used as a drug, to cause horrors with prescription medication/drugs abuse problem.

A letter cannot fully express my thoughts, feelings, and suggestions. I do hope this letter will serve as a natural stimulus for your actions and thought.

Respectfully,

James A. Mays M.D.

Dr. James A. Mays Doc

(323) 778-7697

cc: Health and Human Services (HHS)

The Surgeon General of the United States

National and Local Medical Societies

Editors, Newspapers/Magazines

Trapped!

(Based upon the novel Trapped by James Mays, MD)

Arrested! A doctor arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department in full view of his patients and the local community in South Central Los Angeles is a spectacle. However, this is uncharacteristic for a man who had previously dedicated himself to the benefit of the community—a man whose philosophy is quite in tune with the Hippocratic Oath. Alonzo Brackens was taken away in full view of those in the clinic as well as jeering spectators that had previously received his healing art. Not only that but also, as if a director had set the stage, numerous local reporters as well as national talk show cameras and printed news photographers reveled in the scoop.

Alonzo Brackens, a short, bright, but simple young man from Mississippi could not visualize himself being handcuffed and escorted away in front of a jeering crowd. But why? He surely was not a common criminal, as was so typically depicted. What was he? If he was a criminal, then why? The scenario of this sensational event began when he broke his promise to return to the small town and practice medicine after they had financed his medical training. Was it the cute little country girl that he had promised to marry, and instead married a gorgeous, statuesque, socialite-oriented coed student, while in medical school? Was it the weakness of his love that caused him to follow her to California to fulfill her dreams of becoming a movie star? And then, was it his ambitious wife’s fault, who constantly but unintentionally placed financial demands upon his love that were beyond his scope as a simple ghetto medical doctor? Did she or did she not know that his practice, primarily composed of poor paying State-funded patients, would allow her to have a fabulous apartment, expensive portfolio, clothing, and furnishings that were beyond his scope, and further to enhance her needs toward a style of living: in Baldwin Hills, and eventually in Bel Air, that were totally beyond his financial capabilities? Was it his innate weakness or love that would not allow him to make her aware of his incapabilities?

The stress and dedication of a doctor primarily serving the poor can be rewarding and should be rewarded. However, it is never done so financially. Many times under stress, when a title denotes riches, shortcut methods are sometimes innocently devised to play that role.

The more one sees and experiences, the more one wants, therefore leading to the next step of an assembly line of abortions, many times outside of the parameters established by the law as to the age of the fetus, and occasionally performing abortions on a viable fetus. As the demands increased, the supply had to keep pace, destining the selling of drugs on the street and becoming an active advocate of the antidrug movement, while at the same time moving into the realm of legal drug pusher with the power of the prescription. Scripts, as they are called, written for excessive and unneeded narcotic and tranquilizing substances, are a booming legal business for those with the authority to do so, causing interactions with those with low morals.

One’s life as well as family members’ can be threatened, kidnapped, raped, or killed if one is caught in the web and doesn’t respond to the spider’s needs for sucking continued drug juices.

This maze of accelerated quests for monies to meet the pressurized demands can cause a tranquil family environment to become disrupted. A wife whose primary drive is stardom can walk into a world in which she is unfamiliar and therefore become involved as a reluctant participant in sexual adulterous behavior. Neglected children that are knowingly aware of the behavior of good parents tend to act out or rebel against their parents’ phony philosophy leading to asocial behavior, primarily rebellion, drugs, and gang participation.

A man’s dedication is altered by his innate weakness and love for a woman who truly loves him but who has a greater love for stardom eventuating into dramatic complexities of social acceleration, leading to complex asocial behavior patterns by oneself and family. This environment of richness and poverty intertwining as the cold and warm airs that form a twisting hurricane; and at the eye of this twirling, twisting turbulence is Dr. Alonzo Bracken as he finds himself in a jail cell, head bowed in his own self-made trap!

By James Mays, MD

FICTION VERSUS REALITY,

DR. ALONZO BRACKENS VERSUS

DR. CONRAD MURRAY BOTH ARE TRAPPED

I wrote the book Trapped several years ago. It is a fictional novel about a bright and compassionate doctor who took his gift of his healing to a low level because of prestige and greed. He felt he had to live the wealthy lifestyle that the public expected of a doctor, further pressured by a beautiful socialite wife that expected him to finance her extravagant lifestyle and spoiled children that wanted to be princes and princesses. They wanted a good life—first, in Baldwin Hills, and later the ultimate royalty of exclusive Bel Air. They were like hogs, eating acorns falling from an acorn trees, eating plenty juicy acorns, expecting more and more to come from the sky. Even shaking the tree, shaking the branches to loosen more, not trying to see exactly where the acorns were coming from, not caring that the tree could provide only a certain number of tasty acorns and would run out of the product of greedy pleasure; the acorn tree feeling the pressure and slowly withering, unable to produce more acorns; the tree attempting to fulfill their exorbitant taste and gluttony via numerous methods to fulfill their needs, working overtime against its nature, causing the tree to change its natural functions and methods. This eventually causes the tree to deteriorate. It had lost its moral natural principles. The tree did not follow the basic admonition, Do not play with Mother Nature.

Dr. Alonzo Brackens was that acorn tree. He did not follow the Code of the Hippocratic Oath. He changed from a smart dedicated physician to a machine to make money, mostly to satisfy the lifestyle demanded and expected of a doctor’s family. Being a doctor to many is like being a first-round draft choice in the NFL or NBA. Doctors do make a good living while providing long hours of the noble service of healing. But most are not wealthy. Most are in the middle class. A few are wealthy, most are not. In fact, many are living above their means. So was Alonzo Brackens. The financial pressures were closing in on him like a gang of sharks during a feeding frenzy. His pride would not allow him not to fill the needs of his family, especially his beautiful socialite wife. He attempted to keep afloat by using his finger to plug the hole in the dike. But the turbulent waters put so much pressure on the finger; it could not hold the flood back any longer. The dam burst!

Whereas he had been a good doctor and cared for the health of his patients and their social well-being, many of them thought of him as a god or sent from God. But God was not providing him with money, and money is what he needed. It has been said that love of money is the root of all evil. The heavenly sunny California and its cost of luxury became his hell. He tried to crawl out hell with more money. He started to do unusual things for him, methods to make more money. More money was waiting, the power to write prescriptions for drugs, powerful drugs, especially in the partying LA climate. But as with the tree, it caught up with him. He was arrested, brought to trial, embarrassed, convicted, and sent to prison. His two years of erratic behavior destroyed thirty years of dedicated medical practice—all that he had worked for and achieved, his professional standing, the personal wealth that he had gained, and his privileges to heal, his foremost desire since childhood. His beautiful socialite wife could not say she was Mr. Alonzo Bracken, the doctor’s wife anymore because he was now known as a criminal. His children could not refer to him as my dad, the ‘doc.’ His mother would sit and cry and not proudly state my son, the doctor. She could be ashamed to go to church, be around friends. The higher they went up in money and respect, the further and harder they fell, very hard. The story that I wrote of is a glimpse of fiction but in many ways a true story. All too many doctors that I have counseled and known and had to supervise for the California Medical Board are trapped as did Dr. Alonzo Bracken.

There are many parallels to the true case of Dr. Conrad Murray. Some of Dr. Alonzo Bracken’s patients became addicted to prescription drugs, and some may have overdosed and died! The fictional story of Brackens is in many ways the story of Dr. Conrad Murray.

I never met Dr. Murray, although I also trained as a cardiologist. I don’t know if he was a member of my friend Dr. Richard Williams, who founded Black Cardiology Association. I now also practice primary care. But what I read of him in the media, he is a very bright man, graduating with honors from college and doing well in medical school and further training. He was dedicated and loved by many of his patients for compassion and skills. He served those with financial means and the poor. The testimony of some of his patients made him appear saintly. But why did he perform in a manner differently to what his life’s skills and dedication had been for nearly thirty years? What caused him, a smart doctor, to have that mental lapse? It was revealed that he had financial problems. Was it the women? Jay-Z the rapper rapped I have got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one. Dr. Murray had four beautiful women friends testifying at the trial, who did appear fast by the places they say they worked and also dressed. Did the doctor think he needed to impress them by being Michael Jackson’s doctor, or was it the prestige of being Mr. Jackson’s primary doctor and the large amount of money he would now make it easy to win them? This is it again, the love of money, and if you add several fast women, it can be the root of evil. But knowing better as a professional to allow anyone to convince him to supervise a deadly situation nightly, knowing that death was just a few breaths away without adequate emergency preparation, is unbelievable for a competent doctor and cardiologist. It was just stupid to be responsible for giving the drug propofol in a home setting—he had to know Michael Jackson was on prescription drugs from the pill bottles that lined the shelves of his bedroom, like a pharmacy—even if the requesting person was the world-famous entertainer King of Pop. Dr. Murray apparently was talking on the telephone and not carefully observing a life-dependent patient while delivering a deadly medication illegally, then lying about the death as seen in his video shown to the court and world. This behavior appeared unlike the Dr. Conrad Murray to his patients. Dr. Alonzo Bracken’s behavior was similar to Dr. Alonzo Brackens; both found themselves Trapped!

Many will attempt to give reasons for Dr. Murray’s behavior, talking head TV analysts, lawyers, well-known medical psychologist and psychiatrist. But the best answers that I heard came from the street people. They talk boldly and directly using street words and wisdom. "Dr. Conrad Murray must have been out of his fucking mind!"

BY

JAMES A. MAYS, MD

CRIMINAL COURTS BUILDING

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

MODERN-DAY MICHELANGELO

DR. JAMES MAYS

CELEBRATES NEWEST NOVEL

Dr. James Mays

Krazzett Public Relations firm would like to congratulate Dr. James Mays on the publishing of his eighth novel, Trapped. A modern-day Michelangelo; approaching and mastering most challenges of contemporary society. Doc Mays, as he is fondly referred to, is one of the most respected medical doctors in the nation and is an expert cardiologist, high blood pressure specialist, drug dependency and AIDS lecturer.

When Shirley Calloway, president of KRAZZETT, was asked how she would describe her feelings about Doc Mays’s newest novel Trapped, her response was "This novel has a best-seller quality that many authors imitate but few master… Trapped takes you for a ride through the fast lane, where greed is the passion that rules all. This story of ambition and romance offers large doses of entertainment. Never before has the drug problem of this magnitude both asocial and social been dramatically presented in a novel."

system to its maximum, and it was legal. Benefits to the collecting conglomerates were in hundreds of doctors’ offices, making its owners millionaires many fold. The word legal allowed Alonzo to rationalize his business association with them.

Methods developed by the cleverly organized providers caused a log jam in his office. The Medi-Cal system itself, and the social and financial plight of his patients, dictated the type of treatment rendered. The system attempted to reduce cost and also diminish and restrict medical care. Current and progressive medications required months to years to be accepted by the program. Cheaper substitute generic medications and treatments of common diseases of the indigent, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and the numerous types of arthritic conditions, were restricted to the physician, requiring them to use less-specific prescription treatments.

Routine cough syrups were intermittently taken off of the program, requiring young children to use overstimulating tablets and requiring purposeful excessive paperwork to make the medicine available. Mental anguish abounds in an environment with little hope, but patients were only allotted mostly sedatives that depressed them even more or simply masked their symptoms into a deeper low. Pain of acute and chronic diseases, aggravated by their plight, was only relieved with medications ranging from aspirin and Tylenol to the most addicting drug—Codeine. The very young to the very old of the ghetto became prescribed Codeine addicts.

The need for tranquilization from complex problems prompted requests for cheap sleepers and tranquilizers. The lay ghetto patients became alchemists and designed peace and pain, controlling combinations, that the professional chemist and pharmacist had not dreamed of. Methods were devised to inject concocted formulas of drugs for immediate effect. Whether it was satisfaction of an addiction or a high to escape their always-present low, pills were taken in large numbers in order to sustain the effect. They created numerous combinations that made them witch doctors of the poor, attempting to find relief of pain and some peace of mind, while those of means were able to purchase doctor-prescribed potent stimulants and depressants as the total population attempted to escape.

The government had become the supplier, and the doctor the pusher. The community existed perpetually and legally high or low at government expense. Asocial seasoned pushers and addicts were treating themselves on legally free drugs. But this meant more money for the clinic and a reprieve for a pot that was being scraped. A breath of fresh air after near suffocation many times causes one to breathe too rapidly and deeply after relief, not remembering how it was to be without air. This was the case with Alonzo. He was quickly in the red, but black or red is the result of the prudent use of green. A ten-thousand-per-month obligation to the Internal Revenue, the payroll, and especially beating Veronica’s checks to the bank, made Juanita a track star.

The doctor’s years of experience had allowed him to feel and know a diagnosis after only a brief history and examination. He knew their complaints before they made them. He frequently wrote in their records before he entered the examination room.

Librium, Codeine with specificity for APC with Codeine, became as commonly written on prescription pads as blood pressure was recorded on patients’ charts. The sheep now equaled the cattle, and there was not room to tolerance for both. Obvious drug pushers and addicts were barely acceptable passing along the street, but being confined in a crowded waiting room, outnumbered by them, is intolerable.

Al, you’ve got to stop whatever you’re doing. Nothing could be that bad. Your regular patients are whispering and gossiping. It’s all out on the street.

What I am doing is perfectly within the law. Alonzo blinked back his tears. Juanita, do you want me to lose everything? My office and my home. I’ve already lost my son. You know of my financial predicament.

I understand, Al. But you’re losing all of your regular patients, people who have been with you since the first day you opened your office. Many people that you have brought into the world, and whose parents you have treated, cannot accept the clientele that is slowly taking over your practice. Margie McIntyre has come to the office on many occasions, and I have simply turned her away, stating that you were not here. She knew you were here. She told me your car was parked in the back. I promise that I’ll always be with you. I will do anything for you.

I know, Juanita. Just give me two years so that I can get some of this damn Internal Revenue off my back, and I promise I’ll stop writing scripts.

Walking over, placing her arms around his waist, she said, I will stick by you and will do anything for you. I will keep that promise, Al, for two more years, but please, just two more, she threatened.

The pledge served as a sustaining force. She was the one that understood him and his problems. Without Juanita’s support, the mountain would just be too high to climb. Patients with arthritis, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, diabetes, etc. were replaced by those with real money need and greed.

If one did not know it, one would surely think that the doctor’s office at the corner was either a food stamp, General Relief, free cheese, or unemployment office by the long lines, sometimes extending one-half block that greeted him each early morning. It only trickled to inside the waiting room late into the afternoon. A lone figure peered at the scene from the alley across the street. Only a few ladies and patients with children received treatment at the clinic. Even those with marked obesity avoided the clinic and became testified with their fat.

The new faces and appearances became secondary to their drug request. Money, and quick exit for more drugs, was the organization scheme of the clinic. Whereas the furor over Quaaludes and its negative effects demanded its removal from the public market, other drugs used for escape easily substituted for it.

The commitment and bond between Alonzo and Juanita was not even broken by the harsh words and threats of Margie McIntyre. They felt like Vietnam soldiers, knowing that they only had to commit themselves to the filthy rice paddies, booby traps, fire 19494.png .

James A. Mays, MD, speaks on…

Bereavement: Dealing with Death

Death is a common event in our daily lives. Many of us become disturbed with a funeral procession if it delays a hectic traffic lane. Expected death usually results from multiple diseases caused by body pollution, cigarettes, alcohol, HIV, improper eating habits, tension, and social oppression, etc. Some person in our families dies at least once a year. Death is a generally accepted as the culmination of our physical existence on this planet. Terrorist activity has increased the odds toward death in many parts of the