The Drug-Induced Highs of a trumpian White House

Studio producer: Boys! Are you buzzing?
Beatle John: No thanks! We've got the car! 

-- from "Help!"

Having survived - barely - the insanity of donald trump's presidency - in which the madness of the Far Right wingnut mindset converged on our nation's capital and didn't let us relax for a single moment - there was this oft-asked question "Are you fucking high or something" during those years that never really got answered because not a lot of people wanted a serious confirmation.

There'd been rumors for years that trump himself was thriving on an Adderall addiction - or at least some variation of it used to treat ADHD - and it'd been something deserving of a full investigation to ensure our leader on the global stage wasn't as high a fooking kite half the time. Considering the many crazy things that came from the trump years - not just the constant barrage of insane statements - such as trump's open musing about using NUKES to combat hurricanes as well revelations the staff couldn't figure out light switches, this was not an unwarranted concern.

It turns out the concern did lead to a formal investigation by an Inspector General's office, which finally released a full report which documented how the White House's internal clinic had turned into a pill-mill dispensary that would put a South Florida pharmacy to shame:

In 2018, the DoD Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) Hotline received complaints alleging that a senior military medical officer assigned to the White House Medical Unit engaged in improper medical practices. Additionally, several of the Hotline complaints were regarding the pharmaceutical practices and eligibility for care of some patients treated at DoD executive medicine facilities within the National Capital Region. In May 2018, the DoD OIG initiated an investigation of the allegations about the White House Medical Unit senior military medical officer.

In September 2019, the DoD OIG announced this evaluation to determine how executive medicine facilities within the National Capital Region, including the White House Medical Unit, implement internal controls to ensure safe pharmaceutical practices and patient eligibility. We conducted site visits to meet with key officials and observe executive medicine eligibility and pharmaceutical management practices. We interviewed over 120 officials, including interviews of hospital administrators, military medical providers, and pharmacists. We analyzed the transcripts of 70 interviews conducted by the DoD OIG Administrative Investigations (AI) Component of former White House Military Office employees who served within the White House between 2009 and 2018. This evaluation incorporates direct quotes from the testimony of these witnesses. We reviewed over 200 documents, including Federal criteria, DoD guidance, military Service policies, MTF internal standard operating procedures, and pharmacy procurement and inventory records...

We concluded that, except for the White House Medical Unit, the National Capital Region executive medicine clinics that we visited did not procure, store, or dispense controlled substances or other prescription medications; rather, they relied on full‑service military treatment facility pharmacies for all pharmaceutical support. The National Capital Region executive medicine clinics relied on full‑service base or post pharmacies for all pharmaceutical support. Additionally, other than the White House Medical Unit, the Joint Commission, an independent health care accreditation agency, accredited all National Capital Region pharmacy operations, as required by DoD Manual 6025.13.

Conversely, the White House Medical Unit’s pharmaceutical services included the full scope of pharmacy operations, including storage and inventory, prescribing and dispensing, procurement, and disposal, and was not credentialed by any outside agency. We concluded that all phases of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit’s reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards. In addition, the Military Health System senior leaders did not oversee the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations.

Without oversight from qualified pharmacy staff, the White House Medical Unit’s pharmaceutical management practices may have been subject to prescribing errors and inadequate medication management, increasing the risk to the health and safety of patients treated within the unit. Additionally, the White House Medical Unit’s pharmaceutical management practices ineffectively used DoD funds by obtaining brand‑name medications instead of generic equivalents and increased the risk for the diversion of controlled substances...

The IG report added a footnote that "diversion of controlled substances" is unlawful.

We found that the White House Medical Unit provided a wide range of health care and pharmaceutical services to ineligible White House staff in violation of Federal law and regulation and DoD policy. Additionally, the White House Medical Unit dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff. In analyzing the testimonies of former White House Military Office employees, we found that White House Medical Unit senior leaders directed eligibility practices that did not comply with DoD guidance. This analysis also found that several former White House Medical Unit military medical providers stated that they were unable to act outside of the White House Medical Unit’s historical practices and that they were not empowered to deny requests from senior White House Medical Unit leaders...

The report itself is about 80 pages long and includes a full list of the types of drugs getting doled out by the Medical Unit, you can see a list on p. 24 that happens to include a bunch of mood-altering meds and stuff like Fentanyl that can get you arrested if you were carrying this stuff down the road to Anacostia.

Why fight a War on Drugs when your in-house pharmacy
can order it all for you? Avon and Marlo can keep their corners...

The original news coverage on this story focused on the IG's complaint that the White House was wasting thousands of dollars prescribing brand-name medications when government policy is to order the cheaper generics. But the mainstream media needs to wake up and recognize that they've been sitting on this story since reports got out in 2018 that the White House pharmacy had turned into a "grab and go" dealer's corner.

There are serious questions coming from this report that need answering here:

• Who was in control at the White House Medical Unit that allowed this situation to spiral out of control? (Hint: Ronny Jackson has a lot of fingerprints all over this)
• Who are the unauthorized people at the White House getting all these meds? Did they abuse these drugs in any way, or worse were they reselling it to other staffers or people on the outside?
• Were any of these questionable mood-altering medications going to White House personnel without proper approval or oversight from actual doctors? Considering the "authorized" persons would be the President, Vice President, Cabinet-level Secretaries, Joint Chiefs, and close family members, we need to know if trump or VP Pence were downing Ambien like M&Ms (seriously, I doubt Pence is a pill-popper here. It's the other guy who has that rep). 

This is a serious scandal. Our leadership up and down the chain of command needs to be clear-headed as much as possible. If enough people were doped out on stuff that would inhibit thought - or worse promote impulsive dangerous behavior - we would have had major crises that would have caused pain and suffering across the b--

(re-evaluates the insanity of how trump's administration triggered tariff wars, those immigration policies based on cruelty and racism, the flubbed responses to COVID pandemic and other emergencies, and trump's utter failure using Sharpies to redraw maps)

Yyyyeeeeeeaaaah, holy crap a lot of that makes more sense now.

In the meantime, don't look at me when it comes to drug abuse. I don't even get drunk (much). Always Sober and Never Sane is my motto. 

I get high on life. And America!!!

And to everyone caught working at trump's White House back in the day:

Beatle John: It WAS you buzzing! You naughty boy!

Proof Why Rick Scott Is Gonna Be A Terrible Governor

It's not the damage he's going to do to Florida's schools.  Kinda knew that he was going to destroy public education from Day One.

It's not the damage he's going to do to Florida's environment.  A fragile ecosystem like ours - the threat of drought, water toxicity, etc - was never the concern of conservatives obsessed with land development even in a market incapable of selling new (or even existing) properties.

It's not the damage he's going to do to Florida's social net - the cuts to public employee jobs, killing off service departments, forcibly privatizing services that will actually be MORE EXPENSIVE - in order to justify massive tax cuts to corporations that take everything from the state and GIVE NOTHING BACK.

No.  The proof that Rick Scott is going to be a terrible Governor is how he's ruining the lives in OTHER STATES by seeking to kill a proposed law that would regulate pharmacies by tracking prescription drugs.

Why is this a big deal?

Something called "pill mills".  Thanks to the law, any "pharmacy" in this state can open up to sell medications - pain-killers like Oxycodone - that are perfectly legal but have to be regulated as they are narcotic and deadly when overdosed.  These pill mills create a system where people can come in "claiming" they need pain-killers, get a "doctor" to sign off on a high dosage, and buy them by the hundreds.  The people can then travel to other states that tightly regulate pain-killers and sell the pills on a street corner.  It's hard to arrest a pain-killer seller as the pills ARE legal (you have to prove intent, usually if the dealer is packing tons of the pills).

Florida is currently the nation's primary source of "pill mills".  Thanks to one thing: we currently have no means of tracking prescriptions.  A law passed in 2009 but not yet implemented would do that.  Scott and his pro-business buddies in the State Lege want to kill that law before it even starts, citing it as an "Orwellian" step over our state's medical records.

The problem with allowing these "pill mills" to continue operating is obvious: those pain-killers can be lethal.   There's reportedly seven deaths A DAY in Florida alone.  People get addicted to them pretty quickly too.  And because of their legality (under regulation), pain-killers are easier to get than cocaine and heroin (and maybe even meth).

Scott's excuse that the prescription tracking is "Orwellian" flies in the face of logic.  Other medical records and other prescriptions are tracked all the time.  Considering the massive War On Drugs (with billions spent going after marijuana, one of the least deadly drugs out there), would Scott consider attempts to regulate medical marijuana usage "Orwellian" as well?  Probably not.

Here's Scott's real reason for wanting to kill this regulation:  It's a regulation.  Period.  The Far Right in this country have hate-filled obsessions, one of which is regulations (the others are taxes, Social Security, voting rights, abortion, sex ed, evolution, and freedom marches in other countries).  If there's a regulation on how a business operates, even if that regulation is there to SAVE LIVES, the Far Right wants it gone and gone yesterday.

Here's another reason: Scott's background in medical services.  Not only was he a MASSIVE MEDICARE FRAUD when he ran an HMO, he went on to establish clinics and pharmacies (like Solantic or Pharmaca) to increase his personal wealth.  He's got ties to the state's pharmaceutical industry... an industry that's profiting one way or another from having these "pill mills" stay open.  They profit: he profits.  It's that simple, and that scary.

Forty-two other states have a similar database system in place.  The state office that was supervising it had garnered private grants to begin its funding (it wasn't costing taxpayers much of anything).  There is no reason to oppose such a common-sense program that could well help Florida save millions in law enforcement costs and drug abuse treatments.

Except for one reason: Rick Scott is a greedy-ass crook.  And a terrible governor.

To the 2.5 million Floridians who voted for Scott: I hope your family members are pain-killer addicts.  It's called Karma, enjoy it.

(I know I shouldn't be mean-spirited, but how the hell else you gonna get through to the Far Right how screwed up their priorities and obsessions are?)