Welcome to the current edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine dated Monday 24 July 2017.
The lunatics are now in control of the asylum!
Apart from inhibiting a local medical cannabis industry and the associated useful products that can evolve from hemp (the non-drug food and fibre variety- and for this area think of plastic shopping bag replacement with cheap, biodegradable fabric bags) and you wonder what our political representatives actually use as a substitute for a brain.
You can understand (but not forgive) the shady donations to political parties and the “black” money that finds its way to individual “influencers” and “power brokers”.
Nor can you forgive the loss of business opportunities, jobs and massive savings to the public purse (think medical cannabis and its effect on chronic illnesses and how it could displace expensive drugs on our taxpayer-funded PBS system).
But the award for the most brainless suggestion of recent times must be awarded to our Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne, who wants to create Australia as a major arms exporter, as a means of building up local industry.
The export market is seen as the Middle East, with Australia competing with countries already selling in over there such as Britain, France, Germany and the US, making Australia an even bigger target for terrorists and a “feedlot” to complement ever-increasing troop deployments in the same region.
What a crackpot!
And what a recipe for an unhealthy future for an Australian government that will increasingly ally with dictators and repressive regimes, inflate the currency and run up the national debt, as the current arms-exporting countries have already done.
It’s a great idea for private companies to be given access to the big corrupt deals.
A pity though for the taxpayers that will be left to pick up the massive debt that has to be paid off!
We are seeing in plain sight how “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, and in what is left of our democracy we the citizen taxpayers will have to develop and change to become “activists” and embrace “civil disobedience” and other power disruptors to bring our country back into “balance”.
Scientific studies published over the past 20 years have proven that people under the influence of power act as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Symptoms included being more impulsive, less risk aware and less sympathetic to other people. Their empathy was impaired neurologically.
Politicians at the high end get it even worse, including a manifest contempt for others and loss of contact with reality.
This is why political power is so dangerous.
As one commentator has defined it:
“It’s the legalised privilege of using brute force on people who have not harmed anyone.
Governments can legally attack and coerce.
You and I can’t.”
The massive illegal level of coercion, reflected in Australian vaccination policy, virtually assures our most vulnerable demographic (young children) to be condemned to a “brute force” that may cause a lifelong misery, even premature death.
That Australia is in breach of at least six international treaties disallowing coercion to ensure unwanted drug use (from Nuremberg onwards) is totally repugnant and un-Australian.
It also reminds us that slavery and forced medical human experimentation were both “legal” in the recent history of the countries engaged in these practices.
That a prime minister can create a coercive policy while simultaneously having business interests that financially benefit from that policy, (in creating an artificial market value in the $’s multi-million and selling that business to a global vaccine manufacturer), must be defined as a “conflict of interest”.
That a family member currently remains chairperson on the board of the same business simply adds insult to injury and is a perfect illustration of the comment above as to why political power can be so dangerous.
The pharmacy profession also falls victim to poorly conceived government health policy which inevitably creates budget deficits and pharmacist sacrifice to rectify the fallout.
The poor planning in not recognising that the PBS product life cycle had reached its “use by” date obviously prompted an enquiry as to how government could dispose of the “problem” by selling out to global corporate interests.
So enter the King Review to provide expert advice to government using a range of expert consultants – none of which seem to have an intimate knowledge or understanding of a profession distributed economically over Australia in the form of community pharmacies and that have had a long history of efficiently creating value.
Even against the legalised brute force attacks and coercion – the worst aspects of dangerous political power.
It is frustrating to observe the King Review identifying pharmacy “facts” that are already well-known, or analysing their data incorrectly, thus circulating false information.
i2P will be illustrating some of the latter false interpretations in future editions.
We simply do not have the patience to play the sort of games that are designed to frustrate and divert a productive and efficient future for pharmacists.
The only winners from this process will be the global corporates and the politicians with their pockets stuffed with “thirty pieces of silver”.
Nor will we be devoting much oxygen to our paranoid and now very distant “cousins” (the medical profession) who have been getting excited in churning out interpretations of a Sydney University mystery shopping study.
Given that they couldn’t assemble the statistics correctly and then excitedly rewrote the “facts” as fake news gives you some idea of their standard of debate.
As future collaborators they will certainly have to lift their game because, at the moment, they are not even worthy of a single patient referral through their lack of professionalism.
While we at i2P can be more expansive with our observations, it is good to see the level-headedness of the official responses from the PSA which are assertive, and leave the door open if the “cousins” want to be sensible.
A good and measured response, given the irrational and hysterical diatribe received from our “cousins”.
Our lead article for this edition concerns Australia’s global health rankings.
Australia ranks at a high health performance level in a global survey of 11 wealthy countries for its quality, efficiency and delivery costs.
It actually ranks over a range of categories as an overall number 2 in the global survey prepared by the US-based Commonwealth Fund.
The question must be asked as to why Australia’s politicians appear to be dismantling our health system in favour of a version that appears suspiciously like the US model – the very worst performer in the survey.
And the US model has been stuck in the last position ranking for many years.
The King Review is attacking the soft target of community pharmacy and seems to be hell-bent in designing a recipe to kill this sector off – and replace it with what?
Read: Australia is Number Two in Global Health Rankings – But for How Long?
As already noted, Australia has come in number two in overall global rankings for health systems.
In a health outcomes category we come in as number 1.
I wonder if the reason for this result is because of the diversity of our health practitioners and 70 percent of Australians electing to use natural and complementary medicines as part of their health strategy, and increasingly so, year on year.
Skeptics, with their supposed evidence-based hysteria, use methods akin to an intelligence agency to disrupt the natural medicines market through infiltrating organisations (like the Consumer Health Forum) and decision-making committees (like “The Review of the Australian Government Rebate on Private Health Insurance for Natural Therapies”).
Their methods support the international drug companies marketing campaigns and it makes you wonder who is ultimately funding the inordinate amount of time invested in the disruption by these people.
They are not genuine!
Gerald Quigley has a comment or two.
Read: Behind the Scenes in Natural Therapeutic Medicine
Clinical nutrition is a valid and valuable branch of medical science.
Intelligently combined with selected mainstream medicines it can enhance outcomes, or reduce side effects by reducing the need for high mainstream medicine doses.
Combining clinical nutrition with mainstream medicine forms a patient-centred health practice titled “Integrative Medicine” – a practice well accepted by pharmacy patients.
OMNS provides yet another example of how clinical nutrition can influence positive patient outcomes.
Read: Integrative Medicine: OMNS – The Need for Iodine Supplementation
There is something wrong with Australia’s public health policy, in particular the policies pertaining to vaccines.
Daily, these policies are exposed as being biased and unsafe.
Yet our politicians and medical health leaders pretend to remain blind to unsafe practices.
“First do no harm” as the foundation of all medical practice now has a hollow ring to it with the medical profession exhibiting cartel behaviour and public confidence is further eroded as the public find they have little choice in being able refuse a vaccine they have inadequate knowledge about.
Any queries on vaccine safety are aggressively disposed of and the complainant labelled “anti Vaxer”- no voice at all for “safe vax”.
The safe vaccination debate is continued here, despite the fact that it is not recognised by the extreme pro and anti-vax participants.
The pro-vax proponents sustain their immoral position with dishonest tactics and communications.
The anti-vax proponents also hold extremist views because vaccination principles are generally sound.
It is the manufacturers supported by a medical cartel, that are the real villains in this drama because they continue to make and promote unsafe vaccines and develop new vaccines without any formal evidence.
It is also obvious that vaccination does not equate to immunisation!
Read: Safe Vaccine Debate – 1. The Dr Judy Wilyman Report 2. World Mercury Project – Hiding Vaccine Related Deaths
WHO has made a statement saying that cannabis (and other drugs) should be decriminalised world-wide because existing laws cause health discrimination.
In Australia, patients are being actively discriminated against as police are instructed to enforce existing laws and close down “illegal” supplies, leaving critically ill people with no workable solutions for their health problems.
Flawed health policy generates bad laws and lowered community respect for policy and laws.
Yet again, Pharmacy is in a position to provide solutions very simply and simultaneously create opportunity for the profession to treat chronically ill patients efficiently and economically.
Pharmacy leaders need to be proactive in the regulatory area because other health professionals are actively competing to lock pharmacy out of any opportunity whatsoever.
Potential for pharmacists is found in the compounding of THC and CBD in specific ratios to match the best result for patients with chronic illness.
Further pharmacist potential also lies in using cannabinoids in harm minimisation programs involving opioid dependencies and as an adjunct for the management of pain.
Pharmacists also need to be active and have a voice in the regulation of these substances ensuring that maximum patient access can be obtained through the application of Schedule 3 of the Poison’s Act.
Read: Understanding Medical Cannabis – 1. CBD & Parkinson’s Disease 2. Young Cancer Patient Planned His Own Funeral 3.The Reason You Get Runner’s High
Artificial intelligence concepts have been around since 1950.
The field was pioneered by British scientist, Alan Turing, through his work during the Second World War in developing the first general computer that “broke” the German Enigma Code machine, considered unbreakable at that time.
The “big end of town” is investing heavily in the potential of creating obscene riches and having absolute control over the lives of human beings.
Sounds like a science fiction nightmare, but it is quietly standing just outside your front door waiting for the opportunity to barge in.
Read: Here’s a Glimpse into the Future of Work: No Monitors, just 3-D Holograms
Harvey Mackay has one of the best inventories of management “one-liners”.
“One-liners” are usually the stock-in-trade of stand-up comedians.
But they can also represent a useful inventory for leaders and managers as they can help to focus and communicate an ideal or a preferred behaviour, thus helping to evolve a sound business culture.
The practice of aligning with a range of “one-liners” can also help in the communication of a message directed towards your team that can improve efficiency and unity through message clarity.
Read: The best lessons are short, sweet and useful
And we conclude our offering for this current edition by publishing media releases from two Australian pharmacy leadership organisations:
We hope you enjoy our content and we extend the offer to contribute to any of the debates by adding comment in the panel at the foot of each article.
Neil Johnston
Editor, i2P E-Magazine
Monday 24 July 2017