Welcome to the current edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) dated Monday 19 September 2016.
You know, community pharmacy is a wonderful resource and it has been built by generations of pharmacists dedicated to their profession.
The depth and multi-faceted nature of a community pharmacy is bewildering to non-pharmacists, and a fascination by those charged with reviewing pharmacy with increasing frequency (such as the King Review).
Even Stephen King has been complimentary with regard to the reach of pharmacy and how it manages complexity.
The current model of community pharmacy has evolved to contend with or eliminate disruption.
It has a lot of unique features that create envy with other health professions, particularly the medical profession.
Pharmacists represent a potential to be strongly competitive with the medical profession, and for that reason doctors are forever fearful of losing “turf”.
So we see a strategy of “collaboration” emerging from doctors to have clinical pharmacists embedded within doctor clinics, while simultaneously publicly criticising the practice of pharmacy in as many of its facets as possible.
Recent comments by three medical academic bioethicists are another example, where retailing is targeted as a non-pharmacy activity.
Remove retailing and you remove pharmacy independence – and that means for stability the pharmacy may have to be co-located with a medical practice to create that stability.
Absolute control is thus being sought by medical practitioners, over the practice of pharmacy.
That this is a slow and deliberate strategy is recognised, but once it gathers momentum, transfer of control would gradually be lost by pharmacists.
Assisting in this endeavour is that serial “stalker” Dr Ken Harvey who takes “pot shots” at pharmacists, particularly compounding pharmacists.
He is on the board of the organisation Friends of Science in Medicine (FSM) an organisation that appears to be well-funded from invisible sources.
FSM are closely linked to Skeptics Australia, which in turn is linked to the US Skeptics who are known to have links to Big Pharma.
FSM objectives seem to run parallel with those of Big Pharma in that they target any health professional that discourages the use of drugs (people like homeopaths, chiropractors, compounding pharmacists etc).
They claim their primary objective is evidence-based medicine but appear to have no campaign organised to tackle well known instances of Pharma-fraud which has damaged as much as 50 percent of published evidence according to at least two editors of international medical journals (now retired).
Why would the legal and ethical work done by a compounding pharmacy outrank say, the death of a child resulting from faulty drug evidence in the eyes of the FSM?
It would appear that pharmacies are considered a valuable asset because many interested parties want to own them.
But they don’t value pharmacists and want their assets and services for as near to zero dollars as possible.
So it’s up to individual pharmacists to kick back and get their leadership bodies to work for them, particularly in the structuring of professional boundaries and the seeking of new markets (e.g. medical marijuana), and ensuring that CBD oil becomes the responsibility of pharmacists under S3).
Other events that have emerged since our last edition include the mega-mergers of industrial and agricultural chemical giants.
Principal among these mergers is that Monsanto will disappear inside Bayer as they absorb the glyphosate production and the GM seed that Monsanto has developed.
It is an orchestrated move by all chemical companies to reinforce their market power and their influence with politicians and government agencies.
This activity is taking place ahead of the Monsanto Tribunal which occurs in The Hague in mid October.
While this tribunal will have no legal force for the moment, it will become the standard and preliminary work to facilitate a new segment of a United Nations Agency, the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC, will for the first time in history prioritise crimes “committed by means of, or that result in the destruction of the environment, the illegal exploitation of natural resources or the illegal dispossession of land.”
The damage that is being done to human health through the food chain, and to the environment in general is being focussed to make these companies accountable.
Very little has been published in mainstream media regarding this activity and most of the details filter through the “underground press” of which i2P now forms part of.
So watch this space.
In our lead article this week we publish some of the detail of the medical profession’s view of the pharmacy world, and what appears to be the start of medicine’s attempt to incorporate pharmacy under its control.
Read: Three Bioethicists Critical of Pharmacy Retailing
More detail is published on the agriculture chemical mega corporations and their mergers, in this edition.
Mark Coleman begins the story in his current article.
Read: The Balance Tips for Better Health – Major Chemical Companies are to be Held Accountable
Gerald Quigley is back with some commentary on pharmacy practice.
He is attempting to ensure that details of valid pharmacy issues are done with a high degree of compliance.
Read: Do your patients use their blood pressure medications correctly?
Why are we not surprised that the science behind “herd immunity” is based on natural infection and not vaccination science.
Vaccination involves a totally different process with the immune system that delivers only a temporary protection requiring a constant re-vaccination to ensure protection.
Read: Herd Immunity is Hypothesis Based On Natural Infection – Not Vaccination Pseudoscience
While we may have to put up with faulty policy decisions surrounding Australian vaccination policy, the reality is that we are setting up our kids for potential health damage.
We do not have an informed consent and we have coercion that basically ensures we have a policy of mandatory vaccination.
However, as pharmacists, we can improve the odds.
Read: Vitamin C Prevents Side Effects from the MMR Vaccine
We have all used wise philosophical words to reinforce our written or verbal messages.
Harvey Mackay uses them consistently and he publishes part of his list.
You too can use the same list added to your own.
Read: Wisdom for the ages
And we finish up this weeks’ offering with media releases from major pharmacy leadership organisations.
PSA – PSA Media Releases – 1. MBS Review 2. Your CPD Plan
NPS – NPS Media Releases – Australian Prescriber
We hope you enjoy reading our current edition and please don’t hesitate to enter comments at the foot of each article page in the panel provided.
Neil Johnston
Editor, i2P E-Magazine
Monday 19 September, 2016