A Strange Story of Pharmicist Fraud---Did it hurt or help?

February 28, 2008

I have been out of town for the last couple weeks, and while in my

motel room last night, I heard, for the first time, about a

pharmacist in Kansas who made millions of dollars by watering down

chemotherapy drugs when filling prescriptions. Sometimes he'd cut the

amount of chemotherapy by half, sometimes by 60% and at times he'd

put almost no drug in the mix. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison

for his crimes.

I must say I watched the show, which is titled, " American Greed, "

with very mixed feelings, since I, like so many in the group, feel

that chemotherapy too often does more harm than good. But the man did

of course commit crimes, as he was supposed to be selling full-

strength drugs to his clients.

All the people the show interviewed were aghast, outraged and very

fearful because they didn't get the full amount of chemotherapy they

were supposed to receive. The show kept referring to the chemotherapy

as " a life-saving drug. " I kept chuckling to myself whenever I heard

that phrase. I wished the pharmacists's lawyer could have shown

statistics about how many people are actually helped by chemotherapy.

It was all very strange and unsettling to watch... I'm glad I wasn't

on the jury!

Elliot

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