Award winning scientist Shane Ellison talks about the inner workings of corporate drug making (and dealing). My most important lesson: Not all drugs are bad. Some are really bad. Take the so-called antidepressant Prozac as an example.

A 15 year old boy in Fern Park, Florida stole a bus and then took it on its regular route, collecting three passengers and fares. And apparently this is not the first time that he has done this.

I say instead of charging him with a crime, they should just give him his license. The article is worth reading in its entirety.

Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He
performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 On FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.

Hi Sue,

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you’ve been feeling down lately at work,
so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it’s not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first
must bore you with a few technicalities of my job.

As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to
the office. It’s a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool.
So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial
water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the
sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to
the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now
this sounds like a darn good plan, and I’ve used it several times with
no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is
take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my
whole suit with warm water. It’s like working in a Jacuzzi.

Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to
itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse.

Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from
my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened.

The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my
suit. Now, since I don’t have any hair on my back, the jellyfish
couldn’t stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as
fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually
grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive
supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were
unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers,were all
laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling
thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber
dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing
but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with
tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and
told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream
put the fire out, but I couldn’t poop for two days because my butt was
swollen shut.

So, next time you’re having a bad day at work, think about how much
worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat
to yourself, “”I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.”" Now whenever
you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad day? May you NEVER have a jelly fish bad day

If there was ever a living person more worthy of support that the Dalai Lama I’d be surprised. From every interview and/or second hand account of visits with this icon, he has demonstrated that he is a person of good will. Not only that, but this is a well-read, intelligent man with a sense of humor. He is remarkably abreast of the present day concerns on individual, political and global level.

So, at risk of offending China, I think we should honor this remarkable man. Afterall, it is pretty obvious were China’s government stands on human rights. Are we going to cow to a powerful trade nation, or do the right thing and stand behind a man who is worthy of support?

Mr Chabasinski, appeared by teleconference in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, on January 3, 2007, before Judge Jack Weinstein, on behalf of MindFreedom, a non-profit human rights organization, in response to a motion by Lilly basically filed to keep the incriminating information hidden, to defend the public’s right to know the contents of the secret Lilly documents concerning Zyprexa.

Mr Chabasinski told the judge that the documents are evidence of Lilly executives’ “”criminal behavior”" and “”willingness to kill people for profit.”"

The court granted MindFreedom ’s request for more time to respond to Lilly’s motion, and another hearing is set for January 16, 2007. Meanwhile Judge Weinstein said that he was taking “”no position”" about those people who were not named but who already have copies of the Lilly files on Zyprexa.

Prior to the hearing, in a letter to the judge, Mr Chabasinski pointed out that while the underlying case in which the documents were under seal is civil, the documents reveal criminal behavior on the part of Lilly’s executives. “”They have chosen a course of action,”" he told the judge, “”lying about and hiding the real effects of Zyprexa, that they knew would lead to the injury and death of literally thousands of people.”"

“”If this isn’t criminal,”" he stated, “”I don’t know what is.”"

The company documents also show that Lilly engaged in a massive illegal off-label marking campaign to get primary care physicians to prescribe Zyprexa for uses never approved by the FDA to increase profits.

The whole saga began when Dr David Egilman, MD, MPH, revealed the documents to Alaskan attorney, Jim Gottstein. Dr Egilman reviewed the documents and learned of Lilly’s illegal conduct a few years ago when he served as an expert in a lawsuit. However, the case was settled out of court, and Dr Egilman was effectively muzzled when the judge granted Lilly’s request to keep the documents secret with a court order.

To settle the lawsuit, Lilly agreed to pay close to $700 million to roughly 8,000 Zyprexa victims or their family members, with the provision that each person would sign a confidentiality agreement not to discuss Zyprexa or the terms of the settlement agreement in return for the money.

Being Lilly obviously planned to keep the information about Zyprexa a secret, as a physician, Dr Egilman likely found himself between a rock and a hard place. If he did not find a way to warn the public, at best he would be guilty of negligence, and at worst considered complicit in Lilly’s elaborate scheme to use the court system to keep the information hidden so as not to effect the booming sales of its top selling drug bringing in over $4 billion a year.

Mr Gottstein obtained the documents for use in another lawsuit, and after seeing that Lilly knew 10 years ago that Zyprexa caused drastic weight gain and diabetes and realizing the extent of the off-label marketing of the drug, he turned the documents over to the New York Times, obviously in hope that the Times would warn the public and medical professionals who were prescribing Zyprexa for every ailment known to mankind, without knowledge of the serious health risks associated with the drug.

Since the New York Times’ articles were published, Lilly’s legal team has been working day and night right through the holiday season trying to use the court system to muzzle the messengers and get the incriminating information back under seal.

In reviewing all the legal paperwork including letters, injunc tions, and motions flying around on the internet, its worth noting that not once do Lilly attorneys, or the judges handling the case, refer to the underlying illegal conduct disclosed in the documents that Lilly is working so hard to keep hidden.

The drug maker has been able to obtain injunctions ordering Mr Gottstein to return the documents and requiring him to provide the names of all persons and organizations that he provided them to or discussed them with. The injunctions bar further disclosure and specifically name individuals and organizations who are believed to have copies of the documents.

Mr Chabasinski is representing author, Judi Chamberlin, and MindFreedom International, who are both named in a December 29, 2006, temporary injunction. “”As everyone is aware at this point,”" Mr Chabasinski says, “”there are thousands of copies of the documents in question circulating on the Internet and in the hands of innumerable people.”"

He says Lilly knows full well that any attempt to recover the documents is a “”futile gesture”" and there is no way to keep them secret. “”While the injunction purports to be an attempt to recover the documents,”" Mr Chabasinski wrote in the letter to the judge, “”it is clear that its real purpose is to intimidate Lilly’s critics, and the court should refuse to cooperate with this.”"

As for Lilly’s payment of $700 million to settle the lawsuit, Mr Chabasinski told the judge, “”when a company is making billions of dollars from some drug, a few hundred million
dollars is simply a cost of doing business.”"

“”But if drug company executives know they may face long prison terms for their willingness to kill people for profit,”" he states, “”they will think more than twice about what they do.”"

“”If executives can go to prison for stealing their companies’ money,”" he told the judge, “”surely those who steal people’s lives deserve at least the same fate.”"

Mr Chabaskinski says Lilly’s biggest worry is that the documents will be reviewed by some prosecutor and that the real purpose of the injunction is to frighten people into giving up their First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances, “”which in this situation,”" he says, “”means putting these documents into the hands of as many potential prosecutors as possible.”"

He points out that Lilly has created a massive public health problem by convincing doctors to prescribe Zyprexa to many thousands of people, whose drug-caused disabilities will now drain the public health system for years to come. “”It is not in the public interest,”" he told the court in the letter, “”to keep documents secret when it will have the effect of making it much more difficult to prevent the disability of thousands of people.”"

The pursuit of Mr Gottstein by Lilly attorneys could almost be likened to being chased around the country by a group of terrorists. Lilly wants the court to charge him with criminal contempt compl ete with sanctions.

Their conduct is clearly an abuse of the legal system, funded by the ill-gotten profits of Zyprexa, to run up costs for Mr Gottstein, by harassing him and anyone that he may associate with. At the court hearing on January 3, 2007, Lilly attorneys asked the judge to issue an order requiring Mr Gottstein to travel to New York City for a deposition within 5 days, and:

“”Requiring Mr Gottstein to immediately produce … copies of any and all documents and information including, but not limited to, all computer(s), hard-drives, other electronic storage media, hardcopy documents, emails, e-documents, text messaging, instant messaging, phone records and voice mails, that refer or relate to Zyprexa”".

And talk about chilling the freedoms of the First Amendment, Lilly wants the court to force Mr Gottstein to produce: “”Communications he had with anyone relating to these documents, including but not limited to, his dissemination of or discussions relat ing to the documents”".

Lilly also asked for the order to include individual reporters and the top experts on psychiatric drugs in the US, in demanding that Mr Gottstein’s disclose his communications with “”any person, organization or entity who received these documents including, but not limited to, Terrie Gottstein, Jerry Winchester, Alex Berenson, Dr. Peter Breggin, Dr. Grace Jackson, Dr. David Cohen and Bruce Whittington, Dr. Stefan Kruszewski, Laura Ziegler, Judy chamberlin, Vera Sherav, robert Whitaker, Steve Shaw, Will Hall, Singeha Prakash, or anyone associated with the Alliance for Human Research Protection or MindFreedom; and his efforts to retrieve these documents from the individuals to whom they were improperly disseminated.”"

Lilly is also requesting that if anything responsive to their request has been deleted or destroyed in computers, that Mr Gottstein be required to haul “”any and all relevant computers”" to New York City for the deposition, and permit “” forensic examination and recovery of such documents.”"

In addition to the big bucks being made by thinking up ways to harass Mr Gottstein, Lilly attorneys at the Pepper Hamilton Law Firm are making money hand over fist by scouring the internet looking for more people to harass. On December 30, 2006, they were apparently working overtime on the Saturday of the biggest holiday weekend of the year, when they began threatening a private citizen, Eric Whalen, in emails ordering him to remove the Lilly documents from his web site stating:

“”You are facilitating the violation of a Federal Court order. Please immediately remove the link to the file “”ZyprexaKills.tar.gz”" (or its mirror), including all cached materials, or we will take further legal action against your website.”"

In another email, they told Mr Whalen, “”You have been on notice now for several hours that you are operating in violation of a Federal Court Order, and you have thus far, refused to assure your com pliance.”"

“”You must take the link down immediately,”" they wrote, “”or we will take further legal action to shut down your website, and seek all available remedies.”"

In his own defense, Mr Whalen replied to the emails and stated: “”The documents linked to on my website were downloaded from an anonymous source. As far as I know I’m not under any court order. Dissemination of the contents of the documents is clearly in the public interest. Is there a legal basis for you[r] request?”"

To avoid having my name added to the dastardly list above and the risk of being subjected to the harassment tactics of Lilly attorneys, I hereby declare for the record, that I did not receive copies of the Lilly documents from Mr Gottstein.

Evelyn Pringle
evelyn-pringle@sbcglobal.net

Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.

(You can click on the title of this post to go to a site that documents very well the contrary facts regarding People for the “”Ethical”" Treatment of animals. The web site http://www.petakillsanimals.com/index.cfm does an excellent job exposing and documenting.)

I could rewrite the above web site, but I won’t. I’ll just pick one of the most glaring instances and rant a little about that. About 15 months ago I saw a headline on Yahoo! about PETA members being found dumping the bodies of dogs in a dumpster. I figured that there had to be some logical explanation for this, perhaps this was an isolated incident. Perhaps this was a “”rogue”" activist. I read the article and it was clear that this was not the case.

At that time, I actually went out of the net to find data to support the claims in the article and I actually found statistics showing that between 1998 and 2005, PETA put to death over 80% of the animals that they took in to “”help”".

I realize that animal cruelty is not the biggest social issue affecting our lives today. (I am certainly not making less of it either.) However, perhaps a bigger message can be taken from this which is: Not everything that is labeled as “help” is actually HELP.

So go ahead, eat your cat!!!!!!

Jorjeana’s Reply: Got that.

I think I learned what you mentioned in a much less fancy way in fourth grade. But over time, my viewpoint has shifted dramatically and believe me, not without hours of research.

I feel good about my choice, and I know you certainly didn’t send that to change my mind (or did you, you cheaky devil?) I’m not going to defend myself in a paragraph.

I get a lot of shit on it, and it just means that A LOT of people aren’t actually informed as to today’s practices of food to the table.

Trust me, if I had the cash-o-la, I’d have a ranch and my own orchards and gardens, even, for others and Ron and guests like you my own cattle and chicken and hens. Just like the way it was when I was growing up…

You don’t have to look far to find the atrocities that occur in large number and on a daily basis to VERY sentient beings.

So there, chicken. You almost got me started on a rant. Almost.

Jen’s Response: No, I didn’t write it to change your mind. Despite the fact that I give you a hard time about it, I do respect your choice. I just found it amusing.

I am well aware of the disgusting things that are being done to our food and the animals that constitute our food. I swear that if I thought about it very much, I wouldn’t eat at all. In the meantime, I have to “Feed the Hole” as my brother and I call it. And you are right, it is also a matter of economics. I personally do not find it viable to go the organic route.

As long as you feel that it is a HEALTHY choice for your body, then I am cool with that. However, yes, a cow might be a sentient being, but it is still a lesser life form. The same might also be said for a virus or germs, or cells for that matter. We don’t hesitate to kill bacteria and viruses in a lot of instances. Food for thought, pun intended.

You can give me a hard time about being a “murderer” because I eat meat and wear leather shoes. I liked your almost rant. I love a good rant. Even when I disagree. I like it when people get passionate about what they believe in and can communicate it with intelligence and sufficient reason. YOU can rant with me anytime.

So it’s supposed to be a Democracy. At least that’s what it says in the tourist books. However, I might be inclined to quibble, since the President is the one who elects the Prime Minister, cabinets, and all other major government posts. Might be. If I cared enough. Which, incidentally, I don’t. Crazy me, thinking that in a democracy the people were supposed to elect such minor posts as Prime Minister. But I don’t care. Even the US doesn’t really rate the term democracy anymore, so who am I to pick on their social structure? Besides, we are not here for a political sciences class.

Why are we here, again? Oh yeah?!

What I’ve learned in Singapore:

Marines really do have an interesting tendency to believe they’re exempt to all laws but their own. Incidentally, caning is alive and well in Singapore.

McDonald’s are universal. However, details tend to flux. In Hawaii, all meals come with pineapple. In Singapore, most of the meats are made of turkey replacements. Doesn’t that kinda defeat the point of getting a bacon cheeseburger?

Americans, compared to the more sedate cultures of the East, are incredibly loud and obnoxious. Thank god they’re willing to put up with us for our money, cause otherwise we’d never have anywhere to vacation.

It actually is possible to keep public transportation systems nice. Just implement a $1000 fine for eating, drinking, smoking, chewing gum, spitting, or not giving up your seat to someone more needy than yourself. Easy.

The quickest way to master using chopsticks? Don’t have any way to get a fork.

If you don’t have a light to help you cross the street, be prepared to have cars actually speed up and aim at you.

There is a reason Orchard Towers is called the Four Floors of Whores. And ewww!!

I’m sure there’s more, but my brain is numb. Thank god they give us a recovery day after libo ports. I call it the Get Over Hangover Day. Even if, like myself, you’re not hungover, it’s still pretty amazing how hard the lack of sleep and physical exhaustion catch up with you. I was wide awake at 10 this morning. I laid down in my rack to finish a book. And then I was wide awake again at 6:30 tonight. Hmmm.

But Singapore was awesome. We pulled into Changi Naval Base on Thursday
afternoon, and they started letting us off the ships around 5 or 6 that
evening. They have busses running to take everyone to the nearest MRT
station (think NYC subways – only way way nicer). You spend the first
couple hours trying to get cash and figure out where you’re going and how
exactly the passes work to let you on the damn train. After that, you
suddenly have the freedom to go most anywhere you want to. And if mass
transit isn’t your thing, the taxis are pretty reasonably priced, as well. Just make sure they use the meter if you don’t feel like haggling.

That’s another thing – you can argue the price of almost anything. Unless you’re incredibly lazy like me, in which case you shrug and go “Hey, they gotta make a living too!”

Friday and Saturday were spent walking around Singapore. Chinatown, Little India, Orchard Road, Raffles Plaza… They have malls here that are 5 and 6 stories tall. It’s a shopper’s paradise, but it’s sneaky, too. You go through money very quickly, and hardly even notice its passing. Good thing I have nothing to do for the next month but sit here and make more money simply by existing!

So all in all, Singapore gets two very enthusiastic thumbs-up. I didn’t
bankrupt myself, and I didn’t get caned. I consider this a VERY successful libo port.

“The tightened rules were put in place last year after NIH found dozens of scientists had run afoul of existing restrictions on private consulting deals that had enriched them with money from drug and biotechnology companies.”

“Outside income from such companies is now banned. NIH also is placing greater restrictions and disclosure requirements on employees’ financial holdings.”

“Employee job satisfaction was high overall, the survey found. But 39 percent of the scientists researching disease and cures — known as tenure and tenure-track scientists — said they actively were seeking new work or considering leaving NIH because of the rules.”

“Among all NIH scientists, only 18 percent said they were trying to leave or considering it. Those who are not in the tenure group typically do not conduct research themselves and instead manage outside research conducted with NIH money by universities and other nonfederal entities. They are less likely to have private consulting opportunities.”