Salem-News.com Articles written by Marianne Skolek

Deflecting the Real Drug Problem -- The Loss of Human Life

"However things may seem, no evil thing is success and no good thing is failure." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Is the American Medical Association a friend or foe in the prescription drug epidemic -- as White House "drug czar", R. Gil Kerlikowske comes face to face with the "grim reaper", J. David Haddox, DDS, MD, responsible for the OxyContin epidemic in the U.S. and Canada?

Blood Money and Purdue Pharma

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen"
- Harry S. Truman

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - In August, a national law enforcement agency advised me that William T. Winsley, Chairperson of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, had accepted a $1 million check from Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContiin.

Wrestling Drug Abuse in South Carolina

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - This past week I attended the South Carolina Prescription Drug Abuse Summit in Columbia, SC. It was very well attended by law enforcement and the medical profession.

Opening remarks into the drug problem in South Carolina were given by US Attorney Bill Nettles, Attorney General Alan Wilson and from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), William W. Douglas and Joseph T. Rannazzisi.

Protecting Americans, FDA Style

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." Martin Luther King, Jr.

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Is the FDA protecting the American consumer from a "major public health crisis" with serious harm from opioids -- or are they allowing the pharmaceutical companies such as Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin -- to continue the addiction, misuse, abuse, overdose and death throughout the US and Canada?

Is Purdue Pharma-Sponsored `Partnership at drugfree.org` a Ruse? Part 3

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. " Thomas Jefferson

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - I have a problem with any website funded by a pharmaceutical company who criminally marketed a dangerous drug - OxyContin.

This past week I wrote two articles regarding partnership@drugfree.org and their ties to the pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma - maker of OxyContin.

Is Purdue Pharma-Sponsored `Partnership at drugfree.org` a Ruse? Part 2

"There are lies, damned lies and statistics." Mark Twain

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Partnership for Drugfree.org preys on the emotions of family members losing loved ones to the prescription drug epidemic as they support Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin. The same Purdue Pharma responsible for criminally marketing the drug and unleashing death and addiction throughout the U.S. and Canada by having them as a sponsor of their organization.

I recently wrote about the Partnership for Drugfree.org and their distorted statistics as to the prescription drug epidemic we are experiencing in every state in the U.S. and Canada.

Is Purdue Pharma-Sponsored `Partnership at drugfree.org` a Ruse?

"Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy -- Deceit is a poison in its veins." Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy
Part 1 of 2

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - The Partnership at Drugfree.org was launched in 1987 and makes some self-serving statements concerning its "public education campaign" -- but is it bogus? Are bereaved families of dead victims of the epidemic of prescription drugs being lied to?

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) should be called the `Drug Enabling Agency`

Until government agencies set up to protect the American people recognize their role and, in fact, protect rather than accept payoffs, we will be completely immersed in a scourge of prescription drug death, addiction and abuse.

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - This past week, an investigative journalist named Guy Taylor wrote an eye-opening expose' regarding the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and their part in the staggering production of narcotics in this country in the past decade plus. Mr. Taylor's article in its entirety is linked below.

For years, I have questioned government agencies why a dangerous drug such as OxyContin is in such plentiful supply on the streets.

`Undertreatment of Pain` vs. Prescription Drug Addiction and Death

"To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice" Confucius

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Why is Congress, the FDA, the FTC and the DEA allowing the American Pain Foundation to be kept fat and well financed by pharma in marketing the bogus "undertreatment of pain" in the U.S. while we fight an epidemic of prescription drug addiction and death?

The United States makes up only 4.6 percent of the world’s population, but consumes 80 percent of its opioids — and 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone, the opiate that is in Vicodin.

`Don`t blind side me`

My comment to the investigative journalist writing for Fortune Magazine about Purdue Pharma -- and the deception I encountered. Is Purdue Pharma now manipulating journalists to further their criminal marketing of OxyContin?

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Yesterday I received a telephone call from Katherine Eban (also writes under Katherine Eban Finkelstein), an award-winning investigative reporter, who writes for Fortune Magazine -- Eban is also a Rhodes Scholar and author of a book "Dangerous Doses." 

She purportedly wanted to interview me about an expose on Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin which would be written focusing on the company after they pleaded guilty to criminally marketing OxyContin.