ARIZONA'S OPIOID CRISIS REPORT BY MARK AND CAROL FAIRALL
ARIZONA’S OPIOID CRISIS REPORT
Written by: Mark
and Carol Fairall
The Aging of America
September 30, 2017
Medication Theft in Senior Housing
Apartments
Opioids and painkiller medications
killed over 33,000 people in the United States in 2015. With the new crusade to
stop the Opioid misuse epidemic, the issue of medication theft from the elderly
living in senior housing must be reported and stopped. We saw that problem at
our former senior living facility, Sun Grove Resort Village (SGRV), in 2009. We
reported this criminal activity to the Peoria police in our 2010 SGRV elder
abuse complaint #01-10-007447. SGRV's impostor nurse, Claudia Marquez,
illegally stored, administered, and kept the deceased seniors' medications.
Claudia Marquez had been cited by the Arizona Department of Nursing on
03/25/2005 as an impostor nurse but continued to illegally operate as a nurse
at SGRV for years. The Arizona law enforcement (Peoria Police, Arizona
Department of Nursing, and Arizona Attorney General) did nothing to stop this
criminal activity by SGRV's 2005 Medicare fraud felon manager, Scott Green, and
2005 impostor nurse, Claudia Marquez. We went to the Arizona Department of
Health, but we were told SGRV was unlicensed and they had no power to inspect
that senior living apartment house. We went to the state lawmakers to get a
fine in place with the Unlicensed Assisted Living Facility advertising law,
which exists in 48 states, but we were ignored.
SGRV
was one the properties involved in the AREI/Oakdale Heights Ponzi scheme. The
mastermind, James Koenig, used 23 senior living facilities as collateral in a
stock investment fraud which promised huge tax-free returns of 12%. Another
property in that Ponzi scheme was The Terraces of Roseville, which is located
in California. The nurse, Marlene Delp, worked at that senior living facility
and stole medications from 19 Terraces residents to feed her drug addiction.
Loretta Drewno, 88, died because Ms. Delp withheld her medications. Ms. Delp
was only sentenced to 300 days in jail, three years’ probation, and lost her
nursing license. The Terraces lost a million dollar lawsuit but filed for
bankruptcy protection and never paid the Drewno family for their loss. We
provided this documentation to the California judge who sentenced the Ponzi
mastermind, James Koenig, to 43 years in jail. Judge Boeckman stated the reason
for the long prison sentence was for harming 2,500 seniors and not the theft of
$250 million from 2,000 investors.
Arizona law enforcement told us they
could find no crimes at SGRV. It took federal law enforcement to help close the
lawbreaking senior living facility because it violated FTC law with false
Internet advertising across state lines which wrongly stated SGRV was a
licensed senior living facility with a nurse on duty. The feds put SGRV's
manager, Scott Green, back in jail for violations of his parole. The price we
paid was that SGRV and its former owner sued us four times for the loss of their
$4.5 million in their AREI/Oakdale Heights Ponzi scheme failed investment in
SGRV.
Source: Lawsuit brings nurse theft, abuse to light The family of Loretta Drewno call April a hell month. Drewno, 88,
lived a happily undisturbed life at the Terraces of Roseville, playing bingo with
girlfriends, having her hair done and watching films. But in the month of hell,
Drewno began to hallucinate.… AUBURNJOURNAL.COM
Medication Theft in Assisted Living Facilities
In 2015, Henry Sloan, 75, was paying $3,500 a
month to be cared for at Oakleaf Village of Lexington (South Carolina), but he
died because the caregiver, Betty Ann Jeffcoat, stole his medications. The
nurse on duty, Linda Randolph, aided and attempted to cover up the crime. Mr.
Sloan needed pain medications to alleviate his suffering from pancreatic cancer.
He died in June of 2016, which was three months after
the nurse supervisor of the assisted living facility knew about the medication
theft.
This unsupervised medication storage in senior housing facilities is a source for black market sales for expensive patient medication. The Arizona Department of Health fails to regulate this area of risk and only inspects assisted living facilities every three years. This poor enforcement of licensed senior living facilities needs to be improved to protect the patients and public.
As Henry Sloan, body racked with pain, lay dying of pancreatic cancer at the Oakleaf Village of Lexington, someone was stealing his pain pills. THESTATE.COM
Medication Theft in Hospices
There is a nationwide concern about
opioid prescriptions, but little is being done to prevent the theft of pain
medications. One of the biggest offenders are hospices where there are few
regulations for medication security. A few states have passed laws that gives hospice
staff the authority to destroy leftover pills after a patient has died, but
that procedure is poorly monitored. There is a debate in this area because some
feel the leftover medication belongs to the family to destroy.
Hospice is an extremely fast-growing
industry that serves over 1.6 million people per year. There is little
oversight of hospices and there are very few inspections. Hospices face a
minimal amount of legal consequences for medication misuse, poor medication
safety controls, and medication theft. Laws need to address more than just
limiting the number of opioid pills that are filled in prescriptions. Laws need
to address medication security and the prompt destruction of unneeded
medications. Laws need to include all senior housing because the unused
medication of the dead is an increasing problem for crooked caregivers to sell
on the black market.
Source:
Hospices nationwide grapple with medicine theft in midst
of opioid crisis. No national statistics
exist on how many opioids go missing or get "diverted" from the
intended patient, but hospices working more closely with families to ensure
safety…LANCASTERONLINE.COM
Medication
Theft in VA and Private Hospitals
Employees at veteran facilities are
stealing drugs for personal gain to be sold on the black market. One Oxycontin
pill sells on the black market for $100. Veterans are often denied necessary
medications or the proper dosages to hide the diversion. Drug theft losses have
increased from 237 in 2009 to the staggering total in 2015 of 2,397 (over 10
times higher). Drug theft is twice as high in VA hospitals than private
hospitals. Because of the VA Merit Systems Protection Board, the workers
are punished in only 3% of the cases of missing drugs.
There
were 108 open Veterans Affairs cases that were being investigated for
medication theft, primarily opioid painkillers, the first of 2017. Now there
are over 300 out of the 1,500 pending cases of drug theft because of VA
employee misconduct. The VA is making it easier to fire employees but the
investigation time period is very lengthy.
Regular theft of prescription pills from veterans’ facilities across the U.S. is sparking another investigation of employees diverting drugs for personal gain. An investigation by the Associated Press DAILYCALLER.COM
Our
Opinion Letter about the Poor Arizona DHS Opioid Crisis Report was Printed
We wrote our opinion letter to the ARIZONA REPUBLIC and ARIZONA DAILY STAR concerning the poor
Arizona Department of Health's “2017 OPIOID ACTION PLAN.” The Tucson
newspaper printed our opinion letter, but it was ignored by the Phoenix
newspaper. We stated: "The solution of the opioid crisis is
control of distribution, education of the dangers, and security of the
drugs." Dr. Cara Christ of the DHS wrote the report which was
short on solutions but long on needless statistics. You do not solve the
current opioid crisis with pill counting and "just say no education."
Other states are looking to medication security and destruction of unneeded
medications, but not Arizona. Too many stolen drugs end up being sold on the
black market by caregivers of the elderly. Read the DHS Opioid Action plan
online at:
We reported Sun Grove Resort Village's
(SGRV) imposter nurse, Claudia Marquez, to the Arizona Department of Nursing,
Peoria Police, and Arizona Attorney General for illegally storing, illegally
distributing, and illegally keeping dead residents' medications. Nothing was
done to stop the SGRV elder abuse and fraud crimes. The crimes do not stop if
they are ignored by press and law enforcement.
Sources: Letter: Opioid report is a fluff piece. Dr. Cara Christ from the Arizona Department of Health just wrote
the 2017 Opioid Action Plan to combat the drug epidemic. The report is short on
real suggestions for solutions ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Elders
are Selling their Medications to Pay their Bills
The recent AARP article entitled "The
New Opioid Dealers” reports that many elders are selling their prescription
drugs to supplement their incomes in order to avoid poverty. It was reported by
Kent Chitwood, Tennessee Assistant District Attorney, that 10% of prescription
drug selling cases involve an older person. It was stated: "It's too
tempting, especially if they need money." A patient prescribed three
opioid pills a day can illegally make up to $3,600 a month.
We saw the selling of medications by elder residents at our former senior housing, Sun Grove Resort Village (SGRV), in order to pay rent. We also saw the felon SGRV conman, Scott Green, force the widow, Bonnie Hunt, to sell her wedding ring in order to break her lease when she lost her husband's Social Security income after Ed Hunt died. After that SGRV, refused to refund her $400 refundable deposit. Ms. Hunt sued and won the lawsuit judgment against SGRV for the refund of her $400 deposit. Arizona law enforcement saw no problems with SGRV's elder abuse and senior financial exploitation by a convicted Medicare fraud felon, Scott Green, and cited imposter nurse, Claudia Marquez.
Source: Selling Prescription Medications, Opioids Illegally. Many older Americans are selling their prescription painkillers,
such as oxycodone to drug pushers to make a profit. AARP.ORG
http://www.aarp.org/health/drugs-supplements/info-2017/selling-prescription-medications-opioids.html
Drug Theft in Pharmacies
In 2014, the Justice Department started
a probe of Safeway pharmacies. The federal probe widened nationally to all
Safeway pharmacies and determined that some of the employees were stealing the
drugs. Under federal law, pharmacies have to report the loss of controlled substances
in a single business day. Safeway violated the law by waiting months to report
the theft of the drugs to the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Safeway just
paid a $3 million fine and closed the pharmacy in Belmore, California, for the
failure of reporting missing medication in a timely manner
The
US Attorney General in Seattle prosecuted this Safeway drug theft case. Annette
Hayes said: "As our community struggles with opioid abuse, we call on all
participants in drug distribution to carefully monitor their practices to stem
the flow of narcotics to those who should not have them."
Arizona law only addresses dangerous
drugs record keeping by physicians (R4-16-304) and pharmacies (R4-23-1003).
Many states have controlled drug accountability for assisted living facilities,
nursing homes, home care, and hospices, but not in Arizona. The strengthening
of laws concerning the security of drugs was not addressed in the recent
Arizona Department of Health Service's Opioid Epidemic Report.
Source: Safeway to pay $3 million to resolve U.S. drug probe. Safeway Inc has agreed to pay $3 million to resolve
claims the U.S. supermarket chain failed to promptly report missing or stolen
drugs including opioid medications at its pharmacies, the U.S. Justice
Department said on Tuesday. REUTERS.CO
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