Tag: News

Whistleblower Alleges Tesla Covered Up Employee's Drug Dealing Ties

Whistleblower Karl Hansen alleges that raising those concerns to Tesla management was what got him fired in mid-July.

Last week, a former Tesla security employee filed an explosive tip with the Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming the company hacked employee cell phones and turned a blind eye to drug dealing and large-scale theft at the Nevada Gigafactory.

Whistleblower Karl Hansen claimed that raising those concerns to Tesla management was what got him fired mid-July, according to The Mercury News. Hansen lodged his complaint with the feds on August 9, according to his attorney Stuart Meissner, of the New York-based firm Meissner Associates.

The sweeping complaint claims that Tesla spied on its own workers by wiretapping their phones and hacking their computers, including those of another recently axed whistleblower, Martin Tripp.

Hansen also accused the company of keeping secret the results of its internal probe into a cartel-connected coke- and meth-dealing ring that one employee operated out of the Nevada site, a claim to which the DEA supposedly alerted the company.

On top of that, Hansen alleges that Tesla neglected to disclose information about $37 million worth of raw materials stolen this year, an incident that supposedly led to the firing of another worker who reported it all to police.

Tesla fired back against the allegations with its own statement, saying the claims were “taken very seriously” when Hansen came forward with them—but ultimately, the company claimed, they couldn’t be proven.

“Some of his claims are outright false,” the company said, according to a statement published by CNBC. “Others could not be corroborated, so we suggested additional investigative steps to try and validate the information he had received second-hand from a single anonymous source.”

But, Tesla claimed, Hansen refused to keep speaking with the company.

“It seems strange that Mr. Hansen would claim that he is concerned about something happening within the company,” Tesla added, “but then refuse to engage with the company to discuss the information that he believes he has.”

Elon Musk was more to-the-point in his appraisal of Hansen.

“This guy is super [nuts],” he wrote in a Twitter DM to a Gizmodo reporter, using the peanut emoji to drive home the point.

“He is simultaneously saying that our security sucks (it’s not great, but I’m pretty sure we aren’t a branch of the Sinaloa cartel like he claims) and that we have amazing spying ability,” Musk added. “Those can’t both be true.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 August 2018
Nigerian Girls Win Tech Challenge With Counterfeit Drug Detection App

The teen team hope that their app can stem the sale of counterfeit medications in their home country.

A team consisting of five teenage girls from Nigeria has won Silicon Valley’s 2018 Technovation Challenge by building an app that detects counterfeit drugs.

The app, called FD-Detector, works by scanning the medicine’s barcode and checking is validity and expiration date.

The victory comes especially as a surprise considering Team Save-A-Soul having limited experience in technological skills–five months prior one of the team’s members, Jessica Osita, never even used a computer, let alone browsed the Internet.

“I feel very excited and relieved. I’m extremely proud of myself,” Osita said to CNN.

The teenaged team, composed of Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye, hope that their app can stem the sale of counterfeit medications in their home country.

Osita herself had a personal brush with fake drugs. Her brother was involved in an accident and died after being given fake drugs.

“My brother died from fake drugs. I’m very motivated by the death of my brother to solve this problem,” she revealed. “With this app, we will relieve the burden. I feel very excited.”

She one day hopes to become a pharmacist.

“I want to produce genuine drugs,” she said.

To claim victory, the team had to beat representatives from all over the world, including the United States, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and China in the finals.

“People are calling us celebrities and taking pictures with us. I’m very happy. We could not have done this without our mentor. She really believed in us and encouraged us,” Nnalue told interviewers.

Their mentor, Uchenna Ugwu, introduced computers and coding to the girls through her organization, Edufun Technik, which seeks to bring STEM to the underprivileged children of Anambra State in Nigeria.

“They have experienced so many firsts. They were entering a flight for the first time. The girls were scared and overwhelmed. They asked me, ‘How can we compete with these countries who have been using tech for a very long time?’” Ugwu recalled. “I told them ‘it’s not how long ago you started, but how well you do.’ I’m so proud of them because they were so determined to learn. They were not the most talented in the coding class but they were the most determined. They stuck with the classes when a lot of their peers dropped out.”

The girls’ project could potentially have a huge impact back home, where Nigerian officials have long been battling counterfeit drugs.

Just last June, the Nigerian National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control had to destroy nearly $10 million in counterfeit drugs.

Fake drugs are also a problem in the United States. Lethal counterfeit opioid painkillers are growing in the black market. Music legend Prince passed away after taking fentanyl-laced counterfeit Vicodin.

View the original article at thefix.com

20 August 2018
Experts Develop Post-Surgery Opioid Guidelines To Curb Overprescribing

“Our feeling is we shouldn’t just be using draconian, one-size-fits all prescribing,” said one expert from Johns Hopkins.

Surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore have developed opioid prescribing guidelines that are specific to 20 common surgeries, in an effort to reduce overprescribing.

“This work reflects that surgeons want to be a part of the solution,” Dr. Heidi Overton, a surgery resident at Johns Hopkins who worked on the guidelines, told The Baltimore Sun.

The guidelines were published this week in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Previously, Johns Hopkins doctors generally prescribed a 30-day supply of opioid painkillers following surgery, a standard that was “dangerously high,” according to lead study author Dr. Martin Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy expert at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The new guidelines take into account what type of surgery a patient had. The panel that made the recommendations suggested one to 15 opioid pills for 11 of the 20 procedures, 16 to 20 pills for six of the 20 procedures, and none for three of the procedures—a drastic reduction from previous prescribing practices.

Patients having orthopedic surgeries needed the most opioid painkillers and those having ear, nose and throat procedures needed the fewest, study authors said. Doctors can adjust their prescription based on specific patients’ needs as well.

“Our feeling is we shouldn’t just be using draconian, one-size-fits all prescribing,” said Makary. “Everyone is different. Opioid prescribing should fall within a best practices range and currently we don’t do very well with that. Our hope is that this represents a first step in better understanding how we can treat pain better.”

Makary noted that one in 16 surgery patients become long-term drug users. He also explained that more than half of patients who did not need opioids to manage pain in the hospital are still sent home with a prescription. Because of that, 70 to 80% of opioids prescribed to patients are never used as prescribed.

Changing standards around opioid prescriptions is part of addressing the current overdose crisis, he said.

“We don’t just need treatment and rehab facilities,” Makary said. “We shouldn’t just be cleaning up the floor, but we should be turning off the spigot of overprescribing that doctors did with good intention, but bad science.”

Other teaching hospitals have tried to implement opioid prescription guidelines, but the American College of Surgeons has not addressed the issue.

However, the organization is putting together a brochure “to help surgeons facilitate a dialog with their patients on postoperative pain relief.”

View the original article at thefix.com

18 August 2018
Opioid Crisis Has Peaked, Former Cleveland Clinic CEO Suggests

The doctor says that while opioid prescribing is down, synthetic opioids are now driving the opioid epidemic.

The former CEO of the Cleveland Clinic said that the opioid epidemic has peaked now that more healthcare providers and laypeople are aware of the dangers of opioid painkillers.

“I think we’ve peaked,” Dr. Toby Cosgrove said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “I think we’re starting to see the understanding of the problem, and getting to the point where people are certainly prescribing fewer drugs and people are recognizing how serious this is.”

However, he said that synthetic opioids are continuing to drive opioid deaths.

“The other issue is that drugs are now being laced with fentanyl and carfentanil, which are highly potent,” said Cosgrove, a cardiac surgeon who led the Cleveland Clinic hospital for 13 years before stepping down in 2017.

“Carfentanil is 10,000 times as potent as morphine. We just had an outbreak of deaths in Ohio from drugs being laced with very potent carfentanil and fentanyl,” Cosgrove noted.

Cosgrove now works as an executive advisor to Google Cloud Healthcare and Life Sciences team, and is a proponent for healthcare reform. During his CNBC appearance he talked about ways to reduce healthcare costs.

He noted that while the United States has the highest healthcare costs in the world, the country is about average in the amount spent on healthcare and social programs combined. He said that this shows that investing in social programs can help alleviate the burden of healthcare costs.

“Social programs, frankly, are driving down the healthcare costs” in other countries, he said.

Although there has been some leveling of opioid overdose rates in certain areas, the national overdose rate climbed in many places between 2016 and 2017. In fact, 45 states saw opioid overdoses increase 30% between July 2016 and September 2017, according to federal data.

During that time period, the Midwest—including the area served by the Cleveland Clinic—saw opioid overdose rates increase 70%, driven largely by an influx of synthetic opioids. In fact, fentanyl is a factor in nearly half of opioid-related deaths.

As Cosgrove suggested, opioid prescribing is down. However, this isn’t necessarily linked to a reduction in overdose deaths. In fact, West Virginia decreased the amount of opioids prescribed by 12% between 2016 and 2017, but still saw opioid-related overdose deaths rise. Because of this, some medical experts warn that the opioid crisis could continue to get worse before improving.

“I think we have to realize that we’re on a trajectory that may get a lot worse before it gets better,” said Donald S. Burke, dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health.

View the original article at thefix.com

17 August 2018
Does Medical Marijuana Make Workplaces Safer?

A new study examined workplace fatality statistics in states with medical marijuana programs.

As legalized medical and/or recreational marijuana becomes a reality in the United States and abroad with each passing month, the question of safety in the workplace has become a topic of discussion among businesses and the legal community.

A new study has directly addressed this issue by examining workplace fatality statistics in states with medical marijuana programs. What researchers found was that among certain demographic groups in states with such programs, there was a decline in the number of such incidents—a number that continued to decrease over a period of five years.

The study, conducted by researchers from Montana State University, the University of Colorado Denver and American University, and published in the October 2018 edition of International Journal of Drug Policy culled workplace fatality data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia from the years 1992 to 2015.

The data was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and adjusted for state demographics, unemployment rate and other factors. For the purposes of the study, the researchers looked at workers in two demographics—individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 and those between 25 and 44.

As High Times noted, the study found evidence that in states with a legal medical marijuana program, incidents of workplace fatalities in the second age group (25-44) dropped by 19.5%.

Workers between the ages of 16-24 in those states also saw a reduction, though as the researchers noted, this number was “not statistically significant at conventional levels.”

Additionally, the study authors found that states that had an active medical marijuana program for a period of five years saw a 33.7% reduction in the number of expected workplace fatalities.

And those states that included pain as a qualifying condition to participate in their program were associated with a higher reduction in workplace fatalities among workers 25-44 than those states that did not have a program for a similar length of time.

High Times pointed to two areas where further studies would benefit the argument for medical marijuana abetting workplace safety. The study does not mention any use of cannabidiol (CBD), which does not produce the euphoric, psychoactive effects of THC.

Patients who use medical cannabis with cannabidiol have technically used a medical marijuana product but are not “high at work,” as the Times noted; as such, there is no means of measuring their impact on workplace fatalities.

The study authors also cite the need for further research into studies which have suggested that states with medical marijuana programs have seen decreased use in alcohol, opioids and other substances that can cause physical or cognitive impairment which, in turn, can increase instances of workplace fatalities. But for advocates of legalized marijuana use, the study can be seen as adding to the argument for its safety in workplace scenarios.

View the original article at thefix.com

17 August 2018
New York Sues Purdue Pharma Over Opioid Marketing

New York plans to work with other states that are investigating opioid manufacturers and distributors in the US.

This week, New York became the 27th state to sue Purdue Pharma, a producer of OxyContin, for alleged fraud and deception in its marketing of opioids.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Purdue is the only defendant listed in the lawsuit, driven by the administration under Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood.

The complaint was filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court and charged that a community flooded with opioids has been devastated while Purdue has increased profits and prescriptions.

The suit charges that as of 2016, over 75% of New York’s opioid overdose deaths were caused by painkillers which include Purdue’s product, OxyContin.

Governor Cuomo was quoted in Insurance Journal as saying, “The opioid epidemic was manufactured by unscrupulous distributors who developed a $400 billion industry pumping human misery into our communities. This lawsuit sends a clear message (to those) who mislead the public to increase their profit margins that we will hold you accountable.”

Purdue released a response which called New York’s allegations false, while citing that the company also shares the state’s concerns about the opioid crisis.

Purdue noted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “continues to approve” of scientific and medical information it provides to physicians.

In the suit, New York is seeking civil fines to be levied against Purdue. The state asks to recoup profits the drug company has made and pay fines for what they allege in the Insurance Journal is “criminal nuisance.”

In 2007, Purdue and three executives pleaded guilty to misbranding OxyContin. The company was charged with $634.5 million after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.

The New York lawsuit against Purdue is part of a trend; a number of U.S. states are suing opioid makers and distributors over opioid marketing.

New York joined 26 other states, and Puerto Rico, in suing Purdue over their allegedly deceptive opioid marketing practices and the resulting health crisis.

Cuomo released a statement published in the Wall Street Journal that the country is fed up with the practice of pharmaceutical companies purposefully creating addiction for the purpose of profit.

Barbara Underwood in the Wall Street Journal said that the complaint is only New York’s first step toward holding pharmaceutical companies responsible. “Our work won’t stop with this lawsuit,” she said.

New York plans to work with other states to investigate United States opioid manufacturers and distributors.

View the original article at thefix.com

17 August 2018
More Than 70 People Overdose In Connecticut Park Over 24-Hour Period

K2 is to blame for the mass overdose in New Haven.

Starting on Tuesday night, more than 70 people suffered a drug overdose in a 24-hour period in New Haven, Connecticut—most of them a stone’s throw from Yale University.

According to CBS News, the Drug Enforcement Administration has confirmed that the cause of the mass overdose was, indeed, K2—the synthetic drug that’s been the suspect behind similar mass drug poisonings from Washington, D.C. to Skid Row.

Initially, officials speculated that the mystery substance was “possibly laced with an opioid” such as fentanyl, the New York Times reported. But the DEA confirmed that no additives were detected.

Most of the poisonings happened on New Haven Green, a park not far from Yale University. At least two people experienced “life-threatening symptoms,” but no deaths were reported. Three people were arrested in relation to the mass overdose.

At the scene, the victims suffered “a multitude of signs and symptoms ranging from vomiting, hallucinating, high blood pressure, shallow breathing, [and] semi-conscious and unconscious states,” said Rick Fontana, New Haven’s director of emergency operations.

Emergency personnel scrambled to reach all of the victims. They were “sprinting from patient to patient in the park,” with crews transporting people quickly “just to turn the cars around and get them back out,” according to Dr. Sandy Bogucki, the city’s director of emergency medical services.

On July 4, there were 14 drug overdoses in the same area of New Haven, with K2 as the reported cause.

Also in July, NBC News reported that more than 260 people were sickened by “synthetic drugs” in Washington, D.C. in a span of 10 days. Once again, K2 was the suspected cause.

This marked a significant increase from the previous July, when just 107 were hospitalized for drug poisonings in Washington, D.C.

K2 is also known as Spice and “synthetic marijuana.” However, as High Times notes, comparing the drug to cannabis is “being generous.”

The only similarity that K2 may have to cannabis, however faint, is its physical appearance. But the effects couldn’t be more different.

“In reality, the drug is a manmade chemical cocktail of various psychoactive substances,” High Times explains. “The chemical mixture is then sprayed onto dried herbs or plant material, giving the drug an appearance similar to botanical cannabis.”

View the original article at thefix.com

17 August 2018
Jenna Jameson Talks Struggle To Lose Weight In Sobriety

“I kept telling myself if I could beat addiction and stay sober, I can easily lose the weight… and I did. The healthy way.”

Jenna Jameson has made some major lifestyle changes — again.

According to People, the 44-year-old former adult film actress, who has been outspoken about her sobriety, struggled to lose weight after giving birth to her daughter in April 2017. But on Monday, Aug. 13, she shared a before and after photo on Instagram.

“Let’s talk about the mental aspect of losing weight and getting healthy,” she wrote. “I’m going to be honest with you, when I was heavy I hated leaving the house. I felt judged. I felt eyes on me everywhere. I could hear others internal monologue saying ‘damn, Jenna Jameson let herself go’ ugh…All of us do this, we worry so very much how we are perceived. But beyond that shallow thinking there was deeper shame. I was disappointed in myself.”

Jameson also referenced her history of substance use disorder, stating that she wasn’t sure how she could lose weight while sober.

“I was worried I couldn’t lose the weight Sober,” she wrote. “I’m being real with you. When I was in my addiction it was easy to stay thin. Sobriety and being overweight was new to me. I kept telling myself if I could beat addiction and stay sober, I can easily lose the weight… and I did. The healthy way.”

Prior to her recent post, Jameson also shared on Instagram that she has been on the ketogenic diet, which, according to Women’s Health, is a diet that involves decreased intake of carbohydrates and increasing fats.

“On the right I weight 187,” Jameson wrote on Instagram. “On the left I’m a strong 130. I was lethargic and struggled with the easiest of tasks like walking in the beach sand with Batelli. I felt slow mentally and physically. I took the pic on the right for a body positive post I was going to do and decided against it because I felt anything but fucking positive. I’m now a little under 4 months on the #ketodiet and it’s not only given me physical results, I feel happier, smarter, and much more confident.”

Now, Jameson says, she feels better not only physically, but mentally as well.

“And as of today I can say my mental game is STRONG,” she added on Instagram. “I feel I can do anything, I conquered abuse, addiction, PTSD and depression. Thank you for listening and please tell me your stories below, I read every comment.”

View the original article at thefix.com

17 August 2018
Lyft Offers Incentives To Stop Drugged Driving In Massachusetts

Lyft has pledged $50,000 in fares to keep stoned drivers off the roads of Massachusetts.

Popular ride-sharing service Lyft is encouraging people to drive cannabis-free with a special fare credit offer, according to High Times.

Law enforcement in Massachusetts believe there could be a greater potential for drug-related accidents since cannabis has become legal in the state, so the state has teamed with Lyft to help educate the public on the dangers of driving high.

Jennifer Queally, undersecretary of the Office of Public Safety and Security in Massachusetts, became concerned when she noticed an increase in people driving stoned in Colorado.

“It’s not uncommon to hear people say, ‘I drive better when I’m high,’” Queally explains. “[But] if you are high or stoned, you are not a safe driver. And you are a danger to everyone on the road.”

At the same time, ride-sharing companies like Lyft see a potential business boom. Just as Lyft and Uber are giving potential drunk drivers everywhere a safe ride home, the general manager of Lyft in New England told High Times, “We want to make sure residents can consume marijuana and not think twice about how they’re going to get home responsibly.”

To help promote cannabis-free driving, Lyft has partnered with the Massachusetts Chief of Police Association, as well as the Cannabis Reform Coalition, to pledge $50,000 in Lyft fares to keep high drivers off the road. And if you make a pledge on social media not to drive high, you can get $4.20 in Lyft ride fare credit.

As WBUR reports, there is also a new public service campaign that has been launched in Massachusetts called “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.”

In the commercial, several actors tell the audience, “There are roads. Ones you take and one’s you don’t. There are laws. There are rules. And there’s you. You driving. You drunk driving. You driving high. You stoned and driving. You spinning. You crashing. You arrested. You killing… There are roads. And then there are just dead ends.”

The commercial ends with a title card telling the audience, “Drunk? Stoned? Driving? Don’t.”

According to a study released this year by the Governors Highway Safety Association, the rates of people driving high has increased 16% in the last 10 years. In 44% of fatal car crashes in 2016, 38% of the drivers tested positive for marijuana, with 16% of the drivers testing positive for opioids, and 4% testing positive for both.

View the original article at thefix.com

17 August 2018
Planned Safe Injection Sites Put On Hold In Canada

Advocates of safe injection sites called the Canadian health minister’s decision to halt the opening of the facilities “horrifying.”

A trio of planned safe injection sites in Ontario, Canada have been put on hold while the province’s new health minister conducts a review to determine if such facilities “have merit.”

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that she remains unconvinced that such sites are effective in reducing drug overdose deaths and the spread of HIV infection; she also cited concerns from neighboring businesses over security and biohazard refuse as core reasons for the review.

Advocates of safe injection sites and harm reduction policies called the health minister’s decision “horrifying,” that runs contrary to the needs of individuals in the midst of Canada’s opioid epidemic.

The CBC reported that in a letter sent on Friday, August 10, to health integration networks and health units in the province, Roselle Martino, assistant deputy minister of the population and public health division, said that the approval process for new safe injection sites in the cities of Toronto, Thunder Bay, and St. Catharines would be halted immediately.

The sites would allow for supervised injection of opioid drugs, grant access to harm reduction support and allow users to safely dispose of needles and other paraphernalia.

In the letter, Elliott wrote that she will be “reviewing the evidence and speaking to experts to ensure that any continuation of supervised consumption services and overdose prevention sites are going to introduce people into rehabilitation and ensure people struggling with addiction will get the help they need.”

CTV News also noted that Elliott will address how local businesses have been impacted by existing sites. The network cited concerns by Mark Garner, a member of the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area (BIA) in Toronto, who said that his organization has found discarded needles in the area near the Works, the city’s first supervised injection site, which opened in November 2017.

Garner stated to CTV that while his organization supports efforts to reduce drug overdoses, the businesses in the BIA have felt the need to increase security and allocate funding to clean up discarded needles, especially ones discarded in toilets which have caused plumbing issues.

“This is the number one tourist destination in Canada,” he said. “How do we integrate that into the neighborhood, what resources are needed, and how do we make it safe for everybody?”

But harm reduction advocates and health care professionals have expressed alarm at the province’s move, which some described as a decision motivated more by politics than any actual health concern.

“It’s a complete disaster, and I do worry about people on the ground,” said Marilou Gagnon, an associate professor of nursing and president of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association. “The science is very clear that overdose prevention sites do work, and we’ve known this since the ’80s. [I’m] extremely concerned about a government going against science.”

View the original article at thefix.com

16 August 2018