onsdag 30 oktober 2013

20 years of research have saved thousands of lives - Propoxyphene is now banned almost all over the world


To whom it may concern

We will hereby tell you about our research on the fatal painkiller Propoxyphene and are now sending some links to our social media. This shows how two people – for example we to – are able to influence one very serious question - worldwide - to get a fatal painkiller – Propoxyphene (Darvon & Darvocet) -  banned in almost the whole world.

One tweet:

There could be about 178 000 fatalities due to Darvon & Darvocet in US during 1982-2010(29 years) http://bit.ly/1fKUZFZ 

Thanks to these social media - Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and YouTube - have we been able to fight part of Big Pharma in US (primarily Eli Lilly) – and the rest of the world. 


Our research has saved thousands of lives and will save even more lives in the future. Three years ago (October 2010) was the substance Propoxyophene ( Darvon & Darvocet) banned in US, and since then hundreds of lawyers have been working on the coming trials. It will start with hundreds of trials and the damages will probably be many hundreds of million dollars – and lot of lives will be saved. 

We have worked 20 years to achieve this. Please visit some of our social media,

http://www.facebook.com/ulf.jonasson.54

https://twitter.com/DrUlfJonasson

http://jonassonulf.blogspot.se/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q92lL4kM-JE

http://jonassonulf.blogspot.se/2012/07/cv-ulf-and-birgitta-jonasson-2011-vitae.html

Kind regards

Ulf Jonasson, Doctor in Public Health
Birgitta Jonasson, PhD

onsdag 2 oktober 2013

Can we detect any cases at all with Propoxyphene - Darvon and Darvocet - in Los Angeles County?


Part 2.

Data from Los Angeles County





During these three years there was not a single case where Propoxyphene was found among the dead in Florida - according to their databases

In 2003 came a change - which has continued in the coming years. In that year there were 356 people who had Propoxyphene in the blood when they died. Of these 356 individuals there were estimates that Propoxyphene alone have caused death in 108 cases and in 248 cases were found also substance in the blood sample.

It is also reported that Propoxyphene as single and deadly substance was present in 73 cases, while Propoxyphene plus other drugs were found in 283 persons.

Thus, we can observe that in the year 2003356 people were poisoned to death because of Propoxyphene in Florida and that the preparation of the same year were prescribed in 24 015 000 cases and it was consumed 92,709 kg in the whole country.

In all scientific contexts, it belongs that scientists read what other scientists in their own filed in the world published by the latest news - both within and outside the country - and thus spread the new and most current research to colleagues worldwide.

In 1998 - 2000 we published most of our scientific papers ( 6-7) and we know that these articles were read by many forensic pathologists worldwide.

Probably some MD´s and other researches in Florida read our research when the year 2003 also was looking for DXP in forensic materials.

The Coroners is in some ways a more old-fashioned system

We have taken a closer look at the country's largest county, Los Angeles County, with roughly 10 million inhabitants. In many respects, these systems have also been updated and become better, but there is still lack in terms of blood sampling - at least for Propoxyphene.

In the 2009 Annual Report - Los Angeles County Coroner,  2009 Annual Report - the last full year Propoxyphene were sold in the U S - the substance was banned on Nov. 19, 2010 - we find the explanation for why there were NO cases of poisoning to death because of Propoxyphene.

In Los Angeles County the specialists primarily sought for illegal drugs when they took blood samples from the dead. Under the heading “2009 Drugs by Classification, total cases of 2,622”

We found a division into six different groups of substances, namely;

Antidepressant – 442 cases
Antihistamines – 349  
Antipsychotics – 225
Muscle relaxants  127
Sedatives Hypnotics – 472 and finally
Narcotic Analgesics - 1,007 cases.

This showed clearly that the scientists at the Los Angeles County did not looked for Pro-poxypohene, although the substance is in the largest group Narcotics Analgesics - 1,007 of 2,622 cases, which is about 38 percent of all who had any of these six drug groups in their blood.

The LA county informed under the heading "Number of Cases with Drug Detected by Mode" in their Annual Book the numbers of Alcohol in the blood, Marijuana, Cocaine, Meth, Heroin, Phen, Club Drugs and 2,622 Drugs by classification - but they do not look for Propoxypohene.

Propoxyohene was in the group of 1,007 cases where we can find all kind of painkillers, that means ALL KIND OF PAINKILLERS - but no specific substances, and no PROPOXYPHENE

As any reader can see,  the organization within the U.S. Forensic Medicine cannot always be trusted.....

Ulf Jonasson,
Doctor of Public Health

Sources

4). Data from Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in Florida. We used data from ”Drugs identified in Deceased Persons by Florida Examiners”. (US) 
http://bit.ly/pDWdsM

5.) Data from “Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Annual Report.2009” (US) http://bit.ly/151bkzh


Ulf Jonasson, Doctor in Public Health
Birgitta Jonasson, Ph D

See also bit.ly/18Ay9ri and our CV http://bit.ly/NUSPQ4





Can we trust the Swedish forensic data - especially when it comes to Propoxyphene - Darvon & Darvocet?


Part 1

The answer is an unequivocal YES - at least when we talk about the years from January 1st, 1992 - to date.



The Swedish forensic organization - the National Board of Forensic Medicine – was formed on July 1st 1991. And from January 1st 1992 a new and very modern authority was introduced, which also focused on the latest research regarding such as the best toxicological methods to both regain that measure actual blood sample of the deceased and thus be able to determine what a person may have been poisoned to death by.

The feature of the new organization was that all forensics data would be under one authority, ie a comprehensive legislation would apply to all who belonged to forensic medicine.

The National Board of Forensic Medicine is an agency that works actively to ensure justice in Sweden. Legal issues of right and wrong cannot be resolved on dubious grounds: they must have a solid basis in fact. Additional facts can often be provided through expert analyses and assessments performed by chemists, biologists, doctors, psychologists and counsellors. All this expertise has been accumulated in a single public agency – the National Board of Forensic Medicine.

The blood sampling came to be a very important contribution, which meant that a blood sample would be taken of the deceased as soon as possible on the closest legal medical department - and that blood would be tested against all the medicines - legal drugs - pre-scribed drugs by doctors plus alcohol.

If police or prosecutors wanted to know about the deceased person had narcotic drugs, such as morphine, heroin, amphetamines, or anything else that was not allowed in the blood - the blood sample were checked against these illegal substances.

These fairly simple rules have proven to be very reliable. The blood samples were collected on roughly 90% of the deceased persons, some very young and some very old could sometimes be missing.

The Swedish forensic system has been widely appreciated worldwide. Similar systems have the other two Scandinavian countries Norway and Denmark.

Do I trust the American legal medical system?

Not to the same degree as the Swedish system, but Forensic data in U.S. is getting better nowadays, but still there are major deficiencies in some of the current players. I will briefly describe forensic system in US.

In US there are two different systems in the Forensic Medical world – The Medical Examiners and The Coroner system. It is also very important to mention that there are some 3,400 counties in US – and that makes it more complicated.

The Medical Examiners is an organization with significantly higher trained physicians than The Coroners and that puts more emphasis at forensic examinations, blood test and so on.

The Coroners are investigators more than Medical Doctors, and usually MD's are very important to decide the cause of death.... 

The Swedish Forensic MD's are very well educated, first they are MD´s, then they have several years of special training and after that there are quite many MD´s that also take a PhD

In our work we have used a lot of data from FDLE - The Florida Department of Law Enforcement - and these data are available for those who wish to receive them through FDLE's web-site.

Most of the data is good, a lot of even very good, but when it comes Propoxyhene we found some serious flaws.

In Florida lived an average of 16,363,000 persons under the years that we examined. During the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, there was not one single case of Propoxyphene of the investigated deaths.

During the same years (2000 - 2002), the consumption of Propoxyphene in the US were Year:

2000              98,670 kg,
2001              97,208 respective
2002              110,041 kg (total for three years, 

the total consumption was:

Total              305,900 kg.

(Data from the INCB - The International Narcotic Control Board in Vienna, an organization under the WHO - World Health Organization).

Under the three years (2000 - 2002) large amounts of Propoxyphene were written out. 

In 2000 it was   27 001,000 prescriptions,
In 2001 it was   27 315,000 prescriptions and
In 2002 it was   25 197,000 prescriptions.

Total              79 513, 000 prescriptions for three years, an average of 26 504,000/year.

In conclusion, it is consumed very large quantities of Propoxyphene during the three years mentioned, the number of prescriptions was very high.


Something has obviously missed when there were no people at all who had Propoxyphene in the blood at the death. However, the following year, the staff began measuring Propoxyphenet ...


Ulf Jonasson, Doctor in Public Health
Birgitta Jonasson, Ph D

Sources

1). Data from the National Board of Forensic Medicine. (Sweden). 
http://bit.ly/piOQAs

2). Data from INCB – International Narcotic Control Board – consumption figures about DXP during the years 1982 – 2010. (Vienna, Austria). http://bit.ly/SFIIop

3). Data from DrugTopics, we use data from “Top 200 Generic Drug by Prescription from the years 2000 – 2011 about DXP. (US). http://bit.ly/19f5w8H

to be continued….