It's the VA. Trust me, they're on our side. Wanna buy a nice bridge in Brooklyn?
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- June
- 18
First, there was the Walter Reed debacle. Then came the memo from a Veterans Administration hospital administrator advising that as a cost saving measure, doctors should try to avoid diagnosing post-traumatic stress syndrome for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now comes word that our “friends” at the VA have been recruiting returning war vets with PTSD to participate as guinea pigs in the testing of a new anti-smoking drug. Of course they forgot to mention for three months that the drug, Chantix, has been linked to 40 suicides and more than 400 incidents of suicidal behavior, according to California Rep. Bob Filner, chair of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Filner today called for an immediate suspension of the tests on veterans “until a comprehensive review of the safety of the protocol is conducted,” according to this “report” from ABC News, which broke the story with the Washington Times.
Indeed.
I would imagine that a lot of men and women come home from combat smoking like chimneys, and that the percentage is even higher among those with PTSD. So the VA, which of course, is always looking out for the health and welfare of veterans, decides that potentially suicidal patients should be recruited to take a drug that has potentially suicidal side affects.
Makes you think that Pogo, the cartoon character, was probably right when he said, “I have seen the enemy and it is us.”
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 2:31 pm by Rich Liebson.
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When will our freinds as you put it rich stop useing us veterans as guinea pigs in what ever test they decide to give and think it is the right thing to due They used us Atomic Veterans as guinea pigs and look what happen to many of us cancer and other medical problems came about because of these people using the american soliders etc for experimental reasons. Its not bad enough in this case they go to war and come back thinking they will get good medical care and wam Enough enough enough