Blog
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Dangerous Doses on e-reader
01/16/12
Dangerous Doses: A True Story of Cops, Counterfeiters, and the Contamination of America's Drug Supply now available on e-reader. http://amzn.to/wLcU3v -
Check out WNYC's Leonard Lopate on my Fortune...
11/14/11
Check out WNYC's Leonard Lopate on my Fortune piece, the strange saga of Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin at: http://t.co/CmDtZWAQ -
Who says counterfeits don't impact nat'l...
11/10/11
Who says counterfeits don't impact nat'l security? Great reporting by Ctr 4 Public Integrity: http://t.co/1EUcUrsG -
You can read, "Painful Medicine," about Purdue...
11/09/11
You can read, "Painful Medicine," about Purdue Pharma and our nat'l addiction to opioids in Fortune Mag: http://t.co/H8UrhWBD. -
"The Hidden Dangers of Outsourcing Radiology," in SELF Magazine
10/28/11
You can check out my latest article "The Hidden Dangers
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What’s a consumer to do about getting safe drugs?
09/14/11
That was the question posed to me recently by Lisa McKenzie, a smart, vibrant woman – and fiercely good writer – who suffers from relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. She explores this question in her blog, mslabrat.com, which chronicles her journey through a pharmaceutical wilderness, and her switch from an FDA-approved therapy to an off-label drug.
She was horrified to learn of what actually goes on in our drug supply, a topic taken up today by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. So nine years after counterfeit Epogen, four years after tainted Heparin, two years after mishandled insulin harmed American patients, the issue gets another airing in Congress.
Lisa has got some eminently practical ideas for fixing the mess. How about telling patients where their drug came from and what’s in it? For her, it’s personal, a matter of life and death. And she finds the corruption of our drug supply, as laid out in Dangerous Doses, “absolutely terrifying, scarier than any horror flick.” Read her review here.
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Lola, 2003-2011
09/11/11
On Tuesday night, we said a final goodbye to our big beautiful Newf.
Her enormous benign presence drew friends and admirers, literally stopped traffic and came to define a beloved neighborhood and an era in our lives.
In the annals of dog-hood, Lola was supremely relaxed. She rarely barked, or even ran. What she did best of all was sit. And she always opted for the middle of anywhere. She sat at the bank, on the sidewalk, in the park, in any doorway, in the street, with total disregard for traffic. At 130 lbs, she was uniquely unmovable. She ignored steak, batted away physical coercion. Around our neighborhood, she came to be known as the dog that refused to move.
Some say Newfies are the "hippies” of the dog world. Lola had perfected an Abbie-Hoffman style of civil disobedience. Faced with any duress, she'd shift from sit to slouch, to lying down, to deep collapse and finally, coma. Passersby would ask, “Is she okay? Can I help?” For years, our answer was: “She’s fine, thanks. She does this all the time."
For eight years, we worked on the word “Come.” We told her, "Walking is the new sitting." Only the prospect of abandonment made a dent. We would say a ritual “bye-bye,” then walk away, and disappear conspicuously. She’d rise and follow -- ten to fifteen minutes later (as we watched and waited from around a corner). The serene and seemingly abandoned Newfoundland became a fixture on Park Slope's streets.
Most often, you could find her slumbering at her lifeguard post on our stoop, keeping a half-opened eye on the street. She was, after all, a working dog, slated for water rescue. Only deep into her tenure did we realize that we did all the work. Then in late July, after two difficult knee surgeries, came the diagnosis of bone cancer.The vet told us we’d need to put her down once her lifestyle changed, once she’d stopped running, leaping, playing football. We explained, she’d actually been asleep for the last three years. It was hard to tell the difference between Lola sick and Lola well. But soon enough, she couldn’t walk, even if she’d wanted to. We carried her in and out over the last several months. And this time, when passersby asked, "Is she okay?" The answer, sadly, was no.
On her last weekend, we took her upstate and watched, breath held, as she hobbled to a nearby pond and stood in the water, weightless for a moment and almost home, it seemed.
A shout out to Susan Gregory Thomas...07/10/11
A shout out to Susan Gregory Thomas on her new book “In Spite of Everything”My new article, "The War Over Lipitor"05/09/11
My new article, "The War Over Lipitor" in the Fortune 500 issue hits newsstands next weekStolen insulin, hot cancer Rx, at your pharmacy?03/31/11
Stolen insulin, hot cancer Rx, at your pharmacy? Fortune Mag, "Drug Theft Goes Big," now online: http://bit.ly/hPuiJr."Drug Theft Goes Big" in Fortune Magazine03/25/11
"Drug Theft Goes Big" in Fortune Magazine hits newsstands today and the web next week.Who says long-form journalism is dead?01/31/11
Who says long-form journalism is dead? Congrats to atavist.net on big launch. Upload Swedish heist story: http://tinyurl.com/477lwubAre you taking stolen drugs?04/01/10
Are you taking stolen drugs? Ck out my NYT op-ed today: http://nyti.ms/bfgOHW.Great book, "The Genius in All...03/10/10
Great book, "The Genius in All of Us," by my friend Dave Shenk, on bookshelves now: http://bit.ly/a9T6SP.Feb. 5: Michael Carlow (of Dan...03/03/10
Feb. 5: Michael Carlow (of Dangerous Doses) gets 9 years after pleading guilty to racketeering, fraud, and theft. http://bit.ly/aqFEGYAnother diverter goes down. Ar...03/03/10
Another diverter goes down. Arnesto Segredo gets 70 mos. prison for diverting prescription drugs, some counterfeit. http://bit.ly/aTjauGLatest piece about the "Medica...08/20/09
Latest piece about the "Medical Mafia" in Las Vegas: http://bit.ly/18W2dhYour lawyer and doctor plottin...08/19/09
Your lawyer and doctor plotting against you? http://bit.ly/18W2dh
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