NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT OF CVS PHARMACY
Begins on Saturday, December 2, 2017
On February 1, 2018, CVS Pharmacy will implement new policies limiting the amount of opioid medications they will fill for pain patients despite whatever amount is prescribed by their treating physicians.
"CVS will limit prescriptions for acute pain to one week," states Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Founder and President of the American Pain Institute (API). "Chronic pain patients will only receive the equivalence of 30mg of oxycodone tablets, three times a day, with a maximun of 90 pills per month."
"CVS has decided that their pharmacists know better than a patient's treating physician," continues Rev. Dr. Myers, also the Founder and Chairman of Black Doctors Matter (BDM). "Their policies will hurt chronic pain patients who are opioid non-abusers, making it even more difficult to get their prescriptions filled."
Chronic pain patients, who are opioid non-abusers, are committing suicide at alarming rates. They have been abandoned by their physicians because of DEA, law enforcement, criminal justice system and state medical board persecution. This has led to seizure of doctor's assets, loss of their medical licenses and being placed in prison.
Chronic pain treatment advocates are very concerned about CVS prescription policies will lead to even more suicides.
A nationwide boycott and picketing of CVS Pharmacy has been organized by chronic to begin on Saturday, December 2, 2017, to protest the discriminatory and abusive policies proposed by the nation's largest pharmacy against pain patients filing their narcotic prescriptions.
The racial profiling and discriminatory practices of CVS Pharmacy has not gone unnoticed.
"CVS Pharmacy discriminates against African American chronic pain patients, especially those who suffer with sickle cell anemia especially in the communities they live," states Nita Thompson, Founder of the World Sickle Cell Federation (WSCF). "Celebrity soul singer Kelly Price experienced this first hand."
Price said she stopped by a 24 hour CVS Pharmacy in Carson, California for painkillers in advance of dental surgery she was having and was told by the pharmacist that they didn't fill certain prescriptions after midnight because of the area where the store was located.
"CVS Pharmacy is trying to say that state medical boards are not regulating and policing their physicians," states Virginia Brooks, Co-Founder of the National Pain Patients Coalition (NPPC). "A pharmacist is a pharmacist and is not a medical doctor. They should not be telling doctors what to do when they prescribe narcotic medications for pain patients."
"The major cause of opioid overdose deaths are illegal and illicit drugs like fetanyl, heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, etc., not doctors prescriptions," states Rev. Dr. Myers. "So, why is the government persecuting physicians and making life unbearable for many people suffering with chronic pain? Why?"
"Sickle cell anemia chronic pain patients are dying at alarmong rates because of the hysteria of the opioid crises." continues Rev. Dr. Myers. "The poorest of the poor in the Mississippi Delta have lost another doctor because of the over prosecution of Black and other physicians of color by the DOJ and state medical boards. We are fighting for all of this injustice to come to an end."
Rev. Dr. Myers, the first ordained and commissioned medical missionary, serving America's poorest region, the Mississippi Delta, in the history of the African American church, for almost 30 years, is now the nation's first U.S. Medical Political Prisoner.
Former Oklahoma Atty. General Scott Pruitt, now EPA Director, filed unsubstantiated criminal charges against the medical missionary, leading to the loss of his medical license. This was because of his advocacy and treatment of chronic pain patients.
Rev. Dr. Myers is reaching out to Amnesty International for assistance because of government persecution of doctors which has led to the loss of health care to America's poorest and sickest citizens.
Rev. Dr. Myers joins a growing list of physicians persecuted by the government for treating chronic pain patients who are opioid non-abusers. Most recently, renowned pain medicine specialist, Dr. Forrest Tennant, was raided by the DEA.
Along with the NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT AND PICKETING OF CVS PHARMACY, chronic pain treatment advocates will take their concerns directly to members of the U.S. Congress.
A WHITE COAT PROTEST RALLY AT THE DOJ, a Congressional Briefing on Pain and another "America's In Pain!" - MARCH ON WASHINGTON - "SILENT NO MORE!" Chronic Pain Rally will take place in Washington, DC, during PAIN PATIENTS ADVOCACY WEEK, April 23-30, 2018.
