Letter Protests Italian Drug Use

Raymond Hoffenberg, M.D. President Emeritus of the College of Physicians of London President Emeritus of Wolfson College in the University of Oxford One Sherborne House SHERBORNE GL54 3DZ England 29 October 2001 By chance, I came upon your “Doctors under Tension,” European Review; Volume 6, May, 1998, in which you state, preposterously, the following: “Only rarely do we find largescale participation of the medical profession in organized abuse…” It would take about twenty-five thousand agents of the F.B.I., twenty-five thousand detectives from Scotland Yard, and twenty-five thousand investigators from Interpol to round up all the Italian physicians in collusion with pharmaceutical companies which represent a good number of European countries. Travel expenses for doctors and their wives, computers to read pharmaceutical software, dinners in the best restaurants, et alia, all paid for them, constitute only a part of the corruption running rampant. Every Italian household possesses a mini-pharmacy. Italians show off their medicines and leave expired ones in their small closets to add depth to their status symbols. No Italian comes home from the doctor without three or four prescriptions filled, but most prescriptions are filled without the doctor seeing the patient. It is arcane to see three or four Mercedes-Benz’s or BMW’s lined up outside doctors’ offices with elegantly-dressed drug salesmen—who often are seen by the doctor before the patients are!—toting their black satchels filled with “samples” which doctors use to “hook” patients. Italy is Europe’s top consumer of illicit drugs. What part have these doctors, nurturing for their patients a drug culture that begins at the cradle, in being

responsible for the extravagant use of illegal drugs in Italy? How many laundered drug dollars have Italian drug addicts contributed to bin Laden? About you, Dr. Hoffenberg, I am confounded! Do you own a stock portfolio filled with Italian pharmaceutical investments? Are you a Whitewasher of The Lily-white Medical Profession? Or, are you just a run-of-the-mill imbecile? Toodleoo… Anthony St. John