#2 RE: Highly Illegal Tobacco Sales By Staff: Wherein, despite The Arizona State Hospital touting itself as a smoke free facility in legislative venues and the media, the staff at ASH criminally smuggle tobacco and other illicit substances onto Hospital grounds, which is then sold at exorbitant profit, fully untaxed or otherwise regulated, at the expense of patient health and well being.
Arizona Revised Statutes (state law)
Title 36, Chapter 6; relating to smoking.
3. Any member of the public may report a violation of this law to the department. The department shall accept oral and written reports of violation and establish an e-mail address(es) and toll-free telephone number(s) to be used exclusively for the purpose of reporting violations. A person shall not be required to disclose the person's identity when reporting a violation.
THE DOCTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS AT THE ARIZONA STATE HOSPITAL PUT SOME OF THE MOST HARMFUL CHEMICALS AVAILABLE DIRECTLY INTO THE BODIES OF THEIR PATIENTS, AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT MEDICATION.
The following is an offering of documents that I compiled during the thirteen (13) months that I was hospitalized at The Arizona State Hospital, in Phoenix, between early January, 2011, and late February, 2012, specific to my efforts to advocate for the rights of non-smoking patients and to address the issue of staff's highly illegal smuggling and trafficking of tobacco and other illicit substances. As stated in my last article ( see June 9, 2012: #1 RE: Highly Illegal Tobacco Sales) about the criminal distribution and sale of tobacco and other illicit substances by staff at The Arizona State Hospital (ASH), the administrators at ASH flatly ignored my good faith attempts to advocate for the rights of nonsmoking patients on the basis of addressing the highly dangerous conditions caused by this issue in the common area patient mall bathrooms and elsewhere in the "civil" section of the Hospital, and subsequently, the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) also miserably failed to meet their required obligations in terms of my good faith reporting of this issue to the extent that I did. I put myself at great risk, simply in order to try and do the right thing, but at ASH, patients such as I are punished or otherwise retaliated against for doing nothing more than speak out in our own defense; and even if the situation poses direct danger to the patient community at ASH in general, administrators and clinicians blatantly put their own interests far before those of their clients.
One of my heroes, Elliot Ness
I knew at the time that illegal trafficking in controlled substances such as tobacco is something that the federal government takes very seriously. There are serious taxation issues, and related industry guidelines that typically lead to brisk reaction whenever good faith reports about illegal sales of tobacco, alcohol, prescription medication, and so on, are made to the appropriate authorities. But until very recently, I had no idea at all about the following statute, which is state law specifically enacted to protect the rights of non-smoking citizens of Arizona such as myself- even if I were not a hospital patient, in fact- but the law was most definitely in effect then and there, and there is no excuse whatsoever for the administration of ASH' failure to address and resolve the matter:
ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES: TITLE 36, CHAPTER 6; RELATING TO SMOKING
Sec1. Title
This act may be cited as the “Arizona Non-Smoker Protection Act.”
Sec. 2. Purpose and Intent
In order to protect children, patrons, employees, veterans, jobs, tourism and private property rights, the people of Arizona declare their intent to enact the Arizona Non- Smoker Protection Act to ban smoking in all public places and places of employment with exceptions including bars and tobacco shops.
The situation in regards to staff's deep involvement with the trafficking, sales, and use of tobacco and other illicit substances at The Arizona State Hospital has struck every reasonably intelligent person I have ever discussed that matter with- outside of the fraudulent professional "care givers" at ASH itself- as one of the most outlandish schemes they can imagine in today's society, and the concern is pretty much always based upon how disgusting it is to think that the staff at a public hospital would be shallow enough to engage in such misbehavior. As the discussion broadens to include the fact that the victims of this illegal operation are highly at risk mentally disabled patients, one's sense of conscientiousness churns over the depraved exploitation of vulnerable adults, and the heart proportionately thickens with compassion for the human beings who are bound by law and policy to be indefinitely subject to these criminally minded malfeasors' ill intended whims.
All elements of this sordid tale illustrate graphic violations of ADHS/BHS' own rules specific to the topic) which is consistent with a far wider range of issues to be published in this blog in the near future) as stated below in the state's own policy manual.
Arizona Department of Health Services Smoking Policy
Arizona State Hospital is completely Tobacco Free, for all patients, staff, contractors and visitors. Arizona State Hospital is committed to:
- advocate a healthy tobacco free environment;
- ensure a healthy, comfortable and safe environment for patients, visitors and staff;
- provide leadership, example and guidance in health promotion.
It is the policy of Arizona State Hospital to maintain a 100% tobacco free-environment for the preservation and protection of the health of our patients, visitors, and our staff, as such, smoking and use of other tobacco products are prohibited on Arizona State Hospital property.
Not long after I arrived within the walls and fences of ASH, I verbally directed my heightening concerns about the issue of sales and use of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH to the patient advocate at ASH, Sonya Serda, on several occasions in early March, 2011, but her responses were dismal, at best. On each occasion, she flatly neglected to respond to my reports in due fashion and instead made comments along the lines of:
"I have talked to my bosses about this many times... There is no clear way for me to address this.... Staff are involved with this, including security of all people, and there is nothing I can do about it."
This is a woman who feigned tears when I described the psychologically abusive acts of two staff technicians directed at an older man and a very disabled woman in the the Palo Verde Unit East unit, something I witnessed not long after I arrived at ASH; I recall watching Sonya Serda do this, blubber as though she were a little child garnering for my sympathy, and thinking to myself "Is this woman for real?" But griping as she does about her inability to meaningfully communicate with her superiors is simply over the top, and in clear violation of the rights and protections of virtually every patient at ASH. By refusing for any reason to take sincere action in terms of addressing this issue, Sonya Serda directly contributes to the overall harm caused by the presence of the problem. And as per the language of applicable state law, which I only recently became aware of, I can only say that it was one hell of a way to be introduced to the safe haven of a state hospital where a mentally disabled person such as myself is supposed to turn to for support. The following mandate applies directly to people like Sonya Serda, as well as her supervisors at ASH, and in ADHS, but their complicit and willful negligence in relation to this matter basically clarifies how messed up it all is:
Arizona Revised Statutes - Title 36 Public Health and Safety - Section 36-2992 Duty to report fraud or abuse; immunity; unprofessional conduct .
C) Any health care provider who fails to report pursuant to this section commits an act of unprofessional conduct and is subject to disciplinary action by the provider's licensing board or department.
Following the unwillingness of the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, to meaningfully respond to my stated concerns, I chose to direct my concerns about the issue of illegal trafficking and sales/use of tobacco and other illicit substances to the ADHS/BHS Bureau of Consumer Rights. I did this because I was downright frightened by the implications of the problem. I have been around addiction, and I have known dangerous people, as well as the attendant hazard that comes when you mix the two. At various times during the entirety of my hospitalization at ASH in relation to this issue, I experienced legitimate fear for my life and safety not only in terms of the patients involved, but also in terms of staff, too, because it is common knowledge at ASH that staff there are centrally involved in the smuggling of tobacco and other illicit substances onto Hospital grounds. It's all about petty greed. But the way I see it, if certain staff are willing to endanger the lives of those patients who happen to be addicted to nicotine, who knows what lengths such individuals might go to in order to preserve their criminal conduct and directly related financial incentives. The problem is just that insidious, just that real.
Below is a copy of my first letter ever to ADHS, sent on April 11, 2011; and as shown, I very specifically outline the dynamics of the problem as I 'd experienced it over my first 3-5 weeks at ASH, including the danger posed by the mentally ill patients who effectively take over the common area patient mall bathrooms (while security look the other way) in order to engage in the selling and use of these substances. This is a basic fact of the patient experience at ASH that I had made numerous good faith attempts to inform ASH staff about (including security staff), and I very clearly stated my heartfelt fear(s) about the issue and the related fact that I was putting myself at further risk by reporting these matters in the below letter:
As already stated, I became involved in advocating for my rights as a non-smoker and at risk patient in this context very early on in my time at ASH, and I really had little idea of how to go about it at the time. The above letter represents the first serious grievance report that I submitted during my thirteen (13) full months of hospitalization as ASH, and as the added language of state law below shows, I was on point with my concerns from the get go. But by reporting my concerns to the ADHS/BHS Bureau of Consumer Rights in two very well detailed letters, I most definitely met my responsibilities as a citizen. As shown in the following language of state law, the state officials who I communicated my good faith concerns to are directly required to follow very well established codes oc conduct, as shown in the below language of applicable state law:
Title 36, Chapter 6; relating to smoking.
4. If the department has reason to believe a violation of this law exists, the department may enter upon and into any public place or place of employment for purposes of determining compliance with this law. However, the department may inspect public places where food or alcohol is served at any time to determine compliance with this law.
At the time that I submitted the above letter, I felt that I had nailed a pretty serious issue to the bulletin board, as it were, and I really thought I might hear back from someone at ADHS right away. I will admit, too, that I was frustrated to not immediately hear back from anybody at the ADHS/BHS Bureau of Consumer Rights, but I had not yet learned about the sluggish pace that ADHS officials tend to go about their business. On April 19, 2011, I wrote a second, rather more pointed letter; and as shown below, I furthered my concerns to include how critically unlawful the negligence of ASH staff is in relation to the matter of smuggling, trafficking, and use of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH, as follows:
As described in my previous (June 9, 2012) article about this matter, I was approached for the first time by a representative of ADSH Office of Human Rights, John Gallagher, about one week after I wrote the above letter, in late April. He came to visit me at ASH in direct relation to my expressed concerns about the problem of smuggling, selling, and use of tobacco and other illicit substances, and after advising me that his office had already received a number of complaints about the problem from other patients, as well as from visitors to ASH (including outside ADHS staff), John Gallagher described how we might best approach the issue as it stood at this time, and we agreed that his office would submit a formal letter- a "shot across the bow"- directing ASH administration to meaningfully address the problem in whatever fashion they might deem reasonable, given the circumstances. He told me to be back in touch with him in 2-4 weeks so that we could discuss whether I had observed any meaningful improvements in the matter. I sensed that John Gallagher was an honest man at that time, and I soon came to learn that he is a remarkably capable spokesperson of the rights of Arizona'z mentally disabled citizens. So we parted ways after that first meeting in late April, 2011, and I patiently began waiting to spot the hoped for improvements in the matter. In sum, this amounted to reasonable follow up in relation to my concerns and my ongoing willingness to report this issue in good faith. But in terms of the illegal smuggling and sales and use of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH, it all petered out after meeting with John Gallagher, for several observable reasons.
For one thing, about three weeks after my above meeting with John Gallagher, an unrelated matter arose, and I need to mention this because the situation was so grave that it interfered with my overall stability as mentally disabled person, and not to mention in terms of my willingness to dutifully report illegal activities relating to tobacco and other illicit substances. On May 25, 2011, I was subjected to a very egregious sequence of actions imposed on me by Dr. Pervaiz Akhter, in complicity with the legal office at ASH (including assistant Arizona Attorney General Joel Rudd), aw well as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO, Dr. Steven Dingle (see April 8, 2012: "Facts #1-4). This specific matter (May 25, 2011) is on its way to court at this time, and on July 16, 2012, I will be representing myself in front of a judge for the third time on behalf of the patient community at ASH and beyond in a session in the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings (case #2012C-BHS-0338-DHS).
Suffice it to say, the events tied to these actions somewhat distracted me at the time, and I was forced by circumstance to put the issue of tobacco smuggling and use at ASH on the back burner for a short while. But by mid June, 2011, I did pass on information to John Gallagher about the fact that there had been no observable changes in the situation, and he assured me that his office would be in direct contact with ASH administers about the fact that no meaningful resolution to the problem had come about, in site of the fact that he had personally drafted and submitted a letter directing them to do something about the problem.
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| Jesus Murietta. April Mott. |
(On another note; There was no duly hired supervisor at ASH between April 01, 2011, and August 01, 2011, a fact that I very definitely believe contributed to the radically unjust abuses of patient rights and related administrative abuses of authority; a period of time, for example, that saw the escape of Jesus Murietta and ASH's criminal cover up the incident, which directly led to the brutal murder of April Mott in late August (see my previous article, April 5, 2011: A Modern Day Horror Story), and it shouldn't have surprised me that at the time that ASH' overall administration was so clearly incapable of fulfilling its duties. People like ASH' current Chief Operating Officer Donna Noriega, and the recently promoted (!!!) ASH Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Steven Dingle, in complicity with their legal counsel, virtually ran ASH as they saw fit, in direct defiance of well established law and policy. Indeed, as the conviction of Donna Noriega proved about 10 months later (see my previous article, April 17, 2011: News Flash: Busted!) for lying while on the clock, the needs and rights of ASH patents were hardly a priority in summer, 2011.)
These unrelated issues aside, with respect for the issue of illegal trafficking and sales of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH, the following language of state law has absolute authority over the issue, as seen here, and the administration at ASH clearly disregards such standards:
Arizona Revised Statutes (state law)
Title 36, Chapter 6; relating to smoking.
5) If the department determines that a violation of this law exists at a public place or place of employment, the department shall issue a notice of violation to the person who owns, manages, operates or otherwise controls the public place or place of employment. The notice shall include the nature of each violation, date and time each violation occurred, and department contact person.
It's vividly clear what the lawfully required follow up to my reports of this criminal misconduct should have looked like. Not only should the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, rigorously responded to my initial reports to her about the matter, ADHS/BHS Bureau of Consumer Rights as well as the Office of Grievances and Appeals are also strictly required by law to conduct immediate investigations designed to resolve such critically egregious infractions. But nothing came about. Nothing at all.
They did close the common area patient bathrooms, however. Rather than meaningfully work to address the problem of staff's involvement in illegal trafficking and distribution of tobacco and other illicit substances, the infinite wisdom of ASH administrative officials such as Donna Noriega and Dr. Steven Dingle, etc., led to closure of the only common area bathrooms in the whole of the civil section at ASH. In late June (one week after ADHS own human rights advocate John Gallagher advised me that his office would be in direct contact with ASH administration about the issue), patients were advised that the common area patient mall bathrooms were to be indefinitely closed on June 27, 2011. No reasonable official explanation was offered to patients at the time, but there were references to "safety," and it wasn't long before we learned that smoking was the chief concern. This administrative action was imposed in direct defiance of the well known fact that staff at ASH are 100% behind the supply of tobacco and other illicit substances to patients, and closing the bathrooms was clearly meant to be a message to folks like I, who are willing to demand that something be done to address the core problem of staff's involvement, which of course poses a threat to the status quo of greedy and criminally motivated staff, including senior ASH security staff.
In response to this news, I immediately drafted and submitted a complaint about the planned closing of the common area patient mall bathrooms on the basis of my belief that the action was unfairly directed at the entire patient community, despite the fact that only a minority of patients engaged in smoking in the bathrooms, as well the fact that staff were the central root of the problem, because as anybody at ASH knows, staff smuggles the shit in there and sells it at exorbitant profit to the addicted and mentally disabled patients in their "care." I also accurately foresaw the likelihood of patients going to the bathroom at various places on the patient mall, and made clear my concerns about the whole action being nothing other than an administrative clusterfuct. The below two page complaint document was submitted by me to the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, on June 26, 2011, just one day before the bathroom closure was to be put to effect.
Naturally, as the substandard conditions at ASH go, at least, the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, did not care to respond to my June 26, 2011, complaint, and the bathrooms were closed on June 27, 2011, as per the inane decision of ASH security and administrative officials. And sure enough, within days patients were shitting at the doorways to buildings along the patient mall, and behind rocks on the landscaped sections of the patient mall, and down by the fencelines at each end of the patient mall. But the effect on the trafficking and sales and use of tobacco products and other illicit substances was not effected one iota by this administrative action, for the closure of the bathrooms just pushed the activities of patients involved in selling and using these substances out onto the mall itself, which had no impact on the dangers posed by these activities to nonsmokers such as I and the majority of the other patients there on the "civil" side of ASH.
It was ridiculous to witness these affairs, and the graphic ineptitude of ASH administrators was spotlighted in classic fashion. But did they give a rat's ass? Hell, no, they didn't, for the problems associated with the smuggling and selling and use of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH all occur that expense of patients, and not staff. Like a pack of shit eating fat cats, the staff at ASH had nothing to lose besides their highly illegal and immoral profits, so rather than go after the true root of the problem, the administrators chose to protect those staff interests while simultaneously punishing the non-smoking patients such as myself for having the willingness to rigorously report the matter.
John Gallagher, who in my experiences as a member of Arizona's mentally disabled community represented a hyper competent patient rights advocate (which is precisely what is needed in the Arizona behavioral health community at any given time), resigned his position with ADHS Office of Human Rights on July 30, 2011, all but ending our client-advocate relationship and leaving me with the ongoing task of addressing the insidious presence of staff provided tobacco and other illicit substances on the grounds of ASH. Following that point in time, I did what I could.
Below is a copy of a two page July 30, 2011, grievance document that I submitted directly to the ADHS office of Grievances and Appeals, in reaction to the fact that the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, had failed to respond to my concerns about the closing of the common area patient mall bathrooms:
Here, yet another letter to the state. I wrote this one day, after meeting John Gallagher's replacement with the ADHS Office of Human Rights, a very nice young woman named Dana Flannery, (who, I am happy to mention, strikes me as a potentially reasonable replacement for a man with as much talent and related dedication to the needs and rights of patients as he had- big shoes to fill, indeed). I strongly hoped that she would be able to persuade the ones in charge of her office to get right back on board with this issue, and so I went ahead and mailed this two paged letter to the ADHS Office of Human Rights on August 02, 2011:
Ten days later, I filed yet another grievance document to the ever so inept ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, who by this time was increasingly showing her true colors in fairly full fashion. I submitted this report in good faith and as a matter of record; in it, I specifically tried to draw attention to the ongoing willingness of ASH clinicians and administrators to allow the same small group of patients to continually carry on with the selling of tobacco and other illicit substances. As it turned out, however, this last communication that I made on behalf of myself and every other non-smoking patient at ASH went unanswered. Just like all the rest. Negligence to the third degree, absolute dereliction of duty, degradation and sloth. Standard practice at ASH. Etc.
As stated in my last article about this issue, no meaningful changes or improvements to the problem of illegal trafficking of tobacco and other illicit substances were in effect at the time of my discharge in late February, 2012. I ran into the same brick walls concerning this issue for close to one full year, and the cash flow and directly related threats to patient health and safety continued unabated right until my last week at ASH, during which time I witnessed a three man fight on the patient mall, right outside of the common area bathrooms, that arose over the issue of past due payment for tobacco products. How do I know this? Because the men were screaming at each other about the matter right before they fought. All of this: Common goings on at ASH, a bit of a war zone at times, but the fact is, if the violence is not directed at ASH staff, ASH staff generally doesn't care. I attest to these matters being the direct consequence of a criminally mismanaged public facility. It is a big joke to them, the ones granted the privilege of caring for psychologically vulnerable human beings, and all of it it is at the graphic expense of the ASH patients, as well as each and every honest, tax paying citizen in the state of Arizona, and beyond.
The willingness of the Arizona Department of Health Service to turn a blind eye to this very serious problem, which involves some of the most heinous and outright criminal conduct that I took the time and effort to report to them, at great risk to my own well being as a patient and as a human being, all flows from their strong desire to remain unaccountable to the greater public and free of the authority of state and federal law. There are specific consequences to all of these illegal activities, and ADHS has gone around the mountain in defying good faith attempts to address these matters.
As this last bit of law reflects, the consequences under state law alone are relatively severe, (but the problem, of course, is that the law requires the department of health to report on itself, in effect). As follows:
Title 36, Chapter 6; relating to smoking.
5. If the department determines that a violation of this law exists at a public place or place of employment, the department shall issue a notice of violation to the person who owns, manages, operates or otherwise controls the public place or place of employment. The notice shall include the nature of each violation, date and time each violation occurred, and department contact person.
7. If a civil penalty imposed by this section is not paid, the attorney general or a county attorney shall file an action to collect the civil penalty in a justice court or the superior court in the county in which the violation occurred.
8. The department may apply for injunctive relief to enforce these provisions in the superior court in the county in which the violation occurred. The court may impose appropriate injunctive relief and impose a penalty of not less than $100 but not more than $500 for each violation. Each day that a violation occurs constitutes a separate violation. If the superior court finds the violations are willful or evidence a pattern of noncompliance, the court may impose a fine up to $5000 per violation.
IN THIS ARTICLE, I HAVE VERY CLEARLY SPELLED OUT THE DEEPLY UNETHICAL ELEMENTS OF STAFF AT THE ARIZONA STATE HOSPITAL WHO ENGAGE IN ONGOING ILLEGAL SMUGGLING AND TRAFFICKING OF TOBACCO AND OTHER ILLICIT SUBSTANCES. THESE STAFF MEMBERS, WHOEVER THEY ARE, GET AWAY WITH THIS BECAUSE ASH ADMINISTRATION ACTS IN COMPLICITY WITH SENIOR SECURITY STAFF BY LITERALLY SUPPORTING THE PROBLEM IN EVERY SENSE OF THE TERM. BUT AS THE ABOVE DOCUMENTS ALSO SHOW, THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES ALSO CONTRIBUTES TO THE PROBLEM BY REFUSING TO ABIDE BY APPLICABLE STATE AND FEDERAL LAW, ALL AS A MATTER OF AVOIDING THE CONSEQUENCES DUE WHOEVER IN THE WHOLE GODDAMNED STRUCTURE OF THIS PROBLEM HAS IT COMING TO THEM.
IN CLOSING: Patient abuse at The Arizona State Hospital takes on many forms. It is about power, it is about ineptitude, it is about substandard medical-mental health practices, and it is about crime that our society does not seem to care about. Mentally ill adults are the invisible population, and state hospitals like ASH are the same places that only a few years ago, we were somewhat accustomed as a culture to hearing tales of rape and outright torture. Things are little different today, and ASH is nothing short of a snake pit of abuse and administrative skullduggery. The doctors are dirty, the supervisors are dirty, the whole lot of them are dirty, for the most part, as dirty as sin itself. Please get involved. Please come to the aid and assistance of the mentally disabled patients at ASH today. The abuse is ongoing, and the ones behind it all are getting away with it day after day after day.
paoloreed@gmail.com
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I would really love input of any kind from anybody with any interest whatsoever in the issues that I am sharing in this blog. I mean it, anybody, for I will be the first one to admit that I may be inaccurately depicting certain aspects of the conditions
at ASH, and anonymous comments are fine. In any case, I am more than willing to value anybody's feelings about my writing, and I assure you that I will not intentionally exploit or otherwise abuse your right to express yourself as you deem fit. This topic is far, far too important for anything less. Thank you, whoever you are. Peace and Frogs.