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.

ENTER DAVE BURGESS. 

     This is rerun of a story published in early June, 2012, relating to an effort that I started less than 6 weeks following my admission to The Arizona State Hospital (Jan. 11, 2011). The effort stemmed from my heartfelt concern over the fact that numerous patients at ASH were being supplied with tobacco and other illicit substances, a flow of product that clearly was coming from ASH staff. I was immediately affected by safety issues arising from seriously mentally ill and addicted patients engaging in interpersonal trafficking of these products, and also took immediate concern over the fact that ASH was purportedly a "smoke free" environment, allegedly established on behalf of the same patients who I realized were being supplied with these products by staff, but also as per strict provisions of law specific to public health care facilities such as ASH. ASH is- just to make it clear- a HOSPITAL. And once I began looking at it, it was ridiculous: 

     The clear and obvious nature of the matter, wherein only 3-4 patients were continually involved in selling these products (in the quasi-public/patient bathrooms, and on the patient units themselves), 3-4 patients who shared the same two patient units on the civil side of ASH (where I was "housed"), which unequivocally belied the fact that a very limited of staff were behind that supplies presence within the facility itself. I subsequently acquired fundamental knowledge of the degree to which the staff behind this supply were profiting off this operation: Individual cigarettes sold at no less that $5 a pop, translating in profit at a full thousand dollars or more per carton of cigarettes. I also learned from both staff and patients that ASH's security staff were either 100% behind the supply of these products from outside the walls and fences of ASH, or they were directly complicit in allowing for the flow to occur. 

     This issue was and is still one of the most insidiously disgusting exhibitions of covertly sanctioned criminal conduct and abuse of authority  that I have ever witnessed in a public venue. It was an absolute travesty, and highlights the dereliction of duty at ASH in terms of the public trust afforded to the facility's administrators and senior clinicians. And so, the tale continues:    

    ENTER DAVE BURGESS: At the Monday, January 7, 2013, hearing that I just took part in, I learned that a former "lieutenant" of ASH's security staff had since become the lead Arizona Department of Health/ASH patient rights' investigator. (I want to say, too, that I always got a kick out of how these security guards equated their ranks to that of a police force or military unit, and I used to joke with some of them about how they would get better pay at Safeway stores, albeit, without the perk of having gum box titles like that) Anyway, this former officer type guy-turned patient rights' investigator is named David Burgess, and on Monday, he was the state's sole witness in the hearing itself. And while I have no immediate or personal issues with the guy (and am not at liberty to talk much about in terms of the hearing at this time), I am very concerned by the relationship of ASH's security staff and the highly illegal issue of smuggling/trafficking of highly illicit and addictive substances at ASH (as it existed in 2009-2012), and the tree limb in the windshield fact that a former security supervisor is now the Hospital's sole investigator of patient abuse and staff misconduct.  
     This is, of course, all business as usual in there. Burgess was appointed from security to his current position at ASH by the current Supervisor, Cory "crazycorycorner" Nelson. As such, the arguably worst staff at ASH get promoted (such as Dr. Steven Dingle, who was the Chief Medical Officer at the time of the Jesus R. Murietta scandal and numerous other matters that I am dedicated to addressing, and who has since been promoted within the structure of ADHS), while decent minded and civically responsible ASH staff, who aren't willing to toe the line in terms of the abusive practices at ASH, lose their original positions, or get fired altogether, (such as with former ADHS/ASH patient rights' investigator Vicky Fox,  fired in 2011 for undisclosed reasons, and whom Burgess replaced).
    Thus, today's rerun. It has attracted more readership in the 7 months since I published that ago one other article in this blog (to date). Go figure?  

       DISCLAIMER ON BEHALF OF THE HUMANE STAFF AT THE ARIZONA STATE HOSPITAL: As I have tried to make clear in past articles, my good faith reporting of unlawful misconduct of staff at The Arizona State Hospital (ASH) only applies to some proportion of the overall staff at ASH. Regrettably, I do have to attest to the fact that in my experience, the majority of ASH staff do willfully engage in patient abuse and other like forms of very serious misconduct, but it also important for me to state that there are some very good people working at ASH, people who are sincerely dedicated to serving the interests and needs of the paitent-clients there at ASH in absolute accordance with standards of care and related common codes of morals and ethics in the context of vulnerable adults, and so on. That said, I will add at this time that the well intentioned staff at ASH have associated responsibilities in terms of reporting staff misconduct in every form, and that there are very clear protections in place that equally clarify the basic fact that there's really no excuse for standing aside and allowing for misconduct to go unreported. We, the patients, need all the help we can get, and I implore the good people at ASH to PLEASE do what they can to contribute to meaningful reform at ASH as soon as they can. State law in Arizona expressly bans all use of tobacco in public facilities of any kind, and furthermore expresses to right of citizens to report unlawful tobacco use whenever it occurs. ASH is- you knoW, a public hospital- and the critical problems with tobacco and other illicit substances do not flow from the willingness of addicted patients to smoke. As usual at ASH, the patients in this case are not the problem. Etc.

         The language of this next short passage reflects the protections of staff who do stand up to their best intentions, and I hope it helps the situation in this specific context:

    Arizona Revised Statutes (state law)

Title 36, Chapter 36; relating to smoking.

G. NO EMPLOYER MAY DISCHARGE OR RETALIATE AGAINST AN EMPLOYEE BECAUSE THAT EMPLOYEE EXERCISED ANY RIGHTS AFFORDED BY THIS SECTION OR REPORTS OR ATTEMPTS TO PROSECUTE A VIOLATION OF THIS SECTION.

(END)

The Arizona Department of Health website also states the following, (with the hopefully obvious exception of my input to the topic):  

Smoking Policy

Arizona State Hospital is completely Tobacco Free BULLSHIT!, for all patients, staff, contractors and visitors. Arizona State Hospital is committed to:

1. advocate a healthy tobacco free environment BULLSHIT!;
2. ensure a healthy, comfortable and safe environment for patients, visitors and staff BULLSHIT!;
3. provide leadership, example and guidance in health promotion BULLSHIT!.

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 TRIPLE BULLSHIT!!!. (END)

    Trafficking in illegal sales and distribution of tobacco and other illicit substances is as about as low as a person can get, in my opinion. This is particularly true when the victims of the illegal drug trade are children and other like vulnerable persons. The willingness of administrators to allow employees at The Arizona State Hospital to carry on with smuggling such substances onto the grounds at the expense of the facilities mentally disabled patient clientele is unconscionable.      

       Arguably the single most disturbing feature of proven staff abuse, greed, and utter disregard for patient health and wellbeing, I attest to the fact the willingness of staff at The Arizona State Hospital (ASH) to smuggle and sell illicit substances within the Hospital grounds/property, including but not limited to tobacco products, reflects how deeply substandard the conditions at ASH are. The ASH staff who directly engage in or contribute to this problem ignore state and federal law, as well as the Hospital's own policies, in order to criminally profit off the addiction to nicotine that a relatively small proportion of the ASH patient population have to deal with in their own lives on a daily basis. An even smaller proportion of ASH patients control the selling of tobacco and other illicit substances, a very easily identifiable group of less that half a dozen who all come from one of two patent units; this belies the basic fact that staff on those two units are centrally involved with smuggling and distributing the tobacco and other illicit substances within the Hospital grounds/property. It is also clear that ASH security staff is directly involved with the problem due to the fact that security is required to search each and every ASH staff person before they are allowed access to the Hospital grounds/property.

       In that area of ASH known as the "civil side" alone (which represents approximately one third of the overall facility, and where I was based as a patient-client of ASH), a moderately steady flow of smuggled tobacco exists in spite of ongoing complaints about the issue in terms of compromises in safety and other related concerns with respect for criminal conduct specific to the selling and distribution of cigarettes, lighters, rolling papers. As with the presence of any criminal activity in the context of the selling of illegal drugs and substances in any area of the United States, the presence of this problem at ASH creates very hazardous conditions that effect each and every ASH patient in any number of ways.

In the civil section of ASH, I personally encountered patients dealing and using illicit substances in the common area ("patient mall") bathrooms on a near daily basis for the entirety of my thirteen (13) full months of hospitalization at ASH, for example, and as a consequence of me being a non-smoker seeking to use the bathroom for its intended purpose, I was regularly threatened and very nearly physically assaulted by these mentally ill and addicted patients on numerous occasions. I reported this matter to ASH administrators on a constant basis, as well, including via the formal submittal of detailed written reports to the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, and to both the administrative offices of the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), as well that agency's Office of Human Rights (OHR). But as with every other serious issue of staff based misconduct and related impacts on myself and other patients, my complaints and concerns were systematically ignored.

       Details relating to the selling and use of tobacco and other illicit substances on the civil side of ASH are common knowledge to the majority of patients as well as staff at ASH (even non-smokers such as myself), and include the following facts:

                1) There are a total of six (6) patient units on the civil side of ASH. During my time at ASH, I was able to reasonably verify that at least 4-6 specific patients were always involved in selling tobacco and other illicit substances in the common patient mall bathrooms and at other places throughout the facility, and their first names are as follows: Billy, George, Harold, Michele, Rodney. All of these patients are housed in two out of the six total patient units: Desert Sage East and Ironwood North.

                2) It is virtually impossible for patients to acquire tobacco and other illicit substances in any other fashion than from ASH staff. The frequency of visitors is far too low for that to be the source of the stuff, and there's no way it is thrown over the fences and walls. In other words, ASH is not a prison, and the sorts of methods commonly cited in the rampant supply of illicit substances in prisons do not apply at ASH. (Unless, that is, staff are the ones inserting balloons stuffed with tobacco and other illicit substances up their respective wazoos... Yuck.)

                3) As per ASH/ADHS policy specific to health and safety at ASH, the staff at ASH are expected to be subject to thorough searches by ASH security staff whenever they come onto the Hospital grounds/property. There is as much if not more concern about staff safety (which most definitely include concerns about the the safety of security staff) when it comes to these searches, and with the potential risk of staff bringing weapons onto Hospital grounds/property, it is reasonable to assume that security staff conducts its searches in this context thoroughly enough to fully shut down the steady flow of staff smuggled tobacco and other illicit substances. And yet, the flow continues, which belies the fact that ASH security staff contribute to the problem, most assuredly via turning a blind eye to the matter of staff smuggled tobacco and other illicit substances onto Hospital grounds/property.

                  4) One single cigarette at ASH, as per the prices charged by the patients who are always involved in the selling of tobacco, costs at least $4-5. Individual puffs ("hits") off of a cigarette cost $1, and even the use of a lighter costs up to $1. Simple math belies that fact that one full pack of cigarettes nets about $80-100.00, and cartons of ten packs obviously net the proportionate value of upwards of $1000.00. Clearly, the sole motivation for staff who are willing to engage and contribute to the smuggling

of tobacco and other illicit substances is greed, pure and simple, 

and the ASH staff willing to engage in trafficking of tobacco and other illicit substances, including ASH administrators, are no better than a common drug dealer in the worst parts of Phoenix.

BELOW, I HAVE INCLUDED SOME LITERATURE FLOWING FROM ARIZONA'S POLICIES AND RELATED STATE AND FEDERAL LAW(S) SPECIFIC TO MAINTAINING A "SMOKE FREE" ENVIRONMENT WITHIN STATE BUILDINGS AND PROPERTIES, AS FOLLOWS:

POLICY

Thank you for visiting the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) "Tobacco Free Arizona" Web site and reviewing our Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy describes what information is collected from visitors to the Web site, how that information is used, the conditions under which it may be disclosed, and what steps are being taken to ensure the security of the collected information.

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:

1. advocate a healthy tobacco free environment;
2. ensure a healthy, comfortable and safe environment for patients, visitors and staff;
3. 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. 

STATE LAW

Arizona Revised Statutes (state law)

Title 36, Chapter 36; relating to smoking.

Smoke-free Arizona act

         (Caution: 1998 Prop. 105 applies.)

(cont.)

2. The department shall inform persons who own, manage, operate or otherwise control a public place or place of employment of the requirements of this law and how to comply with its provisions including making information available and providing a toll-free telephone number and e-mail address to be used exclusively for this purpose.

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.

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.

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.

6. The department shall impose a civil penalty on the person in an amount of not less than $100, but not more than $500 for each violation. In considering whether to impose 

ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES (2008 Amendment)  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. 

FEDERAL LAW

THE UNITED STATES TOBACCO TAX AND TRADE BUREAU

Tobacco Diversion

If you suspect illegal activity regarding the diversion of tobacco products or cigarette papers or tubes outside the legal distribution chain, please contact the TTBIntelligenceDivision. 

Diversion includes, for example, tax evasion, theft, distribution of counterfeit products, and distribution in the United States of products marked for export or for use outside the U.S.  Diversion may also include Internet sales of tobacco products not in compliance with Federal, State, or local laws. 

For information on the Federal laws that apply to the unlawful transportation, shipment, or sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products, please refer to Industry Circular 99-2, or contact the Intelligence Division.

The Intelligence Division can be reached by:

Phone: 1-202-453-2173.

E-mail: ttbtobacco@ttb.gov

Mail:
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
Attn: Intelligence Division, Room 200-W
1310 G Street, NW., Box 12
Washington, DC  20005

      In late March, 2011, I submitted a detailed report of the rampant sales and use of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH to the Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Human Rights (OHR), including my deep concerns about the very real danger posed to myself and other non-smokers by the presence of the problem in the common patient mall bathrooms and other places within the Hospital facility. In early April, 2011, I was visited by a representative advocate from OHR named John Gallagher, and he advised me of the fact that his office has already been contacted by a number other patients, as well as visitors to ASH (including employees of ADHS), who had expressed similar concern about the problem. With direct reference to my letter, John Gallagher advised me that I could elect at that time to either file a formal grievance, or to simply request that OHR communicate on my behalf with a letter of their own about the matter. "A shot across the bow" is how John Gallagher characterized the purpose such a letter, by which the administrators of ASH would be directed to address the problems in a forthright and meaningful manner. I opted at that time for the latter of these avenues for possible resolution of the matter, and John Gallagher advised me that we could return to the issue in 6-8 weeks in order to review whether the letter his office would be directing to ASH administrators had any discernible affect on the problems associated with the matter. Two months later, in early June, 2011, I met with John Gallagher again, and advised him that I had observed no charges whatsoever in terms of ongoing selling and related dangers posed in the common patient mall bathrooms, at which point he advised me, in turn, that he would speak to his supervisors at OHR about the matter as it stood at that time. Two weeks after our conversation, ASH administrators officially closed the common area patient mall bathrooms on the basis of safety, and while there was no official detailing of what the safety issues were, it was common knowledge to patients and staff alike that smoking was the issue. This action was taken at the expense of the majority of ASH patients in the "civil" section of the hospital, who do not smoke or otherwise engage in activities relating to illicit substances. By closing these bathrooms in order to address a problem that is singularly caused by the willingness of ASH staff to illegally provide the addicted patients at ASH, administrators blatantly rejected accepting their direct responsibility for the problem, and placed the consequences on patients who were not involved in any unlawful activities.   

       I also submitted numerous requests to both the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda, as well as to the administrative staff at ASH, to have signs posted in the common patient mall area bathrooms, where the high majority of complaints about this problem stemmed form, but this suggestion was ridiculed by ASH security staff, and my basic request was ignored. As always. But as the following passage shows, even this refusal of ASH staff to do something of substance was outright unlawful in every sense of the term:         

STATE LAW

Arizona Revised Statutes (state law)

Title 36, Chapter 36; relating to smoking.

    F. Posting of signs restricting or banning smoking:

    1. "No Smoking" signs of the international "No Smoking" symbol (consisting of a pictorial representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it) shall be clearly and conspicuously pasted by the owner, operator, manager, or other person in control of that place identifying where smoking is prohibited by this section and where complaints regarding violations may be may registered. 

       Throughout all of my thirteen months of hospitalization at ASH, the problems with tobacco and other illicit substances remained unchanged, with the same 4-5 patients constantly behind the sales of these products in the common patient mall bathrooms and other areas of the Hospital, indicating with absolute surety that fact that certain staff who specifically work on both Desert Sage East and Ironwood North were central to the ongoing supply and trafficking of these substances. In discussing the matter with various staff persons at different times, including with the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda and a former Ash investigator maned Vicky Fox, it was confirmed more than once that ASH security are 100% behind the insidious presence of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH. These basic elements of the reality are irrefutably known to the so called clinicians and administrators at ASH, and I attest the the fact that when it comes to the issue of illegal trafficking of tobacco and other illicit substances at ASH, every one of these public health care "professionals" exposes themselves as who and what they really are, by virtually putting these substances into the bodies of the mentally ill and disabled patients at ASH with their own hands. 

       One does not need to read this blog to understand the ramifications of illegal trafficking of tobacco and other products in public settings such as The Arizona State Hospital. Statistics specific to lung cancer in our nation being what they are today, as well as a host of other lethal health threats commonly associated to tobacco use, are common knowledge in the public sector (and not to mention the medical community), and the problems associated with nicotine addiction itself are equally recognized by a majority of Americans today. It is of further significance to realize that health conditions of mentally and emotionally disabled adults are directly exacerbated by addiction to substances, this is spelled out very, very clearly in every element of mental health care resources that I have ever encountered (I am an alcoholic, as well, and I understand the significance of this fact). For the doctors, administrators, and even the lesser educated staff at ASH to identify themselves as "care givers" in any sense of the term at all virtually sickens me as a citizen and client of the Arizona health care system. 

IN CLOSING:  Staff at ASH work in a public hospital for crying out loud (!), and it is unconscionable for the administrators and other staff at ASH to engage in or otherwise contribute to the smuggling and trafficking of tobacco and other illicit substances on the Hospital grounds/property. Administrators at ASH need to be held fully accountable under applicable law for this ongoing matter as it stands to date. I have full documentation of my good faith communications with ADHS authorities specific to this issue, and as such, I can attest to the despicable character of ASH administrators who would rather preserve the criminal activities of ASH staff than they would support the rights and fundamental well being of ASH patient-clients. These people need to be stopped. Anything short of that will only contribute that much further to the problem at the absolute expense of ASH' highly vulnerable mentally disabled patients.

      As stated, this article is an unedited rerun from June, 2012, written and published less than four months following my Feb. 21, 2012, discharge from The Arizona State Hospital. And as stated, it has to date attracted the highest number of readers week to week, month to month (typically 15-30/day), indicating the fact that my efforts in relation to this matter were valid from the first day I took interest in it, while still quite new there, in the confines of Arizona's sole long term public mental health care facility. But it is not unique, this matter. It is only glaring in its ugliness because of its relationship to a common public concern about tobacco abuse, etc., and the loudly facilitated laws relating to keeping such substances out of public health care facilities. Again, ASH purports to be a HOSPITAL, and I obviously struck a nerve with this one. But I assure you, oh readership, this only hints at the depth to which patient abuse and related administrative misconduct at ASH occurs and exists. I attest to these things, and it must not be allowed to continue.    

As such, this problem clearly illustrates the abysmally substandard practices and directly related conditions at The Arizona State Hospital as clearly as anything else I witnessed or was personally subjected to during my thirteen months of hospitalization at ASH. The fact that my good faith reports specific to this matter have been systematically ignored during the entirety of my time at ASH and beyond only goes to further prove how deep the problems within ASH administrative operation is, and also proves the depravity of certain ASH staff who utterly disregard the general health and well being of patients in order to serve their own selfish interests. This situation is an insult to the rights and fundamental dignity of each and every patient at ASH, and as with all of the issues that I am dutifully working to report and address through my writing today, this matter to needs to be addressed and the criminal misconduct of involved ASH staff needs to stop. Now. 

paoloreed@gmail.com