posted on May, 1 2009 @ 01:01 PM
I have a friend whose life I have watched for the last six months. He lives next door to me and my partner, and we are close friends. I have thought
to write about his case here on ATS for a while now, but I kept thinking that somehow The System would work. (Silly me, I know.)
But tonight, when he got home, he told a story that made it clear that for his protection, many had to know his story.
Today my friend stopped off at a bar with his service dog and, while sitting there, two men, “normal” looking, came and sat to his right. The
closer one came right out and claimed to be with the Illuminati, telling him to shut up or else he would be dead.
Needless to say, my friend was shaken but he was also angry. He left with his dog and went to another bar, where he sat drinking in the corner. Four
men and a woman entered shortly thereafter, and the men were built like refrigerators. They sat at the bar, but oddly, the first man came and sat
down right next to my friend and then slid his chair up against my friend’s chair, forcing my friend against the wall.
The five talked amongst themselves in a foreign language. When the man next to my friend pulled out his wallet to pay for his drink, he blatantly
showed a badge, and my friend saw it said “Police” and also “Isreal.”
He said, “So you’re Isreali police?”
The man responded, “Yes.”
My friend said he respected police fully. At some point the conversation turned to my friend’s dog. My friend asked if they had service dogs to
help epileptics in Israel. “Oh, yes.” My friend expressed respect for a country that had an understanding of the value of service animals.
At some point my friend left. As far as he knows, he was not followed home.
Interestingly… This does not come as a complete surprise – to either him or to any who know about my friend’s case.
You see… It was Wellbutrin (also called Zyban for quitting smokers) that gave him what is looking like permanent epilepsy, and though the laws and
statutes of limitation favor the drug companies leaving him no recourse with them now (though he had to battle just to get social services from a
government that wrote the laws), he is on a crusade to get this and any drug that could cause unconsciousness at the wheel of a car labeled “DO NOT
DRIVE WHILE TAKING THIS DRUG.” Period.
Right now the drug says “DO NOT DRIVE…until you know how this drug will affect you.”
The problem is that under Wellbutrin (and other drugs), you could have a seizure at ANY time during the whole course of the drug – my friend had his
first seizure six weeks after beginning on the drug. Anything might be a trigger.
Obviously the labeling is inadequate.
On top of all this, again, interestingly, is that if you try to find the data on what percentage of the people who are on or have been on Wellbutrin
have had issues (something that rightfully should be public), you cannot find it. [NOTE: If any of you can find those data, I would be both amazed
and grateful.]
One thing he mentioned that, though anecdotal, knowing him as I do, I believe him, is the fact that when he was in the hospital for having a major
seizure, nurses would whisper surreptitiously that they were seeing lots of issues from the use of Wellbutrin.
There are other issues in my friend’s case, and an incident when, as he was chatting with someone he met, he was told to leave the hallway of a
public building by the Director of the clinic he had just been to. He thought it was about his service dog (often he runs into issues about the dog),
and the woman did say that he had to leave because dogs weren’t allowed.
She threatened to call the police when my friend stood on his ground, knowing it is a federal violation to harass and threaten a disabled person with
a service animal – and expecting the clinic to know as well, as his case there was all about the disability the dog was for. At that threat, my
friend said, “Go ahead.”
(It is a federal violation to ask what disability a service animal is for, a service animal cannot be barred from any business, public building, or
facility, and a service animal does not need any identification as being a service animal. My friend has had police support in the past and has
educated the local police of the ADA laws.)
But when the police arrived at the office, they went straight to the back office and when they returned, they were claiming that the clinic had
received “several” complaints from drug company reps that my friend had harassed and threatened them. The Director flat out lied.
Fortunately that whole incident is on tape.
My friend said that he was afraid for his life when I first met him. But he has documented his case so completely (he has a huge stack of pertinent
papers), and the documented behavior of those he is up against, making it pretty clear he has reason to be.
Anyway… I may be visited for this speaking out on my friend’s behalf. If this keeps getting weirder, I just may be. But I could not let his
story go untold.
We have nothing to fear but fear itself.