No 54, June 2003
Worthing drugs shame!
A SINISTER drug-peddling
organisation is operating in the heart of Worthing, we can reveal. This
large-scale operation is netting massive profits out of other people’s
misery and the drugs it has sold have been said to have played a part in a
string of suicides and unexplained deaths. The boss of this set-up is raking
in so much cash that people with a financial stake in his dealings have
recently moved to stop him taking too much money for himself out of the
business. With recent publicity putting this organisation in the front line of
controversy, its leading members are surely quaking in their boots, spending
sleepless nights in a cold sweat, waiting for that knock on the door from the
boys in blue...
Err, well not exactly. Because we’re not talking about
Worthing’s cannabis cafes, which were the subject of so much
hysteria and so many raids from the local police during May, but about a much
bigger and more powerful drugs operation - GlaxoSmithKline.
The company, which has a factory in Clarendon Road, East Worthing, made the
national news on May 20 when its shareholders voted to reject a £22
million pay-off deal for chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier if he were
ever to lose his job - this was seen as a major victory for shareholder power.
But Britain’s biggest drugs manufacturer has also been in the news for
other reasons.
A report in the Evening Argus on May 17 reported how a woman
doused herself in petrol and burst into flames just days after her dose of a
controversial anti-depressant drug - made by GlaxoSmithKline - was doubled.
Emma Gibson, 35, a psychiatric nurse from Brighton, was found engulfed in
flames near her burning car in a country lane near Henfield, West Sussex, on
March 3. Reported The Argus: "At an inquest at Haywards Heath Town Hall
yesterday, Miss Gibson’s family heard her dose of Seroxat, a
widely used anti-depressant, went up from half a tablet to a whole one.
Coroner Roger Stone recorded an open verdict as he said there were holes in
the evidence. He said he could not draw a conclusion between Miss
Gibson’s death and the drug. However, he told her family he would inform
the Government advisors - the Committee on the Safety of Medicines - that she
had been taking Seroxat. He said recording the drug as a factor in her death
might help another family in similar circumstances and said this was a cruel
benefit but hoped it might offer the family some consolation in the future."
Her partner John Cunningham told the inquest he and Miss Gibson’s family
felt the drugs she was taking could have contributed to her death as her
actions were totally out of character.
This was by no means the first time the possible dangers of Seroxat have
come to light. BBC’s Panorama has now dedicated two
programmes to the issue. In the latest programme on May 11, Richard Brook,
chief executive of mental health charity MIND, said the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had played "Russian Roulette" with
people’s lives by not listening to the experiences of people who have
taken Seroxat. Many of these people have suffered terrible side effects when
taking or trying to come off the drug and some people, it is believed, have
died. Analysis of phone calls and 1,374 emails received by Panorama following
the first Seroxat programme last October reported 16 suicides linked to
Seroxat over the last two years. Over the same period the MCA only received 7
reports of suicide linked to the drug.
On March 13, The Guardian reported that a coroner in Wales
had called for Seroxat to be withdrawn while its safety is fully investigated.
He recorded an open verdict on a man who killed himself within a fortnight of
starting a course of the drug. The Brecon coroner, Geraint Williams, said he
would be writing to the Department of Health about his finding that Seroxat
led to Colin Whitfield, 56, a retired headteacher, taking his own life. "I
have grave concerns that this is a dangerous drug that should be withdrawn
until at least detailed national studies are undertaken," he told the
court. "I am profoundly disturbed by the effect this drug had on Colin
Whitfield."
This sort of thing has been happening in the USA as well, where two years
ago, a jury awarded a family £4.6m damages against
GlaxoSmithKline after concluding that the drug - sold under the name
Paxil over there - caused Donald Schell to kill his wife, daughter,
baby granddaughter and then himself.
Chief Inspector Russ Whitfield of Worthing police recently justified his
"zero tolerance" policy of the cannabis cafes by complaining in the
Worthing Herald (May 15) that those running them were making
"thousands of pounds a day" out of the cafes, adding: "What we have
here in Worthing has progressed into organised crime with criminals making a
huge amount of money out of an illegal activity." In February this year
GlaxoSmithKline reported a six per cent increase in pre-tax profits. It made
£6.52 billion in 2002. It insists the drug Seroxat is safe,
refuses to withdraw it and continues to flog it to vulnerable people at huge
profit to itself.
There will be no riot vans and battering rams at its East Worthing
factory. Because some drug selling empires are perfectly legal and untouchable
in the crazy, hypocritical world of authoritarian capitalism.
The spirit of democracy
QUOTE of the month comes from
Chief Inspector Russ Whitfield, Worthing police district
commander, in the Worthing Herald on May 22, when he declared on
the subject of cannabis cafes: "The reason why these cafes are so rife in
Worthing is because there seems to be a groundswell of people in Worthing who
want to see cannabis legalised." Obviously, in a democratic society, the
only reasonable course of action is therefore to launch a massive police
clamp-down on everyone involved.
Worthing’s West Bank?
HAVE Worthing police been
secretly twinned with the Israeli army? They certainly seem to have the
same authoritarian attitude towards those prepared to stand up for
Palestinian rights. On Wednesday May 28, a group of people campaigning
on the topical issue were forced to pack up what has become a regular stall in
Montague Place, Worthing, after police threatened them with arrest if
they didn’t do so. They were not accused of causing any trouble - the
only incident that had occurred was a pro-Israeli woman kicking over their
noticeboards - and it was not clear exactly what law they were supposed to be
breaking. Worthing’s town centre manager was also on the scene,
muttering about "controlled" areas (did she mean occupied
territories?). One passer-by who took a photo of the police harassment was
himself accosted by one of the cops, who told him (quite wrongly) that it was
illegal to take a policeman’s photo without his permission! One
of the female campaigners who complained about the actions of the hostile
pro-Israeli woman was told by the town centre manager it was a matter for the
police. But when she spotted the woman in question and pointed her out to the
cops, she herself was threatened with arrest for breach of the peace!
So much for traditional British free speech and fair play. What exactly is
going on here, we wonder.
So are we ‘entitled’ to freedom?
HAPPY Birthday
George Orwell! The man who warned of a totalitarian police state
Britain in his classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was born 100
years ago on June 25. And he must be turning in his grave, as the Neo Labour
government propels us closer and closer to the nightmare society he depicted.
The latest sinister assault on our freedom comes with the news that ID
cards are being lined up for introduction in the UK. Having previously
faced ridicule for suggesting that an ID card system would be a useful way to
stop terrorists (if you can get your hands on Semtex, a forged or stolen
card or two should not prove much of a problem), the Government is now
trying to present the scheme as a way of tackling those ubiquitous asylum
seekers that we are told are the real threat to our way of life (as opposed
to the rich and powerful criminals who actually run this country).
In fact of course, they’ve been trying to think of excuses for
imposing ID cards on us for years, as The Porkbolter has reported time and
time again. The ID cards will be called "entitlement" cards because unless you
have one you will not be "entitled" to receive health care or education, and
other stuff we all already pay for! Reported The Guardian (May
23): "Under Mr Blunkett’s proposal, the card is expected to carry name,
date of birth, address, employment status, sex, photo, national insurance,
passport and driving licence numbers, and a password or PIN to authorise
transactions. It will also carry ‘biometric information’
such as an eye scan or electronic fingerprint to guard against identity
fraud." All of this information, will of course by held on a "new national
database", which they might as well call Big Brother.
To add insult to injury, we are also to be forced to pay for the
privilege of having ID cards - £25 each. This is all part of an
accelerating trend towards a fascist-style police state. A report on the
BBC News website on May 16 revealed that the UK authorities are
routinely demanding huge quantities of information about what people do online
and who they call on the phone. It said: "Police and other officials are
making around a million requests for access to data held by net and
telephone companies each year, according to figures compiled from the
government, legal experts and the internet industry." And on May 14 the same
BBC site reported the warning from leading barrister Mike
Mansfield that "anti-terror legislation introduced by the Government
has done more to attack people in Britain than defend them from terrorists".
The report added: "The campaigning lawyer told a packed room in the House of
Lords that using the atrocities in the US as an excuse, the Government had
effectively declared war on Britons’ civil liberties."
The Government will be discussing the details this Autumn and is
threatening to impose ID cards on us shortly after the next general election.
It is the duty of anyone who cares at all about freedom in this country to
ensure that it is unable to do so.
* There is an anti-ID card campaign website at www.defy-id.org.uk
Blue Tim Appeal!
POOR old Tim Loughton, MP for East
Worthing and Shoreham, found himself a laughing stock when he fell for a
rather silly April Fool’s joke in The Sunday Times, which
claimed that the Royal Mail was taking the Queen’s head off its stamps
(The Argus, May 8). The outraged Tory Tim leapt into action and
fired off a written question to Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt demanding a
full explanation. He was not amused to find it was all a jape, telling the
Argus reporter the whole thing was "a complete non story". But
we’re worried the traumatic incident will leave its stamp on Tim and may
affect the otherwise first-class performance of the Burgess Hill resident as
our local MP here in Worthing. To put his mind at rest, we are launching a
special appeal. All you have to do is collect used envelopes, then carefully
cut the queen’s head out from the old stamps. Send your collection of
heads to Blue Tim Appeal, Tim Loughton MP, c/o the Conservative Association,
Union Place, Worthing (we understand he pops in from time to time).
Then if Her Majesty does - heaven forbid! - one day start disappearing from
our stamps, Tim will be to able launch into some queen-licking, head-giving
remedial action!
A tale of two councils
MUCH outrage was expressed by
Worthing’s Tories after the Lib Dems managed to cling to power after the
dead heat in the local elections. The Lib Dems declined to share the reins of
power with their Conservative rivals, prompting the Tories to accuse them of
"opposing the democratic will of the people", with leader Steven Waight
declaring: "The Lib Dems have effectively said ‘forget
democracy’." (Worthing Herald, May 15). What they
weren’t mentioning was that up the road in Horsham district exactly the
same thing had happened - in reverse! Reported the West Sussex County
Times (May 9): "The Conservatives stood accused of ignoring
voters’ wishes this week as they looked set to take full control of
Horsham District Council despite losing their overall majority". In contrast
to Mr Waight’s protestations in Worthing, his fellow Tory leader in
Horsham insisted "it would be better for the council to have one party in
charge". No wonder most people won’t vote for any of them any
more...
Terror made in USA
THE USA, leader of "the war against
terrorism", is considering using terrorists to overthrow Iran’s
islamic government. The proposed plot was "among the top items on the agenda
when high-level US policy-makers led by Deputy Defence Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz met yesterday". Where did we read this? In the latest edition of
"Mad Left-Wing Conspiracy Theory Weekly"? Nope, on page two of The
Sun (May 31).
PORK-SCRATCHINGS
ACTION is coming up on the Titnore
Woods issue, with a a new planning application expected any week now.
Campaigners will be calling for the area to be included in the new National
Park in a protest outside the pre inquiry meeting at the Pavilion Theatre,
Worthing, at 2pm on Monday July 7. For more info on Titnore go to
www.protectourwoodland.fsnet.co.uk,
send them an email or
go to the next worthing eco-action meeting at 7.45pm on Tuesday July 1
upstairs at The Downview, West Worthing.
* * *
PLANS to upgrade the A24 north of Worthing with a series of underpasses would
make it an attractive alternative to the A23 in linking the M25 and the A27 -
and attract massive amounts of new traffic. That’s the warning from
pressure group the A24 Alliance, which has been holding meetings
to mobilise local opposition all the way from Worthing to Dorking. Contact
info@a24alliance.fsnet.co.uk
or go to www.a24alliance.fsnet.co.uk
* * *
SPURRED on by the involvement of thousands of school kids and students in the
anti-war movement, as well as the anti-capitalist protests, youngsters here
are setting up a new group, Worthing Anarchist Youth, and are
looking for people to get involved. Contact them by email or by post c/o The
Porkbolter. And any anarchists out there too old to get involved in that
particular group can console themselves by reading a new pamphlet,
Against All Tyranny!, Essays on Anarchism in Brazil, published
at £5 by the excellent Kate Sharpley Library (BM Hurricane, London WC1N
3XX)
* * *
EVER sat at home on a Saturday night and bemoaned the fact that there’s
nothing ever going on in Worthing, apart from the odd 1940s Nostalgia Tea
Dance and Nearly-new Crochet Exchange at the Pavilion Theatre? Well,
that’s not strictly true - it’s just a question of finding out
about stuff. One good place to start is with punk/alternative gig organisers
tatty seaside town,
who’ve got an impressive schedule of events lined up over the next
couple of months. Popular local punk band Flatpig. For a different type of scene try the
Sunny Worthing Arts Group. And for
web-based innovation and music take a look at local site wubfur. Meanwhile, taking the mick out
of George Bush is not exactly difficult, but rarely is it done as well as on
the dr parsons website.
* * *
WE ALL know that big business lies to cover up the way its profit-hungry
machineries are destroying our countryside and wildlife. We all know that spin
doctoring the news to suit certain interests is a lucrative and ever-expanding
industry. And we all know that the corporate media agendas conspire to keep
the public in the dark about what’s really going on. But it’s not
often you come across a detailed account of how this is all carried out. You
can get this from the superb 285-page Global Spin - the Corporate
Assault on Environmentalism by Sharon Beder (Green Books,
£12.95). Even if you think you’ve heard it all before, this will
shock you. And if you’re new to the whole scandal, then prepare to
have your mind blown away.
* * *
"VIRUSES and bacteria could be genetically engineered to evade the human
immune system, to create a more effective biological weapon, a leading
researcher into bio-weapons said yesterday." (The Guardian, May
20). Where would we be without science, eh?
Matrix Reloaded: A warning
CINEMA goers have been warned that
any similarity between the sinister "matrix" in the popular film of that name
and the capitalist system in which we live is entirely coincidental. Said the
Minister for People’s Culture: "Cinema is made available for
entertainment purposes only and it is important that people do not attempt to
activate their brains at any point during the performance, as it can cause
cancer. Eat more popcorn, enjoy the special effects and go straight home to
bed. Do not take the red ‘reality’ pill."
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