UCSD not watching drugs used in human experiments

UCSD’s uncontrolled substances

An audit completed last fall but just recently released to the public following a request to the university under the California Public Records Act calls out UCSD Health for being out of compliance with controlled substances policies. “A gap in oversight was identified for human subject research,” says the document, signed September 16 by the university’s Director of Audit and Management Services Christa Perkins.

In a particularly egregious case involving a study conducted outside of UCSD Health clinics, the report says, “The [Principal Investigator] held the [U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency] registration for the controlled substance.” University officials, on the other hand, looked the other way. “The [UCSD Controlled Substances Program] has indicated that it does not provide oversight of controlled substances utilized for human subject research,” says the audit.

In the case of the unnamed project, “No controlled substances oversight was provided other than that provided by the DEA registrant and the study sponsor.” According to the audit, the unidentified drug, which was “provided directly by a study sponsor” to the similarly unnamed university researcher, fell into the category of Class IV. That group includes anxiety drugs diazepam, known as Valium; alprazolam, commercially known as Xanax; insomnia treatment triazolam, marketed as Halcion; and the muscle relaxant carisoprodol, known as Soma. Illegal use of Class IV drugs has lately burgeoned.

A January 20 DEA news release says Balboa Pharmacy recently paid $105,000 to settle charges related to the category. “According to the settlement agreement, Balboa Pharmacy filled prescriptions without resolving the following commonly known red flags.” They included “dangerous combinations of drugs, including duplicative therapy; opioids and benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium , Xanax); and opioids, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxants (e.g., Soma), a combination that is colloquially referred to by drug abusers as the ‘trinity’ because of the rapid euphoric effects of this combination of drugs.”

Chula Vista’s spycam spinner

Facing festering questions about police high-tech spying, including the use of drones and automated license plate readers, Chula Vista has tapped not an online privacy expert but a well-known lobbyist, PR man, and ex-San Diego council Republican to conduct a probe.

Jim Madaffer’s company Madaffer Enterprises peddles influence to a host of clients, including online rent-a-scooter purveyor Uber and San Diego’s Deckard Technologies. The latter is a high-tech start-up backed by La Jolla’s Neil Senturia, spouse of ex-San Diego city council Democrat and failed mayoral candidate Barbara Bry. (That outfit attempts to bust illegal single-family rentals using esoteric data mining tools.)

Now Madaffer has cut a $165,000 deal with Chula Vista’s city council to staff a panel of hand-picked citizens that will look into cop spycams and related hardware used to collect data subsequently forwarded to federal immigration authorities, per the Union-Tribune.

One skeptical observer is retired UCSD library safety and security chief Nancy Relaford. She speculated that Madaffer’s role would be to “educate the community about what the police are doing, rather than possibly making any changes or recommendations to the city,” the paper reported January 23. “Public opinion research” began last month, with panel meetings expected to start in March, the account says.

Nurse Toni

Toni Atkins, the San Diego state senate Pro Tem who has been collecting campaign cash for a 2026 lieutenant governor run from a raft of special interests, picked up $5000 contributions on January 25 from both GC Operating Company LLC of Sparks, Maryland and Providence Administrative Consulting Services LLC of Farmington, Utah. Both outfits are big nursing home players.

In November of last year, Providence’s parent company announced it was buying Plum Healthcare Group, California’s second-biggest skilled nursing facility operation, according to the website Skilled Nursing News. “Fifty-four of the facilities are located in California, and four facilities are in Nevada. Capital Funding Group provided financing for the deal.”

GC is manager or owner of six nursing operations in California, per Nursing Home Database. The website gives five stars to the company’s Santa Cruz facility, but awards just two stars to each of two facilities in San Jose and La Crescenta. According to her year-end campaign accounting disclosure, filed January 21, Atkins raised a total of $632,040 in 2021. After spending $96,485, mostly on fundraising, the campaign had a cash balance of $557,500 on December 31.

Meanwhile, ex-Assembly Democrat Lorena Gonzalez, who resigned her seat last month to become Chief Officer of the California Labor Federation, ended 2021 with a cash balance of $348,047 in her state Secretary of State campaign committee. But Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s elevation of Shirley Weber from the Assembly to the Secretary of State gig, along with Gonzalez’s breast cancer surgery, has dashed those hopes. Spending was light, with Gonzalez’s ex-Assembly staffer Evan McLaughlin making consulting fees of $5100 from the fund during the last six months of 2021.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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