update Jan 20 2020: Samaritan Institute is now called Solihten Institute.

Actually, the whole point of this blog is that there is something worth investigating, and I have presented lots of new information since June 2014. The Attorney General’s office just referred me back to this Office of Professional Discipline department that is now asking me to stop complaining. I’m mad.

In fact, I have discovered a lot in the past 2 and a half years that I had no idea about before. I learned about regulatory capture of government agencies. I learned about the history of coercive 12-step programs like Straight Inc. and how doctors and pilots and nurses are extorted by 12-step programs. I learned that it’s a $35 billion dollar industry. I learned about sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse and the role of shunning. I learned about cults. I made connections suggesting that this was not a personal disagreement or an isolated incident at all, but very systemic. I have made that information available to the government in every way possible in the form of petitions, letters, complaints, news articles, research, etc. I learned that my own interventionist has trained hundreds of professionals to ‘treat’ people this way. I learned about the Establishment Clause and why religion, how it’s funded and subsidized, matters. I learned about censorship and HIPAA laws. Freedom of Information laws and why they are important. I learned about Medicaid fraud, drug testing, and ‘parity’ for ‘treatment’ that is ‘not treatment’ that is lifelong and never ends. I’ve connected lots of dots and I don’t appreciate being seen as an annoyance for trying to share this information with the people who could potentially do something about it.

I would not have even thought about any of this if I hadn’t been banned from all communications with Samaritan Counseling and wondering why David Olsen and Jenness Clairmont banned me from speaking to people that are right there in my community. They also banned me from the church that I was told to go to to remedy this. Yes, it makes no sense.

I learned that the Office of Professional Discipline ‘doesn’t look into the AA thing‘, as a matter of policy! Which is why I explained the problem to the Attorney General’s office who deferred to the opinion of this office that told me it has no jurisdiction:

“We have investigated your complaint against Samaritan institute and have explained to you in the past that While we cannot address the complaint against the Samaritan institute as we have no jurisdiction we did not find any violation of Education Law regarding your complaint against licensed professionals that work at the Samaritan center. In all the emails you have sent after that determination there has been nothing new to be investigated that wasn’t brought to our attention in your initial and subsequent complaints. Therefore I request that you cease and desist from sending these complaints to us.
If in the future you have any NEW information we will be happy to look into these matters for you.

Michael A. Kinley
Deputy Director of Investigation
Office of Professional Discipline
New York State Education Department”

“Confidentiality Notice
This email including all attachments is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed. This communication may contain information that is protected from disclosure under State and/or Federal law. Please notify the sender immediately if you have received this communication in error and delete this email from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.”

This is how my last email conversation with him ended.

“Please be assured that we have documented your concerns”

I’m not sure the AG’s Health Care Bureau understands the situation. I did send a complaint to OPD two and a half years ago, and the Office of Professions investigator told me nothing I say makes any sense. That’s why I’ve tried to find somewhere else to complain to!

Could it have had anything to do with the fact that one of the people I was complaining about (Jenness Clairmont) is on the Office of Professions board, and another one, who seemed to be telling her what to do and how to do it, was her 12-stepper boss (Executive Director David Olsen)?

The whole point of contacting the Attorney General was because they are incapable of even acknowledging their problem (perhaps because they know it would sound criminal, not just problematic, if anybody said out loud how it actually works and for how long they’ve dealt with complaints by retaliating).

She (Jenness Clairmont) DID acknowledge a widespread (underground) negative sentiment toward 12-step, privately. On the surface, you’d never know it because her boss doesn’t allow that discussion to happen. For some reason she’s fine with being on the NASW and the licensing board and pretending all this is perfectly reasonable to actively promote something you don’t agree with… (NYCPG does pay her as a consultant, and NYS OASAS funds them).

She expected me to just happily go along with the licensing board that SHE’S ON saying I make no sense at all, ignoring my complaints and literally acting like I’m making this stuff up out of nowhere as the addiction fraud specialists bankrupted me financially and spiritually and then OMH tried to drug me into oblivion as everybody involved acted like they had no idea what I was talking about.

This cult stuff is sick. It’s like 1984, or Scientology or something. It’s beyond dumb; they are actually letting people die or erasing them from history to just to keep pretending AA has no problems whatsoever (to keep their own jobs, in many cases). I don’t know how to get this across to the people who could do something about it. The Attorney General has taken down isolated rehab rackets before. I am just not sure he realizes how systemic it is. These are not isolated incidents. They are pretty much systematized by OASAS….which is why I’m doing my best to let people know.

I will have to send more information to the Attorney General as well as the Inspector General, which is 1-800-367-4448 (1 800 DO RIGHT). It says “this will put you in contact with trained staff who can discuss with you the specifics of your complaint”. Worth a shot.

“You can also write us at:

Office of the State Inspector General
Empire State Plaza Agency Building 2 16th Floor
Albany, NY 12223″

The Justice Center (who I’ve got zero response from) is at
161 Delaware Avenue
Delmar, NY 12054

NYS OASAS needs a similar investigation, because the situation is similar (my analysis of OASAS), because the rehab industry works in every state like this (disruptedphysician) to become entrenched in health systems and gain regulatory capture (disruptedphysician).

A series of articles by Ford Turner of the Reading Eagle exposed serious conflicts interests that are not unique to the employee, the department Secretary, the Department, or to Pennsylvania for that matter. This is happening nationwide and state workers need the freedom to speak out about it. It’s disgusting to hear how much money these rehab industry people are making and the lengths they go to to hide the realities of addiction treatment from the public (which is what this blog is about). Here is a quick overview, with links to the articles:

“I spoke loud and clear while I worked within the department via the allowable channels. Any disgruntelment I had was expressed while I was a Bureau Director. Current employees for DDAP, however, are not permitted to speak to the press. I believe in full transparency in government, and I will answer any direct questions that are asked. Part of going out on my own was to have the true freedom to speak my mind.” -Ex-state employee responding to comment about ‘sour grapes’

– Top state lawmaker commends Gov. Wolf’s dismissal of drug chief (Reading Eagle)

“In an email to the Reading Eagle’s top management shortly after the story was published, the chairman of the board of a large and influential member of DASPOP in Berks County attacked the story and said it “could lead some to surmise a suggested scandal in the government or treatment field.”
The latest federal filings of financial information by nonprofit members of DASPOP show that their three highest-paid leaders receive compensation packages of $4,760,306, $1,015,577, and $736,244.” – Pennsylvania Secretary of Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs loses his job (Reading Eagle)

This follows up on investigative work from October 2015 on the connection between Caron Treatment and DASPOP: On drug abuse policy, one group wields enormous clout but is shrouded in mystery (Reading Eagle)

“The concern is whether the state agency has in some sense been captured by the substance abuse (treatment) industry as represented by this lobbyist or trade association,” Clark said. “It is a situation in which that agency is at risk of being dominated by the industry.”

“Reactions from four professionals told of the agency-lobbyist interaction varied from surprise, to disbelief that such a scenario might not violate laws, to outrage.
“This is just so wrong, I think, in so many ways,” said Sen. Mike Folmer, a Lebanon County Republican whose district used to include part of Berks County. “A lobbyist should not be interviewing prospective state employees. It opens the door for corruption, whether it is intended or unintended.” – Ex-state employee says she interviewed with a lobbyist (Reading Eagle)

State lawmaker criticizes Wolf’s plan to merge agencies (Reading Eagle)

Feb 2, 2017 – Pennsylvania drug treatment program uses ‘archaic practices,’ 2 ex-state employees say (Reading Eagle)

Department of Drug and Alcohol Prorgrams recognized support options (all 12-step…DDAP website).

Nobody knows why I was taken out of my home by Oakland CA police to spend 5 days at a mental institution, including the mental institution itself. But they still asked the government to pay for it. The government refused to pay for it because the mental institution did not have any good reasons for me being there.

This coincided with my complaint to the NYS Justice Center about how the Department of Education investigator said it was their policy to not look into ‘the AA thing’, which I told them made me feel suicidal because there is plenty of reason to look into it.

The Clinical Director of Samaritan Counseling at the time, Jenness Clairmont, happens to be on the NYS DoE Office of Professions licensing board. She is a consultant for the 12-step group NYCPG (problem gambling). I am not allowed to speak with her because I didn’t use a stamp when I delivered a letter about AA coercion. The letter telling me that I was not allowed to speak to her was signed by her and David Olsen, the Executive Director of Samaritan Counseling, and it referred me back to a 12-step interventionist. I thought this was strange because in the one meeting I had with her, she said that most Samaritan Counseling therapists don’t agree with the 12-step approach. The Office of Professions first investigator told me “nothing you are saying now makes any sense” and the second one told me “we don’t look into the AA stuff“.

I have also asked for verification that my complaint was received and understood by my therapist Oona Edmands, who seemed compelled by addiction specialists to ignore me, and there has been no response.

“Problem gambling education also will be provided to patients at these six ATCs [Addiction Treatment Centers]. Several ATCs also have established connections with local Gambler’s Anonymous (GA) chapters, who will provide GA meetings on site at the ATCs.”

You can now go in to ‘treatment’ for substance use disorder and come out powerless over gambling, or at least telling everybody you know that they might be.

NYS OASAS ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF SERVICES FOR NEW YORKERS STRUGGLING WITH PROBLEM GAMBLING

Here’s why that’s probably illegal Impact of Federal Court Decision Concerning Alcoholics Anonymous On Government Funded Providers

Hello,

In Surgeon General Murthy’s report on Facing Addiction, I noticed that the word “religion” was not used in OCR’s notice.

The word “sex” WAS in this notice, but not “religion”, so the decision to leave “religion” out might be slightly more certain than:

last year after having no luck in getting New York state *at any level* to acknowledge precedented Establishment Clause violations (religious coercion) in 12-step treatment, I received a similar response from Sarah Brown, Deputy Director, where the wording was changed to “under certain circumstances, sex and religion“ [are protected].

This was not the response I expected, because on the OCR website where I initially filed my complaint, it says “religion” on the complaint form.

My question is: Under what circumstances is discrimination based on religion allowable, and is “addiction treatment” one of those circumstances? It does seem to be, based on the notice in the Facing Addiction report. If so, why?

Does it have anything to do with the 12-step programs, which the same notice says are not specifically endorsed by HHS?

http://notpowerless.com/new-york-state-education-department-investigator-admits-policy-of-willful-negligence/

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“Thank you for contacting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Please note that OCR has limited jurisdiction to investigate complaints alleging discrimination on the basis of religion. This jurisdiction depends on the particular program and the funding source to pay for the program.”