Drug Company SLAPP's Over Lindane For Lice

by Bob Burton — September 4, 2006 - 6:38am
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The specialty drug manufacturer Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals has filed a legal suit against the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The drug company is upset at the Center's opposition to the continued use of lindane as a fallback treatment for head lice. The suit, filed in the federal court in Chicago, accuses the Ecology Center and two pediatricians of "disseminating false, misleading, and libelous statements about the safety profile and effectiveness of Lindane." In early August, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the withdrawal of all agricultural products in the U.S. containing the pesticide. "It makes no sense that lindane can't be used on pets or plants or persons serving in the military, but it can still be used on children," Mike Garfield, director of the Ecology Center, wrote in a statement. "It's a clear and simple harassment lawsuit intended to silence us."

Main Source: 
Metro Times (Michigan), August 23, 2006

Comments

Lawsuit dismissed

Submitted by Martha on October 16, 2007 - 12:10am.

Ecology Center SLAPP dismissed

May 10, 2007

Federal judge dismisses Ecology Center SLAPP: The Ecology Center (Ann Arbor) and two Michigan pediatricians applauded a federal judge's ruling late last week that dismissed a product defamation lawsuit brought against them by Morton Grove, the Chicago-area producer of pharmaceutical lindane. In 2006, the Ecology Center, pediatricians, and other medical, public health, and environmental organizations supported the Michigan Legislature's action to ban pharmaceutical products containing lindane, a persistent organochlorine chemical used in pesticides until the EPA withdrew agriculture use in August 2006. "From the outset, we viewed Morton Grove's lawsuit as a baseless tactic designed to stifle public debate," said Mike Garfield, Director of the Ecology Center. "It is outrageous that instead of engaging in a public discussion with the Michigan Legislature on this important public issue, the company instead tried to silence us." Lindane had previously been banned for use on pets and in the military. All uses of the chemical ingredient have been banned in 52 countries and the State of California. Children's health advocates are calling for immediate legislative action to ban lindane in Michigan and other states, and demanding that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban it as well.

Harassment --- whether or

Submitted by jupiter on September 4, 2006 - 8:48am.

Harassment --- whether or not they actually can win such a lawsuit.

This is a pattern these days: The media is taking priority over the court systems in the minds of p.r.

They are alleging things in the media that in a lawsuit could only win in a Banana Republic (or otherwise bribed) court system. They are betting on p.r. and the media having more power than the legal system.

They use unsubstantiated and/or refuted allegations as if they were ingraved-in-stone facts. The corruption in this country is absolutely amazing. (Somehow I doubt the grace will be that amazing, however, despite the "popularity" of the song.)

Also interesting is that this is yet another johnny-come-lately example and trend of humans trying to take a so-to-speak "PARENTAL" role over other humans --- using government, or whatever to do so.

This is what is known as usurping of individual automony --- or here, specifically freedom of SPEECH --- the individual God-given tongue, and when someone is alerting the public to a poison at that.

This trend of canning the news about poisons and potential poisons can only result in a holocaust of one sort or another if it continues (if not several of them), even if next-to-no-one links a particular poison to the mysterious deaths or illnesses that occur.

A slow kill might not be as obvious as the poison of a stringray, but the resulting extinctions will be just as sure. (Which incidentally, how peculiar, that Steve Irwin would become extinct right along with the extinctions of his beloved ecosystems and their inhabitants. Perhaps they could not stand to be parted from one another, and decided to go to heaven together. What a Romeo and Juliet story. They did not have to watch each others' demise. It would have been too painful.)

But back to the subject at hand: who cares about human life anyway? This was the attitude of Nero in the 1957 (or thereabouts) version of the movie Quo Vadis, starring Peter Ustinov.

That is very potentially just like saying they are going to kill people, or serious maim them, and you'd better shut up about it and watch it happen. Because I am (they are) your authorized (adoptive or something) PARENT. Even though I'm not really your parent, and if I was you'd still be an adult. Come now, children. Let's all be "good" now.