Past New Mexico Board Chairman Responds to Drug Ruling
Says Decision is Just “Slight Roadblock” in Quest for Primary Care and Drugs
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The lengthy email comes on the heels of a significant loss to Doggett and his team in New Mexico as the Court of Appeals struck down the additions to the drug formulary that the Board made in violation to their statutory authority.
In what amounted to a simple inability on the part of the board to understand the plain meaning of the law and proper sentence construction, Judge Weschler examined the section of the statute at issue using what he termed in his ruling as “common sense.”
Peppered throughout Judge Weschler’s decision are references to the ability of “reasonably informed persons” to be able to understand the statute and the restrictions placed on the Board. Given this, some have questioned whether the Board truly did not understand the meaning of the section or if they actually did and elected to move forward with the additions to the drug formulary despite their understanding that it would be a violation.
The issue at the center of the Appeals case was the unlawful action of the board to add dangerous drugs and injections to an already existing drug formulary. The original formulary had been approved by the Board of Pharmacy and the Medical Board consistent with the statute and the dangerous drugs were added later by the chiropractic board without consulting the Medical and Pharmacy Boards.
Soon after, a suit was filed by the Medical and Pharmacy boards to stop the chiropractic Board from adopting the expanded formulary. The International Chiropractors Association entered the legal fight supporting the Medical and Pharmacy Board’s contentions as well as arguing that the Advanced Chiropractic Physician training requirements are inadequate. Judge Weschler found no fault with the training rule.
Claiming that “wording and punctuation” worked against them in their quest, Doggett vowed to move forward by reconvening the Formulary Task Force Committee and to work with the Medical and Pharmacy boards for the approval of additional drugs as well as re-introducing a sweeping chiropractic primary care bill that was killed this past year.
Doggett called for DC’s to step up and contact their legislators and also called upon chiropractors from outside New Mexico to assist in their efforts.
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