With the recent nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS) the nation’s premier federal health agency, it’s important to remember Kennedy’s rising star began decades ago by exposing fraudulent medical/corporate research and food safety issues. In a sense, Kennedy is a kind of whistleblower on a national level.
But he’s not the only one and, with Kennedy’s rise to power, AbleChild is reminded of another whistleblower, Allen Jones, whose exposure of dirty dealing between the pharmaceutical industry and state mental health agencies needs to be remembered and recognized.
Afterall, it takes courage to stand up to corruption and Jones, not one to shy away from controversy or be strong-armed into walking away, stood up to the behemoth pharmaceutical industry and ultimately protected children in ways they will never fully understand.
In a nutshell, Jones, as an investigator with the Pennsylvania Office of the Inspector General, was tasked with investigating the State’s chief pharmacist, Steve Fiorello, who was reported to have been receiving payments from drug companies. A clear violation of Pennsylvania law. But Jones uncovered a much deeper financial scheme where the money flowing into Fiorello’s unregistered account was also flowing out of it and into an account belonging to the Director of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. Jones had no idea that he was about to run head-first into the then controversial Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP).
Hellbound and Down 