Tobacco.org

Obama Demands VA Immediately Investigate Drug Testing on Veterans 

U.S. Senator Barack Obama today sent the following letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake, calling on him to immediately investigate reports that the VA failed to notify veterans about severe side effects from drug testing after the FDA issued a serious warning last November. According to a Washington Times/ABC News investigation, more than 1,000 veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) participated in a study to examine ways to end smoking. 143 of the study participants took the anti-smoking drug Chantix, which the FDA found lead to side effects, including hallucinations, suicide attempts, and psychotic behavior. Study participants were not notified about the FDA warning until three months later, and were not warned about the drug's most severe side effect - suicide.

In the letter Obama calls on Peake to conduct a full and thorough investigation of the process by which VA conducts clinical trials and to take immediate corrective action to address the problems that were first identified by GAO eight years ago.

The text of the letter is below:

Jump to full article »