From the 8/8 Show – FDA’s Deputy Commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein Can’t Hide Any Longer

The radio show recently reminded it’s listeners of FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s foibles and shortcomings concerning the growing legal narcotics fiasco in this country (7/25). As the epidemic of dependency, addiction and death continues under the silence and tacit approval of the FDA, Margaret Hamburg will also have Joshua M. Sharfstein as her companion in the ongoing debacle.
Sharfstein apparently has impressed all as “young, energetic, and capable”. After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1996 he soon became head of the Baltimore Health Department. The FDA web site states Sharfstein’s accomplishments in part: “and expand access to effective treatment for opioid addiction.” http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CommissionersPage/ucm162062.htmnd Sharfstein gained enough attention to be appointed as the interim Commissioner of the FDA for about two months in 2009 prior to Hamburg’s appointment.
The gig is up for Sharfstein. If he wants to continue his “meteoric path” to public recognition on being a leader on health care he can no longer hide out within the FDA incompetence. The radio show is asking if Sharfstein has succumbed to the “corrupt” complicity of the entrenched FDA brass along with Hamburg? Sharfstein is well aware of the continuing hoax and destruction being wrought by the legal prescriptions within this country and the radio show asks the question: If Sharfstein is sincere in helping America on bringing about “better health care”, why his sudden silence on the opioid epidemic?
The radio show was impressed by Sharfstein’s accomplishments prior to joining the FDA and now asks publicly why Sharfstein is taking the path of becoming part of the most inept FDA leadership in history. Historians will be writing about the opioid debacle in much the same way that heroin was legalized over 100 years ago and Sharfstein has to make a decision on where his name will be placed in the ongoing historical medical fiasco created by the introduction and marketing of OxyContin.