The important issue in Wisconsin has always been that TWO State employees, Arthur Thexton and James Polewski, both Prosecutors at the Department of Regulation & Licensing (DRL), had openly, and brazenly, without permission or consultation with their superiors at DRL, embraced, and agreed to promote, and ENFORCED as though they had merit in law, the CRACKPOT health positions of a subversive organization calling itself the “quackbusters.”
Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
Polewski actually bragged of his membership in the fully courtroom-discredited National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF). Thexton had actually used Robert S. Baratz, the current president of the so-called NCAHF, an organization of doubtful origin and pedigree, currently run out of Baratz’s Braintree, Massachusetts hair-removal and ear-piercing salon, as an advisor and expert witness for the State of Wisconsin, and paid him a LOT of Wisconsin money…
Wonders never cease.
The important questions within the issue are (1) How much damage was done to Wisconsin citizens because of their actions? (2) Did anyone die because the Thexton/Polewski/quackbuster scheme discouraged, or prohibited, new paradigms in Wisconsin health care? (3) What is the effect, if any, of their horrifying attack, on Wisconsin’s leading-edge health care providers, and their ability to offer newer, and better health-care offerings? (4) What is the individual and combined economic loss to the individual, and the class, of leading-edge health care providers effected by the Thexton/Polewski/quackbuster scheme? (5) What is DRL doing to insure the cessation of quackbuster influence within the State of Wisconsin? (6) What is DRL doing to compensate, and reassure, the health practitioner victims of the Thexton/Polewski/quackbuster scheme? (7) What should we, in the North American Health Freedom Movement, do to make an example out of the situation in Wisconsin?
All of these questions need to be satisfactorily answered before we are through with the Wisconsin project.
What needs to be done?
Well, some things have already been done, to new DRL management’s credit. For instance – New DRL Department Head Donsia Strong Hill, says“What I inherited were a group of prosecutors who basically had functioned in the past with very little supervision over them or direction or even the establishment of priorities,” Strong Hill said. “We certainly have changed that.”
I suspect, from observation, and changes at DRL, that other remedies are in progress behind the scenes. Those remedies are complicated, and are not being made public just yet, due to the fact that DRL, some of its employees, and associated licensing Boards, are being sued, or are being threatened with lawsuits, by angry leading-edge practitioners tired of defending against the Thexton/Polewski/quackbuster scheme.
But the Number One thing that needs to be done is a “good faith” legal move on DRL’s part against the “quackbusters,” and the Thexton/Polewski/quackbuster scheme. I think CRIMINAL charges need to be brought against the conspirators by DRL, followed by a CIVIL action to recover lost dollars with a request for significant punitive damages. The North American Health Freedom Movement could provide a wealth of REAL expert witnesses to assist DRL in this endeavor.
Black’s law dictionary describes “fraud” as “A false representation of a matter of fact, whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of that which should have been disclosed, which deceives or is intended to deceive another so he shall act on it…” I believe that definition adequately describes the Thexton/Polewski/quackbuster scheme in Wisconsin.
I am aware of MANY different cases in Wisconsin where the Thexton/Polewski/quackbuster scheme operated against leading-edge health professionals – a Chiropractor, several MDs, a Registered Nurse, two Dentists, etc. The list grows. All you have to do is look at de-licensed MD Stephen Barrett’s “quackwatch.com” website, and match it up with prosecutions done by Polewski and Thexton. Thexton and Polewski spouted the quackbuster party line in their accusations.
It is well known that the “quackbusters” attack religion, at large, but particularly focus on Scientology. There are SIXTEEN anti-Scientology references on the “quackwatch.com” website, alone. The NCAHF president Robert S. Baratz has officially stated “that the power of prayer is the same as satanic worship.” I believe one Wisconsin health professional has been targeted PRIMARILY because he is a Scientologist. This is unacceptable in America.
Let me remind you of the text of a lawsuit filed against Baratz and Barrett in Canada, that says…
“NCAHF is the acronym for National Council against Health Fraud. The NCAHF is a front organization used by Barrett, Baratz and their other associates whose purpose is to solicit jobs so that they can act as expert witnesses against doctors who practice alternative and complementary treatment methods.
Barrett operates numerous web sites including Quackwatch.com, Chirowatch.com., ratbags.com and Quackwatch.org . The sole purpose of these web sites is to discredit health care professionals who practice alternative and complementary medicine. These web sites discredit complementary medicine and encourage people to report doctors who practice alternative medicine, thus providing Barrett , Baratz and their associates with a constant stream of potential cases that can be prosecuted thus providing them with opportunities to act as expert witnesses on behalf of NCAHF, their privately owned company.
Quackwatch.com., Quackwatch.org and Ratbags.com all provide links to NCAHF, and provide the false appearance of NCAHF being an impartial and regulatory type body, when in fact, it is not.
The growing popularity of alternative therapy is a constant threat to Barrett, Baratz and their business interests, and the interests of the existing medical and pharmaceutical status quo.”
It is time to put a stop to the “quackbuster” nonsense, and the way to do it is with Criminal and Civil prosecutions.
Stay tuned…
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate