Recent events review Saturday, May 6 to Friday, May 12

Saturday, May 6 ministry or anyone. As long as the Medical Council has a formal complaint, they can begin an investigation,” Hanoman told Stabroek News. Hanoman said that the case of Joseph being prescribed with continuous use of a drug, which is an opioid, was troubling and should be looked into. “Anytime you see [them] being given in frequent doses, it is reason to probe. They are both habit forming and dependent drugs. Unscrupulous doctors, because of the love for money, would give them to patients as long as they pay. It is an issue that does not raise as much flags here but addiction to prescription pain medication is very, very common,” Hanoman said. Two days after she found herself at the centre of allegations that she was using her office to access the prescription drugs at the Fort Wellington Hospital, Joseph resigned.

Monday, May 8 sentence. In a letter to New York Judge Joanna Seybert on Thursday, Bergendahl said a lower sentence on the 68year-old Blackman would allow an earlier return to Guyana where his skills as a vascular surgeon can be well-utilised. Bergendahl told the judge that the US government has accepted that its original guideline of 78 to 97 months of jail for Blackman was based on false premises and it has been agreed that the base will be between 57 and 71 months. Bergendahl said that the original US base level offence was computed using a “somewhat overestimated quantity of oxycodone tablets equating to 422.1 kg of marijuana under the United States Sentencing Guideline drug equivalency table. The correct base offense level should be 24 based upon an agreed to actual quantity of 1920 oxycodone tablets equating to 385.92 kg of marijuana”.

Tuesday, May 9