Re: USA Pain Doc Convicted

[Guest guest]

Lyndi,

Thanks so much for this article. Although it is quite disturbing, it is good to

know these things. I get sooo angry and could ramble on for hours about how mad

this kind of thing makes me. Good Dr's going to jail for dishonest patients. It

is just plain cruel. And its more cruel to all the patients he will not be able

to treat because of these lying dirt bags. And the court is GOING TO LISTEN to

someone who has covered track marks and someone who smokes crack, but WILL NOT

LISTEN to a respected Dr. Does that make any sense at all....NO, none of it

does. Very disturbing indeed.

Caitlin

[Guest guest]

In a past life, I reviewed affidavits from law enforcement officers

and reviewed them for probable cause, and when satisfied issued

warrants. I occassionally interviewed drug enforcement officers in

these cases. I found them to be generally well-qualified decent

people meaning to do their best for society. The current problems

with DEA and the medical profession come from the highest levels of

DOJ and DEA. DEA Administrator Tandy has declared war on

Oxycontin, and it was the drug involved in the investigations that

led to federal charges against MDs in South Shore, Indiana, and

Virginia. Success of the enforcement effort was gauged by a

reduction in prescriptions for and sales of Oxycontin. This

information was part of her presentation before the House

Appropriations Committee this year.

The President's National Drug Strategy has performance-based goals.

These goals must be met. Apparently it hasn't dawned on Tandy that

as a result of her efforts many patients who needed relief from pain

are now in pain. This is great disservice to the people of this

country. " Let 'em bite bullets, " ought to be the new DEA motto.

For all the right reasons, the agency is doing all the wrong

things. It is intimidating doctors and injuring patients rather

than protecting the public. Write your congressional

representative, senators, and the president. Let them know what you

think about DEA's intimidation of MDs.

DEA has a very difficult job. The agency does some very good work.

However, in this case they've gone from protecting to harming. They

must not be allowed to interfere with a doctors treatment of his or

her patient.

Recently we've been discussing some of our " hidden pain " and how

that has caused some of us grief over something as simple as parking our

vehicles in the spaces reserved for disability parking.

Over the years in this group, the subject of family members and

close friends not knowing or not understanding we are in pain has come

up for discussion repeatedly. If people who know us well and see us

regularly don't know we are in pain, or can't tell when we are in pain, how

is a doctor supposed to know unless we tell him/her?

> Imagine being a doctor convicted of " Drug Trafficking " for not

being able to tell who was was lying about being in chronic pain. The

following case is going to send negative signals to the

compassionate chronic pain doctors who so far, have been willing to help us lead

our lives with some degree of comfort and dignity.

I think it should be the fake *patients* who lied to get

prescription pain drugs illegally who should be the ones on trial for drug

trafficking, not the doctors who prescribed. The doc didn't sell

drugs on the street, the lying *patients* did. Yet they're off scott

free and he's in jail. What's wrong with this picture????

" More to the point, the jury was not supposed to determine whether

Hurwitz was a good doctor; that's an issue for the state medical board. The jury

was supposed to determine whether Hurwitz intentionally fed the black

market in opioids. Since the evidence indicated that he prescribed

in good faith, with the intent of treating pain, convicting him of drug

trafficking sets a chilling precedent. "

http://www.reason.com/sullum/121704.shtml

" That verdict sends a clear message to doctors that it's better to

err on the side of suspicion. Knowing they could be prosecuted for

believing a patient who turned out to be an addict or a dealer, doctors will

be even less inclined to take the risk, compounding the already appalling

problem of people in pain who suffer needlessly because physicians are afraid to

help them. "

Please click on the highlighted words in the article. They lead to

other articles with a wide variety of opinions on this case.

--

> Lyndi

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I am swamped with emails and I must have missed the article about this

doctor. Is it possible to re-post this? I would appreciate it. It's a shame

that doctor's are held responsible for deceitful patients.

Kathleen in NC

[Guest guest]

This is something that i went through with my DR. I have 6 DR's all were

very nervous about the liquid oxycontin drops i was on for years. I

have since been on Fentanyl patches that work even better because i

would wait to long to take my pain meds. but i still get the drops as a

break through.

I remember the day when my Dr who happened to be a DO also told me im

not taking enough pain medication. this puzzled me to no end.. i thought

the drs didn't want to give it out so i really tried to not take it.??

well.. it was then my dr told me that i shouldn't worry about him. He

said that only DR.s that write an extreme number of prescriptions to

ppl for these kinda pain meds are looked at by the DEA and that as long

as the patients are indeed in pain and can prove it.?????

hmmm so were these drs doing something wrong? was it the patients? I

don't know. I do know that all this has made a lot of DR's afraid to

write the prescriptions to the ppl who need them. I guess most ppl have

to do like i do and talk to the dr about what their concerns are and how

we as the patient can make sure that we both do our part in this

confusing time of pain and our government getting lost in the idea of

protecting us and doing what s right has gone over the edge and forgot

why ppl needed the meds in the first place.

in the end i hope that they will not require everyone to go to pain

clinics. I refuse to be another experimental lab rat. I have done my

part in that area already. My Drs are ok with me and we have talked

about the meds and what they can and have done to me and what in the end

is going to happen as i run outta meds to take and become resistant to

the ones I'm on. guess its just something that i don't think about anymore.

Hope everyone has a good holiday.

--

karen

" Al " <santas_lil_brother@s...> wrote:

The current problems with DEA and the medical profession come from the

highest levels of DOJ and DEA. DEA Administrator Tandy has

declared war on Oxycontin, and it was the drug involved in the

investigations that led to federal charges against MDs in South Shore,

Indiana, and Virginia. Success of the enforcement effort was gauged by

a reduction in prescriptions for and sales of Oxycontin. This

information was part of her presentation before the House Appropriations

Committee this year.

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I missed the article URL for this-could you please it again? My wonderful doc

I had for 5 years was arrested July 2003 so I have a very personal conviction

about what is going on with our government's actions. I am praying for my

doc's clearance in his trial.

Thanks,

Chris-FL

--

Moderator Note:

Might as well stick my moderator response in. Here's the url for you :-)

http://www.reason.com/sullum/121704.shtml