Archive for: July 2007

Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, Testimony before the Senate committee on the Judiciary, regarding the Purdue Oxycontin settlement. Link to full text PDF. Excerpt: “Many people in severe pain, especially those with high dose requirements, have been maimed or killed as a result of this department’s campaign against pain management. But we haven’t, as of yet, seen Senate Judiciary Committee hearings about that ongoing atrocity.” [...]

Blog post with revised details about: Dr. William Mangino remains incarcerated awaiting sentencing which is scheduled for August 8th in Newcastle, PA. Contact information: 1) Address to write to Mangio in jail provided; 2) address and instructions to contribute to Mangino Defense Fund provided. In my next post on the Mangio case, I want to consider in more depth issues raised by the defense’s Omnibus Motion, entitled, Motion For a Directed Verdict of Not Guilty Or In the Alternative, Request For Additional Jury Instructions, especially the section of that document that addresses the Jury Instructions given at trial.

Blog post about: Dr. William Mangino remains incarcerated awaiting sentencing which is scheduled for August 8th in Newcastle, PA. Contact information: 1) Address to write to Mangio in jail provided; 2) address and instructions to contribute to Mangino Defense Fund provided. In my next post on the Mangio case, I want to consider in more depth issues raised by the defense’s Omnibus Motion, entitled, Motion For a Directed Verdict of Not Guilty Or In the Alternative, Request For Additional Jury Instructions, especially the section of that document that addresses the Jury Instructions given at trial.

War on Doctors/Pain Crisis blog entry presenting the embedded trailer for the documentary, ‘High – the true tale of American Marijuana.

Blog post about: Aberrant Drug-Related Behaviors (ADRBs), which are commonly referred to in slang vernacular as ‘red flags.’ Excerpt: “In summary, in opioid-treated chronic pain populations, ADRBs are very common, addiction as a consequence of treatment is very uncommon, undertreatment of chronic pain is very common, and pain experts lack uniformity in interpreting the relative importance and significance of various ADRBs.”

TOC: Intro — Opiophobia and Opioignorance — Risk of Addiction in Chronic Opioid Therapy — Treatment and Outcomes — Undertreatment of Pain is a National Scourge — Footnootes

LIVE WEBCAST: Thursday 07/12/2007 – 10:00 AM. 2237 Rayburn House Office Building. Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Hearing on: The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Regulation of Medicine

Blog post noting date and time of Hurwitz sentencing. Link to full text pdf of the Hurwitz Aid in Sentencing Memorandum: a copy of the sentencing memo that Dr. Hurwitz’s lawyers filed last Friday which requests the court to impose a sentence of time served. The memo was accompanied by some 75 letters that many of you wrote to Judge Brinkema in support of Dr. Hurwitz. Many of the letters were quoted in the sentencing memo. We are grateful to you for your time and effort in writing these letters.

Blog post about the conviction of Dr. William Mangino for violations of the state drug act and medicaid fraud. Link to full text of Mangino’s Omnibus Motion which pertains to request for summary Not Guilty and discussion of Jury Instructions. This document is discussed. Mangino Verdict III will concern bail and defense fund matters.

Pain Relief Network Press Release about House of Representatives Hearings on DEA Oversight scheduled for July 12, 2007. Full text: The House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, will be holding hearings on DEA oversight Thursday, July 12, 2007. As a result of my visit to Washington, DC in early June, the recent New York Times Magazine Cover article, and the assistance of many good friends on and around Capitol Hill, I have been invited to testify. This is a HUGE opportunity for the Pain Relief Network (PRN) to present its case to a wide and influential audience. — Our goal …

Full text of blog post about arrest of Gore’s son on drug charges: Al Gore’s son was arrested for possession of prescription drugs. The timing was uncanny. Just as it was appearing Gore might announce his candidacy, we hear the news that his boy has a drug problem. Next come the predictable barrage of articles about how his arrest highlights the problem with prescription drugs. Does anyone wonder why members of Congress have been reluctant to take up the insanity of this drug war….it is simply too personally dangerous to do so. — This is Rush Limbaugh redux. I can’t …

Blog post about the Prescription Drug Diversion Prosecutions – Quick Reference Card 2002 for which a link to full text PDF is provided. Tina Rosenberg, in her recent cover story for the New York Times Magazine, makes direct reference to the Cheat Sheet in the following paragraphs excerpted from that article. It really is fascinating in a stomach-turning sort of way. Enjoy!

Excerpt: “You captured the absurdity of these trials beautifully. I remember when I watched my first one of these, the “trial” of Drs. Bordeaux, Allere, Jackson et al of the Comprehensive Care clinic in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. There, the prosecution could make no allegations of high pill counts or “addicted” babies, so instead, they added little dramatic touches into the statements the doctors supposedly gave to the DEA agents. These touches gave the scene, as portrayed by prosecutors, what theater artists call the “feel of reality”… The stunning thing was, the topic at hand was pain care, so the …

First of a series of blog posts regarding the trial of pain doctor William Mangino. Excerpt: “The prosecution asked only one question on cross examination of defense expert Dr. Tennant. The prosecution brought forth no further expert testimony. The defense felt Tennant’s testimony was sufficiently strong and his credibility and professional stature so huge relative to the prosecution expert, and that the prosecution had failed to make it’s case. And so on 2007-07-03, the defense choose not to call it’s second defense expert (myself) and choose not to put Dr. Mangino on the stand, and rested.”

Thanks to Alex Coolman of the most excellent Drug Law Blog for snagging yet another AG Tom Corbett war on doctors case that had slipped by me. (See: More Indictments, Arrests of Doctors). I think this makes three unrelated doc scalps for Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett in a neat seven days. Wow. Impressive.