Guess Who Hit a Nerve?

Guess Who Hit a Nerve?; Alexander DeLuca, Senior Consultant, Pain Relief Network; War on Doctors/Pain Crisis blog; 2008-03-07. Source.

This essay is part of the Pain Forum Discussion of:
Feds Target Pain Patients Group’s President - Hegeman, AP, 2008-03-07
See PRN’s ‘Hot off the Presses‘ forum

Well, I guess we’ve hit a nerve, huh?

I had to read todays AP article (see above) three times to figure out what good ‘ole Tanya Treadway for the Fed thinks we did wrong here. I mean, it is clear that she is angry, and clearly wanted the opportunity to call Siobhan and the Schneiders names and get all the usual buzzwords in the paper - “parasitic”, “pill mill” - but I think this is the beef:

Prosecutors contended the network and Reynolds may impair the defendants’ ability to negotiate a pretrial resolution to the case because it would inhibit their efforts to use the Schneiders’ criminal prosecution to keep their names in the media.

See, this is what it is about, why they are so blustery and angry, yet the content is just vague fluff. Federal prosecutors aren’t used to having to FIGHT cases - they are much more expert at intimidating defendants by overwhelming them with the brute power of the DOJ.

Regular docs, for example, are indicted as drug racketeers and murderers, their assets seized before trial, jailed without bail, facing decades of jail time. And the defendants are supposed to go belly up while the lawyers come to a collegial plea agreement that allows the prosecutors to claim another kill and release another round of drug war propaganda, poisoning the public mind and getting us all set to play our parts as yahoos for the next intimidation. The defense attorneys collect their fees. Fed and State law enforcement share the forfeitured assets. The patients are abandoned. And the chilling effect on appropriate medical care intensifies. A perfect vicious cycle, and no one has to work up a sweat (except the invisible patients, of course, and the ruined doc).

And then Siobhan and her band of committed lawyers ride into town and screw up the morality play re-run. Now all of a sudden Tanya’s thrown off her script. This isn’t how she was taught these show-trials were supposed to play out. [Here is the playbook, BTW: The Drug War Prosecutors Cheat Sheet]

What is really important, Friends, is that these recent articles are being picked up by international media - USA Today, New York Times, Newsweek, etc, and this means that these news outfits are setting up to follow the story. We’ve broken through! These are really just set up articles, I think. And each round they’ll dig one layer deeper, and State and Fed agencies will be increasingly called on to explain themselves and their roles in creating, maintaining, intensifying and profiting from the worsening crisis of untreated and undertreated pain in America. I for one will welcome some media attention focused in this direction, for a change.

Each round the State and Fed get squeezed and they are not used to it. They won’t like it. Tough.

[END]

As always, we ask that you help PRN fight to protect the rights of patients and the doctors who treat them. Thank you for clicking the link below.

www.painreliefnetwork.org
info@painreliefnetwork.org