Posts Tagged With: congress

We keep hearing about how the War on Drugs has failed. But the truth is, the War on Drugs has been tremendously successful, that is if you wanted your country to be a police state, your Congress completely unresponsive to the needs of the people, and your doctors letting you and your loved ones live and die in unnecessary pain.

I spoke to Billy’s wife briefly, recently, and am very happy to be able to report that Dr. Hurwitz is no longer in federal prison. He is currently in a half-way house in D.C. and will be transitioning to house arrest as part of his parole and probation requirements… He is in a sort of “titration to house arrest” best I understand it. Meaning, he is starting to get overnight visits with his family – YEA! – and more and more of that till he sort of “stabilizes” on a regimen of maintenance house arrest. (Is house arrest a substitution therapy for …

Testimony of Siobhan Reynolds, President of the Pain Relief Network (PRN), to Senator Biden and the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, March 2008. Concludes:

Archive with links to testimony, supplemental documents, video interviews, and radio interviews related to House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime hearings on “DEA’s Regulation of Medicine” in 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 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

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 …

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 …

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 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 (Siobhan Reynolds, President, Pain Relief Network) have been invited to represent the pain issue. The House staffer we are working with is developing the roster and we are supplying her some excellent suggestions for patients, doctors, and lawyers. There will be a couple of other issues represented but it seems …