Posts Tagged With: drug policy

The treatment of chronic pain is an issue of national importance. If petitioner’s conviction is allowed to stand then any single opioid prescription can be called into question based upon misconceptions which should not be allowed to permeate the atmosphere of The American Courtroom.

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 am very glad to see physicians, who have themselves been savaged by the government, publishing their stories. Consider Dr. Jackson’s article, Conviction without a Crime, to be a companion piece to Dr. Rottschaefer’s article discussed in the previous item here, The Criminal Criminal Justice System. Together these two articles will give the reader a good sense, I think, of the utter breakdown of professional ethics, common sense, and fairness in any case involving controlled substances.

The article well describes the public health chaos this is the predictable consequence of clinical and public health authorities abandoning their real mission to uphold the medical standard of care for their citizenry, and instead focusing exclusively on the policeman’s agenda which prioritizes ‘catching a few addicts’ over providing adequate pain management for legions of innocent patients.

Excerpt: “As usual, the academics ignore the elephant in the living room. Regarding review articles that wring their hands about the lack of long term evidence of the safety and efficacy of opioid analgesic therapy, they never discuss the impossibility of measuring the efficacy and safety of a therapy that almost no physician is comfortable doing properly. For an excellent analysis of what we might call the “new academic opiophobia,” see the Pain Relief Network’s 2008 “WA State Tort Claim” pages 34 – 37.”

Article by Dr. DeLuca regarding Jacob Sullum\’s comments about a recent SAMHSA analysis showing low addiction rates for most substances of abuse, and also discusses Hurwitz\’ excellent 2005 analysis of Government data, the peer reviewed

This Resource Is an article discusses the failure of the ‘barriers to pain care’ literature to analyze those barriers from an ethical POV. The author relates this to ‘the collective failure of the profession to recognize the ethical implications of undertreated pain.’

In this full text medical journal article, Joranson, in response to Paulozzi (below), describes a basic public health approach to the ‘drug abuse crisis.’ One wonders whether the combined brain power of the NIH, CDC and FDA would not have accomplished this, except for the imperatives of the drug war. Hurwitz 2005 (see below) is an example of the sort of creative analysis we should expect, but never get, from our academic and federal patriarchs.

Former patients of a federally indicted Haysville doctor say they are being intimidated by the federal government. Stephen and Linda Schneider, of Haysville, are behind bars facing federal charges of over-prescribing narcotic pain medications. The US Attorney is linking the couple to the overdose deaths of 56 patients. Now several Schneider patients say federal agents are forcing their way into their homes without warrants, asking a lot of questions, and even taking items that don’t belong to them.

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:

Purdue Pharma was coerced, under threat of destruction by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), into pleading guilty to charges that their drug was “more addictive” than they had claimed, the government alleging that the company failed to inform both doctors and the public of this information when it came available. The problem for Americans in pain is that this private deal creates, if you will, a “fact” on the public record that is not factual, a “fact” that severely prejudices the interests of patients in pain. [...]

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.

Blog post: Use Your Eyes – Residence Investigation (1960’s police training film); Unknown filmmaker; Unknown creation date. Posted: 2007-08-31. Dopey police training film.

Editorial from the Washington Times about DEA’s war on doctors and the pain crisis in America that has resulted in the casual and routine undertreatment of moderate to severe chronic pain. Article focuses on the tragic story of James Fernandez, a combat disabled vet of the first Gulf War.

Odd drug use youTube video from Brussels…

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.” [...]

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

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 …

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!