Posts Tagged With: liberties

These subpoenas constitute an abuse of the grand jury process… Because [Treadway's obstruction of justice] investigation lacks any good faith basis, Ms. Reynolds does not claim a Fifth Amendment privilege with respect to any of the materials sought by the subpoena.(1) Ms. Reynolds maintains that she has committed no crime and that there is nothing in the requested materials that could inculpate her in the obstruction of justice, witness tampering or jury tampering. For all of these reasons, this Court should quash the March 10 subpoenas issued to Siobhan Reynolds and PRN.

criticisms and description of federal prosecutorial behavior rings true to me from my experience and knowledge of war on docs/pain crisis cases. Our justice system is withering, ‘the drugs exception to the Bill of Rights’ has gone from being a tragic lawyers joke to business as usual, and we now routinely apply asset forfeiture and RICO laws, intended by Congress to combat drug cartels, to individual pain-treating physicians. Doctors and sick people are easy, profitable prey for law enforcement and federal prosecutors pandering to the electorate through a media willing to be exploited for their share of the spoils.

A federal judge on Thursday denied the government\’s efforts to gag defense attorneys, family and supporters of a Kansas doctor accused of unlawfully prescribing medication. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Monti Belot said the government had not shown a compelling government interest in restraining speech.

Academic quality, fully footnoted, article on why untreated or undertreated chronic pain is a medical emergency.

This is starting to get silly. Every time ANY motion comes before a judge regarding ANY aspect of the Dr. Schneider affair, Prosecutor Tanya Treadway raises her hand to say, “Oh, oh, Judge! Could you please also stop political activist Siobhan Reynolds from expressing herself?”

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.’

AP news item, begins: “Federal prosecutors asked a federal judge Friday to issue a gag order to silence a Haysville physician and his wife indicted for operating a “pill mill” linked to at least 56 overdose deaths. In court papers, the U.S. attorney’s office asked for a restraining order to keep physician Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, from talking to the media. Prosecutors also asked that the judge extend that order to include the Schneiders’ family members and Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network, a patient advocacy group.” [...]

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.

Associated Press article about injunction filed in State Court by the patients of the federally indicted Dr. Schneider; judge to hear PRN’s Temporary Restraining Order, Friday Feb. 29, 2008.

Associated Press article about PRN\’s lawsuit against the State of Kansas, the Kansas medical board, and Attorney General Mukasey and the Department of Justice. The article focuses on the continuing plight of the legitimate pain patients of federally indicted and imprisioned Dr. Schneider. The patients claim no local doctors or hospitals will treat them properly for chronic pain out of fear of becoming targets of drug war zealotry, like Dr. Schneider.

Blog post about the Federal raid and indictment of three Pensacola, Florida physicians “on charges that they illegally dispensed prescription drugs.” Operation “Doc-in-a-Box”, huh? How positively cute…

Blog post about the Pain Relief Network, the Dr. Schneider trials in Kansas, PRN\’s favorite music video, and KAKE TV coverage of PRN in Kansas – The Controlled Substances Act is UNCONSTITIONAL. Links to related news items provided.

Associated Press article about legal actions in State Court by the patients of the federally indicted Dr. Schneider, in effort to prevent forced closing of the clinic and consequent abandonment of the pain patients cared for there.

Blog post about Maia Szalivitz on Prescription Monitoring Programs (PMP) and the Pain Relief Network\’s opposition on constitutional grounds. Reynolds, of PRN, said, “Until now, the systematic violation of patient’s 4th Amendment rights was more or less hidden from public view. Now, the Vermont police have pulled back the veil for all of us to see the vicious witch hunt being perpetrated against people unfortunate enough to require Controlled Substances for the treatment of serious illness.”

The invocation of the WHO “analgesic ladder” concept of progressive pharmacological treatment of pain, in state investigations of physicians, is sometimes unfair. On the one hand the guidelines are interpreted as rules… On the other hand, state rules and regulations are often at odds with the spirit and specifics of the WHO guidelines, and of ethical medicine.