Posts Tagged With: pain relief

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.

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.

Unrelieved pain has a devastating impact on the physical, emotional, social, and economic well being of patients and their families. Diagnosing and treating pain is, therefore, fundamental to the public health. Terminology is review, myths identified, and medical understanding is stated.

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 …

Update on the case of USA v Dr. Martinez in Washington state. Martinez has been acquitted of all drug crime charges. The fraud charges remaining after her 2007 fed trial have also been dismissed, but the govt can bring the fraud charges anew. Also examined is a recent Yakima Herald article announcing “new” charges that are not, in any reality-based sense, “new” at all.

On the off chance that people remain unconvinced that there is indeed a terrible pain crisis, I will offer some thoughts which might help shed light on this situation. The World Health Organization has said that undertreated pain is the number one health problem in America.

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.’

Network, protesting a scandalous article by the paper about PRN’s involvement in the Dr. Schneider case. Excerpt: “In our movement to reestablish rule of law and to normalize the doctor-patient relationship, we are constantly faced with desperate patients who ask us what do after they have been turned away from care dozens of times. I explained to the reporter that these people were once prosperous, had full lives, and dreams and hope. But merely by suffering a crushing accident or a cancer diagnosis, they find themselves in chronic severe pain and in need of ongoing opioid therapy. They then find …

Blog post about an example of war on doctors Trash Journalism, which is analyzed. Excerpt: “So what is the message? Well one clear message to me is that the line between pain patient and ‘addict’ – that pitiable dregs of humanity; the walking dead; that criminal scourge; is thin and vague. In fact it is presented as the slippery slope if not an inevitability – people on chronic opioid therapy are, or will become, addicts. Pain patient, drug addict, who cares? Drug are bad, people who use them are bad, you and I are better than that; they deserve what …

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:

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.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT – DISTRICT OF KANSAS PAIN RELIEF NETWORK, on behalf of patients of Stephen J. Schneider, D.O., Plaintiff,
[Uzo L. Ohaebosim, Attorney for Plaintiff; 510 N. Main; Wichita, KS 67214; 316-261-5400]
vs.
THE STATE OF KANSAS, THE KANSAS STATE BOARD OF HEALING ARTS, MICHAEL MUKASEY, in his official capacity as United States Attorney General; ERIC F. MELGREN, in his official capacity as the United States Attorney for the District of Kansas, and THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Defendants.

VERIFIED COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER PURSUANT TO FED.R. CIV.P. 65(b)…

Patients of a physician who is charged with running a “pill mill” linked to 56 overdose deaths plan to sue the government, claiming it has put patients in mortal danger and created a public health disaster by prosecuting the doctor. The lawsuit, which names Attorney General Michael Mukasey, U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren, the state of Kansas and the Kansas Board of Healing Arts as defendants, was to be filed Tuesday by the New Mexico-based Pain Relief Network on behalf of the patients of Dr. Stephen Schneider.

Blog post of Associated Press article uncovering evidence of civil malpractice attorneys circling Dr. Schneider like sharks have been working closely with federal prosecutors in their criminal indictment of Dr. Schneider. Yes, it’s all as sleazy as it seems.

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.

Blog post about Pain Relief Network suing the government regarding the Dr. Schneider case. PRN seeks to enjoin the State Medical Board from taking action against Dr. Schneider\’s medical license.

Blog post by Veteran, in chronic under-treated pain, struggling to stay alive. Excerpt: “I can remember no time without pain. To be more clear, I can remember doing so many things that I loved – I have an excellent memory: I can remember smells, sounds, tastes; I even have a kinetic memory – I can remember the feel of standing in the ocean waist deep, being floated slightly, and moved gently back and forth by the water, feel the warmth of the Gulf Coast water, almost blood-warm near the shore in places, but there is no memory in my mind …

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.”

Blog post excerpt: “Just to get the terminology and basic facts straight: cannabidiols are a family of similar molecules with similar pharmacological properties that differ somewhat from those of THC, which is not a cannabidiol. Both cannabidiols and THC are cannabinoids… Indica strains are higher in cannabidiols, and are historically more valued as medicinals than are Sativa strains.” Post links to a number of excellent articles in full text, mostly from academic medical journals.