Posts Tagged With: persecuted physicians

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.

Responding to what doctors and patients are calling a dangerous crackdown on people with chronic pain, [Pain Relief Network][prn] is seeking the protection of the courts, hoping to have the deadly disease of chronic pain declared a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

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.

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.

This Resource Is an article by Dr. Frank Fisher published in the Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin. He recounts his tale of persecution for practicing excellent pain management – a quintessencial example of the War on Doctors and the Pain Crisis in America.

Talk given by Frank Fisher, M.D.; Drug Cops and Docs, Cato Institute Conference; 2005-09-09. Introduction — The undertreatment of chronic pain is an ongoing public health disaster. The means to reverse this disaster is a class of medications known as opioid analgesics. The pain crisis exists for just one reason. Physicians don’t prescribe enough of these medications. I’m going to explain why we don’t. — The war on drugs has become a war on legal drugs. This exposes physicians to the risk of unwarranted prosecution. In response to this threat, the academic pain establishment has developed a set of standards …

Wichita Eagle article reporting on the release on bond of Dr. Stephen Schneider, Kansas family physician who cares for chronic pain patients.

AP news article about Dr. Schneider, who remains in jail awaiting the outcome of legal wrangling regarding conditions of his release on bond.

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?”

Blog post about a legal brief (full text link provided), a Memorandum and Order setting conditions for and releasing Dr. Stephen Schneider pending trial.

When prosecutors want to convict a doctor of “drug dealing,” they often sow suspicions by alerting the media. But in a Kansas case, they appear to be fighting dirty by trying to prevent the other side from speaking out. [...]

Well, I guess [PRN has] hit a nerve, huh? I had to read todays AP article (linked to) three times to figure out what good ‘ole Tanya Treadway, federal prosecutor, 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\’s names and get all the usual buzzwords in the paper – “parasitic”, “pill mill” – but I think this is the beef [...]

AP article about vague and silly allegations by federal prosecutor Tonya Treadway against Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network. Reynolds said, “There is nothing wrong, unethical, illegal, immoral about any of this. … This is an attack on my fundamental liberty to do our work,” Reynolds told The Associated Press. “I’ve developed some opinions after 15 cases of seeing innocent doctors going to prison for doing absolutely nothing but practicing medicine.”

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.

Patients of a Kansas doctor charged with illegally prescribing painkillers say they have been repeatedly turned away from other medical providers. The eight patients say the doctors fear similar federal prosecution. The patients held a news conference this morning outside the federal courthouse in Wichita. They wanted to draw attention to their plight and the civil lawsuit filed against the government last week on their behalf. [...]

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.

Drug War Chronicle article about the persecution of Dr. Schneider, abuse of federal power, and what the Pain Relief Network is doing about it.

Associated Press article about the Kansas Board of Healing Arts (aka the medical board, aka the KASBAH) reneged on an earlier agreement with the Pain Relief Network to forego action against Dr. Schneider\’s license until a full hearing of the facts could be had.

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.