Posts Tagged With: red flags

Press release from the Competitive Enterprise Institute regarding their Politics of Pain initiative, and video interviews with combat vet chronic pain patient James Fernandez, and with Dr. Alex DeLuca of the Pain Relief Network. CEI Calls for End to DEA Harassment of Pain Doctors.

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 …

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.”

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!

Thanks to Alex Coolman of the most excellent Drug Law Blog for snagging yet another AG Tom Corbett war on doctors case that had slipped by me. I think this makes three unrelated doc scalps for Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett in a neat seven days. Wow. Impressive.

Blog post about the indictment of Dr. Jennifer Zampogna, and the initial media smear mounted by Attorney General Tom Corbett of Erie county, PA. One would have thought we\’d seen how low Attorney General Tom Corbett could go, in the Dr. Paul Heberle case, but apparently not. This Zampogna case is embarrassing – a pathetic joke. Here is the MAIN charge, the best they got… After that, the charges get too silly to bother with here. He\’s kidding, right? The good people of PA are going to pony up for a hideously expensive criminal investigation and trial to convict a …

Blog post about the case of Dr. Volkman, a highly credentialed and experienced physician, a vocal critic of the DEA, who has been actively fighting them in the courts for a year and a half. But this isn’t part of the Associated Press press coverage which have been pure drug war trash journalism giving a very one-sided prosecutorial view of the case. This post provides background on Dr. Volkman and the history of his struggles with the DEA, all ignored by the Associated Press.

Excerpt: “Veterans in chronic pain average less than 4 Percosets a day from the compassionate care-givers of the Veterans Administration… [Such low-potency opioids] are indicated for mild to moderate acute pain, not chronic moderate to severe persistent pain… Oxycodone is a short acting opioid in this preparation, with an effective duration of action of about three hours. One pill every six hours of oxycodone/acetaminophen for chronic pain guarantees that the patient will be in unacceptable pain 50 percent of the time, at best. That’s not treatment, it’s under-treatment; it could not possibly be adequate.”

Letter from the Hurwitz family to the Pain Relief advocacy community reviewing Dr. Hurwitz’ retrial in great detail, noting the excellent work of their pro bono attorneys Sauber and Rollins and their offices.

Blog post of referring to John Tierney’s blog post: ‘Dr. Hurwitz’ Mysterious Motive.’ Ms. Baluss discusses prosecution tactics in the first trial, and rebuts accusations that Dr. Hurwitz was enriching himself as a venal physician.

Collection of documents by defense counsel John P. Flannery II, including two appeal briefs filed with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Dr. Ronald McIver. Siobhan Reynolds comments on the briefs: “Friends, these briefs raise questions of exceptional importance. For nearly a hundred years, the DOJ has manipulated the legal system, using defendants and judges alike as pawns in its effort to acquire by precedent what it could not have gotten had it honored the democratic process. At the Pain Relief Network (PRN) we have been working with attorneys to ‘push back’ since early 2003. These briefs …

Belated updates to the Hurwitz Collection. I’m slowly starting to get back into the swing of things. There is very little chatter on the closed listServ’s about how the trial is going, no daily updates we became used to during the appeal. I’m going down to see one day of the trial for myself – earliest I could get away would be next Tuesday and I’ll plan on that. Will try to get sense of how it is going in the meantime. More soon… ..alex… Trafficker or Healer? And Who’s the Victim? John Tierney; New York Times; 2007-03-27…

Doctors: New Target in the War On Drugs? (full text) Wayne J. Guglielmo; Medical Economics; 2006-05-19. Source Excerpt: Does the US Attorney General and the prosecutors who work for him have the right to decide whether a doctor is practicing good medicine? Stutsman thinks not. “As we showed in the Oregon case, the Controlled Substances Act was never intended to allow an unelected law-enforcement official to make subjective medical determinations,” he says, adding that federal prosecutors are now getting criminal convictions based on a civil standard of care. “If these doctors are guilty of malpractice, that’s one thing—but malpractice isn’t a …

‘The Doctor Wasn’t Cruel Enough’ (full text) Maia Szalavitz; Reason Online; 2006-06-02. Posted: 2006-06-03. Source Excerpt: “Usually, the media buy the tale of evil substances and vile physician-pushers. But Reynolds (of the Pain Relief Network) offered a more compelling alternative narrative. She brought the suffering patients into the media eye. Rather than telling the tale of an evil drug-dealing doctor who brings down the poor addict, she and the patients provided another version of the story, in which the wonderful healer allows his grateful patients to function – until the cops drag him away.” See also: Christine Heberle Comments on the Acquittal …

Erie, 2006: Dr. Klees Imprisoned, Dr. Heberle Exonerated, Pain Patients Abandoned (complete resource collection) WAR ON PAIN SUFFERERS collection #10. Compiled by: Alexander DeLuca, M.D. and the Pain Relief Network,; Addiction, Pain, & Public Health website; 2006-05-27; Last updated: 2006-05-31. Comment (DeLuca): The complete journalistic record thus far, and commentary from pain advocacy experts from the Pain Relief Network and the National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain, regarding the ongoing persecution of pain doctors and patients in Erie, PA. Specifically considered are the conviction of Dr. Klees, and the acquittal of Dr. Heberle, and misconduct of state and …

Bitter Pills – A Tale of Sex, Drugs and Deception (full text) Charlie Deitch; Pittsburgh City Paper; 2006-05-25. Posted: 2006-05-28. Source Excerpt: “Prosecutions aren’t always necessary to have a chilling effect, DeLuca says. The government’s MO, he says, it to have agents raid doctors’ and send them target letters. Some doctors stop prescribing [opioids] at that point… Others decide, as DeLuca says he did, that they can’t operate under the fear and still treat patients correctly. ‘I got out of clinical practice because I couldn’t sit across from someone in extreme pain, have the ability to ease their pain, [and] do nothing …

Judge Clips Jail Time for Myrtle Beach Drug Doctors (full text) Kenneth Gailliard; The Sun News, Myrtle Beach Online; 2006-03-28. Excerpt: “A federal judge [Houck] on Monday slashed prison sentences for three former doctors from a now-closed Myrtle Beach pain clinic where federal prosecutors say drugs were illegally prescribed. <A Fed> appeals court ruled in 2005 that Houck… could have used more discretion in those sentences.” Comment (DeLuca): NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH. Dr. Bordeaux et al. deserve ZERO prison time – anything else reinforces the ‘chilling effect’ and deepens the Pain Crisis in America. Defense attorney Stutsman plans to ask the Supreme Court to review …

‘Good Faith’ at Issue in Pain Doctor’s [Hurwitz] Appeal (full text) Larry O’Dell, Associated Press Writer; Richmond Times-Dispatch; 2006-03-17. Posted: 2006-03-20. Comment (DeLuca): This Resource Is an example of, I am sorry to say typical, Trash Journalism – in this case regarding U.S. v Hurwitz. ‘Journalist’ O’Dell takes pains to specifically recount State charges against Dr. Hurwitz without making clear that Virginia ultimately exonerated him BEFORE the Fed brought the case for which Hurwitz is currently serving 25 years (life). See also: Brief of Appellant William Eliot Hurwitz (PDF) – Appeal from the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia; Robbins, …

Jurors: Deciding Dr. Luyao’s Fate was ‘Difficult, Emotional’ (full text) Derek Simmonsen; TCPalm.com; 2006-03-09. Posted: 2006-03-12 “‘We were like six college students researching a paper,’ said <juror> Sanders, <recalling> counting pills in bottles and passing around autopsy records, medical charts and pharmacy notes so each <juror> could read the evidence and give their opinions.” Comment (DeLuca): Every doctors nightmare: jurors without medical education, led by venal prosecutors, passing judgment on the basis of medical documents they are unqualified to interpret, in a criminal case. <shudder> See also: Luyao Trials Part of Wider Debate – Derek Simmonsen; TCPalm.com Local News; 2006-03-12. Posted: 2006-03-12. Reynolds (PRN) …

U.S.A. v. Dr. Ronald McIver – Brief Reply of the Appellant (PDF) John P. Flannery, II; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Record Number 05-4884; Filed: 2006-02-24. See also: Addendum: The Sad History of Mr. Shealy – with an Introduction by Siobhan Reynolds: “… Shealy is a man Dr. McIver was accused by the govt of killing. When you look at his record you can plainly see that the govt created a world, through its enforcement strategy, where Shealy was driven to suicide by the doctors’ unwillingness to titrate his meds [because] he was roundly disapproved of for not …