Category: Drug war journalism

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.

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. [...]

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 …

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 [...]

Blogged analysis by DeLuca about a confused opinion article in Wall Street Journal regarding the relationship between law enforcement imperatives on doctors and the resulting routine undermedication of pain patients. [...]

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 entry about typical drug war Trash Journalism – this time regarding the federal indictment of Dr. Stack in Utah on drug charges. “Stack was arrested in May for investigation of dealing large quantities of narcotic pain killers to people without a legitimate medical reason.” And so on. No cognizance we’ve only heard one side of the story so far, that Warren Stack is innocent until proven guilty. This isn’t journalism, it’s a press release for the government.

Excerpt: “You captured the absurdity of these trials beautifully. I remember when I watched my first one of these, the “trial” of Drs. Bordeaux, Allere, Jackson et al of the Comprehensive Care clinic in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. There, the prosecution could make no allegations of high pill counts or “addicted” babies, so instead, they added little dramatic touches into the statements the doctors supposedly gave to the DEA agents. These touches gave the scene, as portrayed by prosecutors, what theater artists call the “feel of reality”… The stunning thing was, the topic at hand was pain care, so the …

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 reviewing the bizarre developments in Salt Lake City in the wake of the federal raid on Dr. Warren Stack. Much effort is being put into registering “addicts” into government clinics. Zero effort has been made, or concern expressed, for the abandoned pain patients who are to be treated as “prescription drug addicts who could turn to heroin at any time” according to the District Attorney.

Blog post about the raid on pain doctor Warren Stack and the initial media smear which is analyzed as a common tactic in the War on Doctors. Links to other examples of this are given.

The headline: “Five Moms Target Cough Medicine Abuse” caught my eye, but the article actually frightened me a little. “Five moms across the nation this week launched a campaign against the trend of teens abusing cough medicines to get high. The effort is called the ‘Five Moms’ campaign and was developed by the nation’s cough medicine makers. It is designed to alert parents to a growing substance-abuse problem that most probably don’t even know exists.” Jeez! How many times have I told you to NEVER, EVER! alert me to problems I don’t know exist?

Excerpt from this blog post about the Dr. Nelson case, Billing MT: “DEA raids doc – seizes patient records – suspends doc’s DEA license forcing abandonment of patients – conducts an ‘inquiry’ that ‘focused on diversion’ that results only in media smear of doc, and loss of livelihood. No Charges 1 year later. No Charges 2 years later, and DEA is off the case, and U.S. Attorney Alme has ‘no comment’. Meanwhile, patients suffered, of course. ‘Innuendo and an investigation’ are all the government needs to close down opioid pain management in entire communities. The Nelson case is a travesty.”