Excerpt: “Dr. Mangino has been unjustly prosecuted and convicted in Pennsylvania. His case is unusual. He is currently incarcerated at SCI-Cresson… Essentially, in PA and nationwide, if this conviction is allowed to stand on the grounds presented by prosecution, then any single opioid prescription can be deemed illegal.” — Dr. Mangino
Many physicians are concerned that prescribing opioid analgesics in chronic pain treatment is accompanied by an unacceptable risk of unwarranted prosecution. The validity of this fear is evaluated by examining the standards through which physicians are targeted and prosecuted. Prohibition law is identified as an error in social policy that distorts medical standards.
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.
There are so many who need opioid pain medications and can not get them… These people have their lives destroyed every day as they drag themselves from doctor to doctor being lied to, verbally and sometimes physically abused, forced into unnecessary rounds of expensive testing… They are sneered at by pharmacists, called addicts by doctors, drug tested, called “frequent-flyers” and other derogatory names by emergency room nurses and doctors, denied reimbursement…
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 …
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.
Principles of Opioid Management of Pain (full text)
Joel Hochman, M.D. and the membership of the NFTP and the Pain Relief Network; TPPCD listServ; Summer 2006.
**Permalink:** http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/archive/prn-tort-claim-vs-wa/
Excerpt:
2. Standard pharmacological resources (such as the Physicians Desk Reference) should be utilized in the choice of initial doses… These standard resources do not reflect [individual] variations and are not the final word on dosing…
a. As no maximum dose or schedule exists for any opioid medication, the maximum dose or schedule utilized shall …
The nonprofit Pain Relief Network (PRN) says the guidelines for prescribing narcotics, written by the Washington state Department of Health and published in March 2007, have influenced pain treatment across the country and have made doctors afraid to give opiate prescriptions. Siobhan Reynolds, PRN president, says the group decided to target WA because the state has been a leader both in pain treatment and in restricting doctors’ prescriptions of pain relief medication. [...]
Dr. Schneider’s pretrial motions to dismiss on constitutional grounds, and his motions for abstention have been filed, as has the Government’s opposition to those motions, and Dr. Schneider’s response to the Government’s opposition. As I understand it, now we wait for rulings by the Judge. The relevant briefs, and the Order releasing Dr. Schneider on bond and setting conditions on that release, are linked to, below.
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.
Every time I think this action by Siobhan Reynolds on behalf of the abandoned pain patients of Dr. Stephen Schneider can’t get any worse, on the human-suffering scale, the Fed. lashes out again, digging themselves in deeper, making themselves look dopey; not to mention the State, as Congressional Clowns pander and Medical Board members dither… The band played on. [...]
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.” [...]
Associated Press story about pressure being put on the Pain Relief Network, it’s president, Siobhan Reynolds, because of PRN’s involvement in helping the abandoned pain patients of Dr. Schneider which has interfered with Kansas AG Tanya Treadway drug war prosecution of that physician.
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.”
05 Feb 2009 |
