Great article written by Jacob Sullum on Reason
I have to admit I’m impressed by the achievement of the federal prosecutors who call McLean, Virginia, pain doctor William Hurwitz “a major and deadly drug dealer.” Although the evidence they presented in his trial made it clear Hurwitz was not a drug trafficker, they still managed to convict him of drug trafficking.
The prosecutors did not dispute that Hurwitz had helped hundreds of patients recover their lives by prescribing the high doses of narcotics they needed to control their chronic pain. Instead they pointed to the small minority of his patientsó5 to 10 percent, by his attorneys’ estimateówho were misusing the painkillers he prescribed, selling them on the black market, or both.
The prosecutors did not claim Hurwitz, who faces a possible life sentence, got so much as a dime from illegal drug sales. Instead they pointed to his income as a physician, which they said was boosted by fees from patients who were faking or exaggerating their pain.
read this article at http://lifeinpain.org/bbs”
Doctor William Hurwitz office website
“The Police State of Medicine”, Remarks By Dr. William Hurwitz
How does the police-state of medicine affect medical care? and…What can we do about it?
One of the saddest and least noticed consequences of the war on drugs is the under-treatment and non-treatment of chronic pain. Literally hundreds of thousands of patients endure needless agony — in some cases turning to suicide as the only available form of relief — because they could not find a doctor willing to prescribe adequate doses of narcotics for them.
The problem is two-fold: widespread ignorance on the part of physicians on chronic pain treatment; and a threatening law enforcement bureaucracy that can ruin or even incarcerate doctors whom they see as being too liberal with their prescriptions. These two factors play into each other to perpetuate a situation in which denial of pain relief is standard practice.
I have been on opiod pain medication for five years… I have had my condition that causes me to be in agony verified and lessened by surgeons at the ranked number one hospital in the country.
Yet, this attack on my doctor and man who saved my life may end up being a death sentence to me. I would be safer and more able to receive help if I had AIDS.
Because some people lie and don’t use the medication as directed, I may die. I have a doctor for now, but for how long?
The DEA/DOJ ruined more than one life when they did this.
by Sheldon Richman
from baltimorechronicle.com
…if you look carefully, you will learn that people who suffer chronic pain are routinely undertreated because their doctors fear that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will accuse them of being drug pushers, destroy their practices, wipe them out financially, and throw them in jail for good measure. This is no exaggeration. Doctors have even been charged with murder when a patient dies an apparently drug-related death…
The head of the DEA says there is no reason that good doctors should be hampered by its efforts. Karen Tandy pledges that her “goal is to ensure that patients with legitimate need have access to pain medications that relieve suffering and improve quality of life…. Doctors acting in good faith and in accordance with established medical norms should remain confident in their ability to prescribe appropriate pain medications.”…
read this article on baltimorechronicle.com
from Drug War Chronicle
Not a day goes by in the drug war without something happening that shouldn’t. This week an innocent and heroic doctor was convicted in a court, by a jury that wasn’t afforded information they should have had, of charges that should never have been brought, under laws that shouldn’t exist. Soon he will be given a prison sentence that any right-thinking person should regard as obscene.
continue reading at stopthedrugwar.org