From: spowell
Subject: Pain Meds
Date: 1996/06/27
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> Subject: Defend Chronic Pain Treatment
> From: Peter Rashkin
> Date: 1996/06/10
> Message-Id:
> Distribution: usa
> Followup-To: alt.activism.d
> Resent-From: rich
> Organization: ?
> Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
> Originator: rich@pencil.math.missouri.edu
>
> >Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 19:34:31 -0400
> >From: David Borden
>
> *****************************************************************
> Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
> Rapid Response Team
> *****************************************************************
>
> Please copy and distribute.
> --------------------------
>
>
> 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.
>
> On September 17, 1991, agents from the Drug Enforcement
> Administration and a local narcotics officer visited Dr.
> William Hurwitz in his Washington, DC office, stripping him
> of his licenses to prescribe narcotics and practice
> medicine. Hurwitz got his medical license back six days
> later, but it took nine months and $55,000 in legal fees
> before he could once again prescribe narcotics. The DEA
> moved against Hurwitz because he prescribed up to 500
> milligrams a day of oxycodone, a strong opioid painkiller,
> to treat the severe, chronic pain of a patient suffering
> from bone deterioration in his hips. The standard dose of
> oxycodone advised at that time was only 20 milligrams, but
> when patients suffer from long-term, intolerable levels of
> pain, tolerance to the drug builds up quickly and very high
> doses are not only necessary for pain relief, but are also
> safe: addiction is extremely rare among pain patients, and
> after a short time period, the drugs no longer get the
> patients "high," but rather allow them to function normally.
>
> The drug police are again trying to take down Dr. Hurwitz.
> This time it's the Virginia Medical Board, which has
> suspended his license in that state and is holding hearings
> in late June, based on the claim that Dr. Hurwitz's
> continued practice of medicine "constitutes a substantial
> danger to the public health and safety." (The DEA is almost
> certainly involved behind the scenes.) Hurwitz can still
> practice in Washington, DC, for now, but the Virginia
> pharmacies that had served his patients nationwide cannot
> fill his prescriptions. These patients are frightened that
> they will be unable to get pain medication; even worse, the
> action, if it stands, will bring the progress of chronic
> pain treatment to a virtual halt. As one of Hurwitz's
> patients, a prominent attorney, wrote: "The chilling effect
> this type of action has on the willingness of *any*
> physician to provide legitimate treatment for persons with
> chronic pain cannot be overstated. We will essentially be
> orphan patients given the right to unobstructed assisted
> suicide by the federal courts, but no right to a decent
> quality of life by any as-yet recognized body of law. These
> stark choices are familiar to many of us, and we must take
> action -- now -- before the Board itself visits upon us a
> `substantial danger' to *our* health and safety."
>
> The consequences for physicians can go far beyond loss of
> career. In 1990, a Dr. William Polan was sent to prison
> after an old friend of his, George Wehner, had recruited 14
> people to fake illnesses to Dr. Polan so that George could
> sell the drug he prescribed them, oxcydone, on the street.
> George testified against Dr. Polan, in order to plea bargain
> his sentence down to six months, while Dr. Polan, who had no
> one to testify against, received a mandatory minimum
> sentence of 12 years in prison without the possibility of
> parole. The sentence was determined based not only on the
> weight of the oxcydone, but also on the weight of the
> carrier mixture, aspirin or Tylenol, which was several times
> greater.
>
> Requiring doctors to act as police over their patients
> dramatically compromises the quality of treatment of chronic
> pain. The Virginia Medical Board and the DEA are
> interfering with proper medical care and are ruining lives.
> You can help in any of the following ways:
>
> 1) Write the Board to protest their reckless actions. You
> don't have to live in Virginia to write them. Address your
> correspondence to:
>
> Warren W. Koontz, M.D.
> Executive Director, Board of Medicine
> 6606 West Broad St., 4th Floor
> Richmond, VA 23230-1717
> (804) 662-9943 (fax)
>
> 2) Attend Dr. Hurwitz's hearing. It is scheduled to take
> place on Thursday and Friday, June 20 & 21, 1996, beginning
> at 9:30 AM each day. The hearing could be postponed or
> canceled, so you should call the Board at (804) 662-9908 for
> verification.
>
> 3) A fund has been established for Dr. Hurwitz's defense.
> It will cost him $35,000 just to begin, and the total cost
> could run as high as $250,000. If you wish to contribute,
> make checks payable to his attorneys, Tate & Bywater, 2740
> Chain Bridge Rd., Vienna, VA 22181, and make sure to
> indicate on the check that it is for the Dr. William E.
> Hurwitz Legal Defense Fund.
>
> 4) Distribute this bulletin to people you know, especially
> doctors and patients.
>
> Dr. Hurwitz has been interviewed for the CBS Evening News.
> We don't yet know what day he will be featured, but it could
> be as soon as Thursday, May 6. DRCNet Director David Borden
> appeared on local television with Dr. Hurwitz and three
> patients/activists in Williamsburg, VA last Memorial Day
> weekend. The tape will be made available in the near
> future, and is the right length to be distributable by other
> local access cable stations, most of which are eager for new
> material. You can help get the word out by getting the
> video to your local access cable station, and by letting
> people you know about the CBS feature.
>
> More information on the pain issue is available from the
> National Chronic Pain Outreach Association (NCPOA), 7979 Old
> Georgetown Rd., Suite 100, Bethesda, MD 20814, (301) 652-
> 4948, (301) 907-0745 (fax), ncpoa1@aol.com. You can get
> involved with the pain issue online by subscribing to the
> mailing list of the American Society for Action on Pain
> (ASAP); send e-mail to listproc@drcnet.org with the line
> "subscribe ASAP your name" in the message.
>
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>
> ========================================================
> Peter Rashkin
>
> SPANISH DAGGER PUBLICATIONS
> PO Box 3008
> Long Beach, CA 90803
>
> Read THE DAGGER on line at
> http://www.kaiwan.com:80/~cortes/dagger.html
>
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