Just Say No To Jail
Jacob Sullum writes in Reason about Richard Paey, an MS sufferer with a botched back surgery who was forced to go to great (and illegal) lengths to get the pills he needed to relieve his pain:
When Paey and his family moved to Florida in 1994, he had trouble finding a new doctor. Because he had developed tolerance to the pain medication, he needed high doses, and because he was not on the verge of death, he needed them indefinitely. As many people who suffer from chronic pain can testify, both of those factors make doctors nervous, since they know the government is looking over their shoulders while they write prescriptions.Unable to find a local physician who was comfortable taking him on as a patient, Paey used undated prescription forms from Nurkiewicz's office to obtain painkillers in Florida. Paey says Nurkiewicz authorized these prescriptions, which the doctor (who could face legal trouble of his own) denies.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office began investigating Paey in late 1996 after receiving calls from suspicious pharmacists. Detectives tracked Paey as he filled prescriptions for 1,200 pills from January 1997 until his arrest that March.
At first investigators assumed Paey must be selling the pills, since they thought the amounts were too large for him to consume on his own. But the police never found any evidence of that, and two years after his arrest prosecutors offered him a deal: If he pleaded guilty to attempted trafficking, he would receive eight years of probation, including three years of house arrest.
But, Paey was worried, his wife Linda says, that he'd go to prison if he was accused of violating his probation. Moreover, he was loathe to identify himself as a criminal since he believed he'd done nothing wrong. Paey turned down the deal. Perhaps owing to his stubbornness, prosecutors then pursued him, junkyard dog-style, through three trials, to the final miscarriage of justice -- the mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in jail -- even though they knew he was not selling the pills; merely trying to alleviate his own suffering.
Those of us in eternal pain know what it's like to be Mr. Paey. It seems that the medical profession (don't cut them any slack and put it ALL on the DEA)is more interested in easing the pain of the dying than in finding solutions to those of us whose continuing death sentence is measured in decades, not months. But then, the DEA has never been a rationally acting agency, regardless of the legality or illegality of any actions. Maybe in prison, he'll get the drugs he needs. Since prisoners get better medical care than most uninsured Americans, who knows, he might even get a lasting treatment.
And of course, the doctor in the tale is more than happy to foist his legal troubles off on the patient. When was the last time the words "physician" and "merciful" appeared in a sentence together?
Charlotte Goodson at April 27, 2004 4:04 PM
Actually, there are a number of doctors who have sacrificed everything to help prescribe pain relief to patients desperately in need. Sullum has written of many. Yes, the medical profession, like many professions, is populated by the greedy and unremarkable. But there are those who make a difference. Check out Reason.com and search for other articles on the topic by Sullum.
Amy Alkon at April 27, 2004 4:11 PM
Charlotte,
Also, a lot of the time when doctors are hesitant about prescribing pain killers it is because of fear that the DEa will come down on them. No one wants the DEA watching them to closesly and, sadly, being overly sympathetic to a patient's needs, at least when the needs are pain killers, is a way to get them to watch you.
Mo at April 29, 2004 5:40 PM