Apr 28, 2004
Author Unknown
Drugpolicy.org
Pain patient Richard Paey, a 45-year-old father of three, was sentenced by a Florida court last week to a mandatory minimum 25-year sentence and fined $500,000 for drug trafficking. Paey’s crime? He possessed more pain medicine than allowed by the state.
According to the Pain Relief Network (PRN), which supported Paey through sentencing [...]
April 27, 2004
By: Various
The New York Times (NY)
To the Editor: Re “Drug Makers Hope to Kill the Kick in Pain Relief” (April 20):
The article notes that doctors are being told how to monitor suspicious patients with urine tests and that doctors and drug companies are spending time and money on finding ways to torture people.
One [...]
April 27, 2004
By: Trevor Butterworth
Stats.org
On March 25, Slate published a story by STATS fellow Maia Szalavitz on the myths surrounding an apparent epidemic of OxyContin abuse. (OxyContin is a sustained release opioid for treating moderate to severe pain.) Szalavitz’s story focused on the errors in the Orlando Sentinel’s coverage of OxyContin and argued that it [...]
Apr 23, 2004
By: Jacob Sullum
Reason.com
Here’s a bit of legal information that may interest Rush Limbaugh: Under Florida law, illegally obtaining more than 28 grams of painkillers containing the narcotic oxycodone—a threshold exceeded by a single 60-pill Percocet prescription—automatically makes you the worst sort of drug trafficker, even if you never sold a single pill. Even [...]
Apr 19, 2004
By: Jacob Sullum
Reason.com
Last week Richard Paey, a Florida man who suffers from terrible back pain as a result of a car accident and unsuccessful surgery, received a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence for drug trafficking. After moving from New Jersey to Florida 10 years ago, Paey could not find a local doctor willing to [...]
Apr 17, 2004
By: Richard Raeke
The St Petersburg Times (FL)
Accused drug trafficker Richard Paey was sentenced Friday to spend the next 25 years in prison. Paey believes the sentence is unfair. So does the judge who sentenced him. And the prosecutors did what they could to avoid the harsh penalty.
Before trial, they offered him house arrest [...]
