Apr 13, 2005 Press Release PR Newswire

To: National Desk

Contact: Siobhan Reynolds of Pain Relief Network WASHINGTON, April 13 /U.S. Newswire/ — On the eve of Dr. William E. Hurwitz’s sentencing in Alexandria, Va., on multiple drug trafficking convictions, the Pain Relief Network held a press conference at the National Press Club today denouncing the government’s War On Doctors and calling upon President Bush to stop the madness.

Pain Relief Network’s Siobhan Reynolds charged the United States Department of Justice with bringing phony cases into court and procuring convictions by deception.

“In the Hurwitz case, and in all the other trials I have observed, the government has never produced evidence that the accused doctor intended to divert drugs outside his professional practice or to profit from any such diversion. In the Hurwitz case, government lawyers have said that his conviction should stand even if he wrote the prescriptions in good faith. No wonder doctors all over America are putting down their pens.”

Joining in the appeal for sanity and order were pain patients and their families who had flown in from all over America.

Linda Paey, wife of imprisoned pain patient Richard Paey, came from Florida to criticize our nation’s misguided drug control strategy, “The DEA put it to Richard’s doctor that one of them was ‘going down.’ Because Richard would not falsely testify against his doctor, he sits in prison, sentenced to 25 years. How many patients have that kind of moral courage?”

Darlene Oakes, a California resident and former patient of exonerated physician Dr. Frank Fisher, spoke about the stigma suffered by patients in pain as a result of the government’s oppressive policies. “People who aren’t in pain don’t know what it’s like to have pharmacists suspect you of being a criminal — just because you have pain.”

Bill Lapidat, an undertreated pain patient from Minnesota can’t find effective pain treatment and is being kept from work because Minnesota is “the land of 10,000 treatment centers. The nurses deny you meds and then calmly tell you that they sense you are angry. The sanctimony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.”

Sal Serra, Michigan pain patient and senior Congressional liaison for Pain Relief Network, delivered the most shocking story of the day. When his mother-in-law suspected him of addiction because he is a high- dose patient, she called the DEA. Serra recounted the massive DEA investigation in stark terms, “they used helicopters, they sent hookers up to me in a bar to see if they could seduce me into giving them my drugs. They forced my doctor to cut me off my medicines, throwing me into withdrawal and excruciating pain. They kept the pressure up for so long, they ruined my marriage. If the American people knew what was really going on, they wouldn’t allow them to get away with it for another minute.”

Dr. Frank Fisher put chronic pain treatment with opioids in perspective, explaining that all people are “opioid dependent” for pain relief, “pain is a disease where the opioids in our central nervous system fail to stop our pain. It is imperative that acute pain be treated aggressively, to prevent the development of chronic pain. Treating pain with opioids, is like treating diabetes with insulin.”

But as Reynolds noted, doctors are afraid to treat people’s pain with opioids because of the risks they face.” With the Department of Justice asking for life in prison for a doctor they know was acting in good faith, the other doctors have no protection against the Feds. This is a government generated public health catastrophe.”

For more information go to http://painreliefnetwork.org http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=45755