Dec 18, 2004 By: Siobhan Reynolds Painreliefnetwork.org

Letter to the New York Times

Dear Mr. Okrent,

I have written your office on several other occasions and have not received a reply. Following the Times’ failure to cover the criminal trial of Dr. William Hurwitz and the pain movement that is being crushed by the United States government, I felt that I had to voice my complaint again and request a meeting with you.

I supplied Adam Liptak with a letter from 6 former presidents of the American Pain Society denouncing the testimony of the government’s key expert witness against Dr. Hurwitz. The language could not have been stronger, an astonishing political development-that has again, gone unreported.

I have spoken to several reporters at the Times who made it clear that the paper was aware of the trial and of the other cases that PRN is supporting, we were yet again on the front page of the Washington Post when Dr. Hurwitz was convicted, the DEA withdrew its FAQ document and has since openly intimidated the medical community with a new statement of the law-the intimidation acknowleged by the AMA! and still nothing from the New York Times.

Celebrex and Vioxx have been shown to be tremendously dangerous and have been withdrawn from the market while opioids are nontoxic to major organ systems but their availability is actively suppressed by the US Department of Justice-we have a CSA that judges drugs according to law enforcement notions rather than scientific ones, and still the New York Times cannot find the story.

Patients and doctors are intimidated. Families are being ruined. Physicians are being required to act as policemen in the doctor patient relationship-the DEA says that doctors acting in good faith have nothing to fear and the SAME DAY that Tandy announces this “reassuring” position in USA Today, the US Attorney prosecuting Hurwitz asks the judge to leave the good faith instruction out of his charges to the jury which this unapologetically biased judge did.

Still nothing.

Dr. Hurwitz had his 2 million dollar bond revoked and was thrown in jail immediately-someone who could not again commit the crime he had been convicted of-and still nothing.

What, Mr. Okrent, does it take to persuade the New York Times to cover this story?

I live in New York City and will be available to meet at your convenience. Given the fact that your paper looked at the ethical problems surrounding Barry Meier’s reporting and gave yourselves a clean bill of health, I would have thought you would be eager to avoid any more misunderstandings regarding your coverage of the pain issue. I must say that I am shocked by your paper’s failure to cover this story.

Thank You for Your Prompt Attention to This Matter,

Siobhan Reynolds President Pain Relief Network