Posted on 01/27/2006 10:48:17 AM PST by JTN
The same judicial system that prosecuted Richard Paey for obtaining too much pain medication is now supplying him in prison with more than that amount to ease his tremendous pain.
60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer reports on this case, in which an accident victim's quest to medicate his pain ran afoul of drug laws, this Sunday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
A long-ago car accident and failed spinal operation put Paey in such severe pain that only escalating amounts of opiate medication could relieve it.
"As I got worse, I developed a tolerance also with the medication and so I needed larger doses," says Paey, who describes the pain as burning in his legs. "It's an intense pain that, over time, will literally drive you to suicide."
Paey, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis, did try to commit suicide at one point.
After moving to Florida with his wife and children, Paey says doctors there were wary of prescribing the amounts of pills he needed as that would draw the attention of law enforcement. So he persuaded his longtime New Jersey doctor to continue prescribing his medication in the high amounts necessary for relief. The doctor agreed to fax and mail prescriptions and sometimes verified them to pharmacists.
Paey's frequent refills did draw attention and, before arresting him for drug trafficking, the Drug Enforcement Agency visited his New Jersey physician, Dr. Stephen Nurkiewicz. When confronted by agents about the number of pills Paey had purchased — 18,000 in two years — Nurkiewicz rescinded initial statements of support for his former patient and said Paey was forging prescriptions.
"In Richard Paey's room ... were the raw materials to make prescriptions," Florida State Prosecutor Scott Andringa says. "They found a lot of documents that suggested forging prescriptions."
They also found 60 empty bottles of pain relievers, some of which surveillance teams had watched Paey purchase. Andringa says there was no evidence that Paey was selling his drugs, "but it is a reasonable inference from the facts that he was selling them, because no person can consume all these pills."
Paey, confined to a wheelchair, is now serving 25 years in a Florida prison. A jury convicted him of 15 counts of prescription forgery, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, and drug trafficking. He had the choice of entering a guilty plea in exchange for no jail time but, for him, that was no choice, says Paey.
"Had I accepted a plea bargain and carried that conviction on my record, I would have found it near impossible to get any medication," he says. "I didn't want to plead guilty to something that I didn't do."
Paey denies selling his medication, saying he took and needed all 18,000 pills. This scenario — 25 pills a day — is plausible, says Dr. Russell Portnoy, chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine at New York’s Beth Israel Hospital.
Once acclimated to a drug, patients can regularly take what would be lethal doses to ordinary people, Portnoy says.
"It really sounds like society used a mallet to try to handle a problem that required a much more subtle approach," says Portnoy. "If they had taken this man who had engaged in behaviors that were unacceptable and treated it as a medical issue, it seems like this patient would have had better pain control and a functional life instead of being in prison."
Andringa disagrees. "This case is not about pain patients, it's just not. This case is about prescription fraud. We were very reasonable in this case. But once somebody says, 'I'm not going to accept a plea offer however reasonable it is …' "
Paey gets all the medication he needs now, in larger doses than he was taking before, from the state through a pump connected directly to his spine. He is appealing his conviction.
Simple. He stopped selling.
He was going through 800 pills/month (18,000 in two years, correct?). Starting in January (when the feds started tracking his purchases) he dropped to 400/month.
I say he needed 400/month for pain, and was selling the other 400/month. There's no proof of that -- the feds never caught him selling, though they don't have to. It's just my opinion and my explanation of the discrepancy.
And my explanation has more credibility than yours.
Just like that? For no stated reason at all?
And my explanation has more credibility than yours.
So you think.
I don't know. Is there?
This guy's "pain management" consisted of forged prescriptions and you say that the state has no business "mucking about" in his activities ... well, what am I supposed to think? It's obvious that what he did was OK with you. What's wrong with my assumptions, based on that?
Geez. Maybe he suspected the feds were tracking him.
Screw paranoia -- sometimes people really ARE following you.
--- my explanation has more credibility than yours.
So you think.
122 JTN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He always thinks like that. Amusing, ain't it?
The government has to start tracking you before you can figure out that they are doing that. Why couldn't any evidence of any sales be found during that lag time?
After all, drug dealers are known for keeping paperwork.
#101 applies to you too.
Thank you for your uninformed opinion.
I think letting people go through pain is criminal.
Who needs their paperwork? You track the guy and watch him make a deal. There's the evidence. The government found no evidence that he actually did this.
Thank you, Inspector Clouseau.
I'm a paraplegic because of one of these lesions. I went to six "pain clinics experts" from 1999-2002 before anyone thought of this possibility.
Proof is irrelevant to drug war True Believers.
The 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard ... another casualty of the War on Drugs.
I have heard Oxy demonized as hillbilly heroin etc. but for those who need it it is a wonderful drug. Oxycontin made the last 3-4 years of her life livable, productive and added greatly to her simple need for human dignity.
My sympathies for your loss.
A casualty of the "War On Drugs"A shot WIDE of the mark;
This is better portrayed as "A casualty of poor representation IN COURT."
Sooner or later, all our families will face this outrage. The WOD is insane.Hyperbolic and non-reflective of reality, non-reflective of the experiences our family has had, and I'll bet non-reflective of your actual experinece as well; simply extrapolating a singular, irregular, anomolous miscarriage of justice into widespread rampant prediction is reckless and irresponsible. Better to consider the indivuduals involved such as the prosecutor and the defense attorney. Both seemed to have pulled boners in this instance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.