I found this while researching the legalities of OPs and found this most interesting .. didn't see much posted here on this case on a search of this site, but there are many links to other articles on this case involving dr. Hurwitz and others referring to the pillbox .. he would not torture pain patients and kudos to the reporter brave enough to write this article , more truths should be written about the many reasons ops exist and more dr's should be brave enough to take a stand for the war against drugs, becoming a war against dr's .. imho

Here's the article

Source: Alternet
Date: 23 December 2004

Travesty of Justice
By David Borden, DRCNet
Not a day goes by in the drug war without something happening that shouldn't. This week an innocent and heroic doctor was convicted in a court, by a jury that wasn't afforded information they should have had, of charges that should never have been brought, under laws that shouldn't exist. Soon he will be given a prison sentence that any right-thinking person should regard as obscene.

He is William Hurwitz, the most prominent advocate, and at one time practitioner of, aggressive treatment for severe chronic pain for patients who suffer from it. I have written about Dr. Hurwitz since 1996, the year the Board of Medicine of Virginia yanked his license, to his patients' detriment, and I have met him on multiple occasions, including the day he received an award from the American Society for Action on Pain for the risks he took.

One of those patients was David Covillion, a former police officer who became disabled from a fight with a suspect. Covillion, like most of Hurwitz's patients, was not able to find another doctor willing to treat him. His pain was so great that he saw no way out but to end his life. He recorded a dramatic videotape the day before, explaining his decision, a tape that was played on 60 Minutes when it reported on the case.

The media, unfortunately, has not been clear in its more recent reporting on this history. Hurwitz, in fact, was essentially exonerated by the medical board, which restored his license, though not before much damage was done. He was able to return to practicing medicine and treating pain � until two years ago, when, knowing that the federal investigation was coming, he closed his practice. He wanted to give his patients a chance � whatever little they had of one � to find other doctors willing to treat them. Two and a half months after Hurwitz announced his decision, the feds raided his office and home.

It is a simple concept � one would think � that patients should get what they need for pain. But the drugs patients need for pain are also among the drugs that drug police make a living hunting down. The enforcement bureaus devoted to that nexus � anti-diversion bureaus � must draw blood to justify their existence and expand. The convictions they have now obtained against Dr. Hurwitz � which will put him in prison for life if the situation goes un-remedied � are bad news for pain patients. As one advocate told the media on getting the news, doctors are going to "run for the hills" whenever they meet a pain patient from now on. Who can blame them? Life in prison is a steep cost to risk for any cause, even the cause of obeying one's physician's oath.

It is that oath that Hurwitz was following. Frank Fisher, another pain doctor who had (relatively) better luck, has described Dr. Hurwitz as the most ethical of the pain doctors � the most ethical because he would always treat a pain patient for the pain, absent proof of the patient's misconduct. This included the patients other doctors most feared to treat � the patients with addictions, the poor, those with an unsavory look � those for whom the risk to the doctor of being fooled and ending up facing a prosecution is the greatest.

But as Dr. Hurwitz told the jury when he took the stand, to deny a patient pain treatment is tantamount to torture. If he had proof that patients were diverting the drugs, he would cut them off. But without proof, he was obligated to treat the pain they seemed to have, because to do otherwise would violate medical ethics. Dr. Hurwitz was unwilling to torture his patients by denying them medicine, even though that was what was needed to protect himself from the drug police. Wexler also disallowed the defense from presenting a document published recently by DEA and pain treatment experts to the jury, because the DEA had withdrawn the document by that time. Would it not have been more in the spirit of truth � the "whole truth," as the witness oath goes � to show the jury the document, as well as the DEA's letter explaining their withdrawal of it, as well as the response by DEA's former physician partners which outlined how distorted and dishonest DEA's reasons really were, as well as the evidence that is suggestive that DEA withdrew the document to improve their chances of convicting Hurwitz himself? And there were other errors on Wexler's part.

I don't know whether Judge Wexler was biased or whether he meant well and was merely manipulated into his bad decisions by smart prosecutors. I also don't know whether prosecutors McNulty or Lytle or Rossi meant well but are merely misguided � truthfully I consider their motives deeply suspect, but that is only a speculation. Regardless, they are all participants in, and perpetrators of, a profoundly destructive attack on the rights and lives of pain patients everywhere. Some of the people reading this editorial are patients who may regard their hopes for relief from pain as having been dealt a blow yesterday in the courthouse. All of us could be in that situation one day and become the victims of McNulty and Lytle and Rossi and Wexler.

But they are also perpetrators of a travesty of justice against an individual � a lynching, in effect � of an innocent doctor whose only crime is that he would not torture his patients by denying them the medicine they needed. And that is not what the law is meant to achieve.

In 2004 we do not need or want martyrs, but we seem to have them. I am sure Dr. Hurwitz does not want to spend years in prison awaiting his appeal, nor spend the remainder of his life there if the appeal fails and no other relief is obtained. But if that is what happens, the reason may at least be some small source of comfort and large source of pride: He would not torture.


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More articles on the site this was on

http://opioids.com/legal/dr-hurwitz.html


The War on Doctors?


Morphine versus oxycodone
Tramadol versus oxycodone
OxyContin: politics and science
OxyContin: prescribing indications

Unannounced DEA withdrawal of guidelines on painkillers



source : http://opioids.com/legal/dr-hurwitz.html

Jani, thanks for taking the time to post this.
Another good website for info on Dr Hurwitz(and other doctors that are being persecuted or sanctioned) is www.painreliefnetwork.org . I feel so strongly about their cause that I finally stepped up and donated to the cause. Its important to realize that their cause is our cause.

The whole pain treatment in the US is a true mess. I think anyone in chronic pain can testify to that. The answers are not clear, but there is strength in numbers and the voices are louder in numbers. One person cannot be heard as loudly as organization such prn, and others like this one. There are many good ones out there.

Just imagine what would happen and how much publicity would be generated if the nation's doctors went on strike for about a month? I mean refusing to treat anyone at all for any reason. Sure there would be a lot of face-plants, but I would be willing to bet that the stink would change policy almost immediately and expose the DEA for the fraud they really are. Unfortunately a few sacrifices would have to be made but it would certainly focus the light of public scrutiny on our public servant cockroaches.

- Gekko

I used to get in trouble in school for making noise in school. This is one time that I don't care if I make noise and if people hear me, GOOD!

These articles bring tears to my eyes. There are some other articles that I have posted. The true cper's will see the difference. The people that cannot stand upright in the morning, cry before they can move in morning, these are the people I am speaking to, or cannot move at all.
As you can see this is near and dear to my heart. I am tenacious as a litte rat terrier nipping at your heels. I want justice for all of us. And to be treated fairly is what this all about.
The only way to make change happen is to work through the channels that is understood. The government channels. The established org's are a good place to start.
I will continue to post ways to get involved. Even if its just a small note to your congressman/congresswoman/senator; I will bring it to you. Thats how change is brought about. Color me a bit naive but if we don't speak now, they will get control of our bodies and we will wonder "when did this happen" and what could we have done to stop it.

The time is now, and don't waste a moment wondering what could of be changed.
Thanks Jani.
K