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        New Message Board Archives >> 2005 General Board Posts >> This is my Dr. 4
        
(Message started by: vietvet2tours on May 18^th, 2005, 3:07pm)

Title: This is my Dr. 4
Post by vietvet2tours on May 18^th, 2005, 3:07pm

Five of Nelson's patients contacted Burns' office concerned about what do, said Grant Toomey, a Burns spokesman. The patients were told to seek another doctor or go to a hospital emergency room.

"We'll certainly keep tabs on it, but as an ongoing (DEA) investigation, it really falls above our heads," Toomey said.

Similar situations have occurred elsewhere in recent years, according to Siobhan Reynolds, president of Pain Relief Network, a New York-based group that says it advocates for patients with chronic pain and the doctors who treat them.

"The DEA has been going after doctors en masse," Reynolds said. "It's mostly in out-of-the-way places like Erie (Pa.), Billings, Iowa and Indiana."

Last month, a nationally known pain specialist in Virginia was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in a case where prosecutors said he was willfully ignorant that some of his patients were selling their prescription drugs or using them recreationally. A few of his patients also overdosed, prosecutors said.

Reynolds said the recent activity may have a "chilling effect" on other physicians who deal with management of severe and chronic pain, especially when they are targeted for the behavior of drug-selling patients.

"In any practice, a certain percentage of the patients are going to do that," she said. "It's an impossible situation for the physicians."

The American Medical Association in 2003 adopted a policy statement opposing "the harassment of physicians by DEA agents in response to the appropriate prescribing of controlled substances for pain management."

"The AMA is committed to the goal of protecting the legitimate use of prescription drugs for patients in pain," the AMA said on its Web site.

With his medications expired for the month, Bledsoe went to the emergency room on Tuesday afternoon. He was told that he can't get a scheduled appointment until next week and can't get a prescription for the medications he used to get through Nelson.

"I don't know what to do right now," he said.

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by vig on May 18^th, 2005, 3:14pm

They have to get Rush Limbaugh his oxycontin somehow...

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Kirk on May 18^th, 2005, 3:24pm

Well now that truly sucks. I have no idea what I would do if they removed my ability to get the medications necessay to control my pain.
Become homicidal possibly. [smiley=worried.gif]

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by vig on May 18^th, 2005, 3:26pm

Why did they do it?
Did they suspect him of kickbacks or anything?
If the patients are misusing the drugs, arrest THEM, not the doc...

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by sandie99 on May 18^th, 2005, 3:32pm

On the worst times I was suicital WITH meds.... Can't imagine what the situation would have been WITHOUT them complitely... :o

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Jimmy_B on May 18^th, 2005, 3:50pm

The Doc they were talking about in Virginia was Dr. William Hurwitz. Google his name. It's quite an interesting story.

The Drug War has gone crazy. Pain Patients are going to suffer, legitimate Doctors are going to jail, while addicts & pushers are free to just find another avenue to get their drugs [smiley=huh.gif].

Jimmy

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by vig on May 18^th, 2005, 3:59pm

Rush Limbaugh:

“Too many whites are getting away with drug use. The answer is to ... find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them, and send them up the river.”

yeah...

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by JJA on May 18^th, 2005, 4:03pm

One more time....

We NEED drug law reform.

Jesse

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Gator on May 18^th, 2005, 4:37pm

annoying

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Karla on May 18^th, 2005, 4:52pm

I would be lost and in extreame pain with out the pain killers. I would become suicidal again.

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Charlie on May 18^th, 2005, 5:13pm

Everybody knows we are for it. DEA needs to be disbanded. It's a waste of money. Anything major the FBI should be able to handle.

Drug laws: Now there's something we really need a simple majority vote on by the people at large.

Charlie

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Lizzie2 on May 18^th, 2005, 5:57pm

DEA and Pain Docs Release Collaborative FAQ About Pain Meds
In the wake of news stories about prescription drug use and abuse and great concern among patients in pain, dozens of pain experts in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), recently released a FAQ document intended to provide answers to questions about treating pain while recognizing and addressing problems associated with diversion and abuse of prescription drugs.
http://headaches.about.com/od/medsarticlesandinfo/a/dea_meds_faq.htm

DEA Withdraws Pain Med FAQ. Why?
In August, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), working with dozens of pain management specialists from across the US, released "Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for Health Care Professionals and Law Enforcement Personnel." Two weeks ago, with no warning, the DEA withdrew the FAQ and removed it from the Internet. Why?
http://headaches.about.com/od/advocacyissues/a/pain_faq_withdr.htm

DEA Finally Addresses Withdrawal of FAQ
Interim Policy Statement Issued. Substance or Fluff? In August, the DEA and a group of pain management experts had released a FAQ, "Prescription Pain Medications: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for Health Care Professionals and Law Enforcement Personnel." In October, the DEA removed the FAQ from their site, and asked some others to do the same. Answers have been unavailable since. Now, the DEA has issued an interim policy statement.
http://headaches.about.com/od/advocacyissues/a/dea_faq_interim.htm

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by vig on May 18^th, 2005, 7:09pm

wtf r these people up 2?

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Lizzie2 on May 18^th, 2005, 7:33pm

on 05/18/05 at 19:09:54, vig wrote:

wtf r these people up 2?

It's a government conspiracy to keep us from becoming junkies. ::) It doesn't work though - my last year at Penn State they did a whole series on how prevalent heroin is in central Pennsylvania. Central PA?! It's like the freaking Bible belt of the state - and we have more klan there than almost any place in the world - down by Carlisle/Harrisburg area. Sheeeeeeeeeesh and all those drugs.

It's WRONG that they keep it from legit sufferers though...

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Kevin_M on May 18^th, 2005, 8:36pm

The Contolled Substances Act simply states that controlled substance, when used for medical or scientific purposes are being used within the scope of the law, but to use them outside the scope of medical reason is illegal. Regulations about handling, storing, and distribution are tracked in terms of record keeping. DEA doesn't regulate medical practice, never has.

Patricia Good, Chief of the Liason and Policy Section of the Office of Diversion Control at the DEA.

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Tiannia on May 19^th, 2005, 11:53am

My husband and I are both in Pain Mangement. We both see the same doc for it. But with all fo the changes of employeement and insurance we had this spring, he went to a new PCP. She wrote him a script for this pain meds (less then he was on before and no muscle relaxers). She then ook what meds he still had from his last appointment which was 2 weeks old (so still pretty damn full since he is written to take 5 15mg Roxicodine a day and soma 2x a day) and gave him a referal to a new pain mgmt doc. He called th pain mgmt doc to set an appointment and they told him he could not be seen for 3 months, so he told them no that he would get a different referal to someone who could see him sooner.

2 days later we got a letter in the mail from the PCP saying that she would not be his doctor any loonger and that he needed to find a new doctor. He went and asked for his medications back and she refused. So he called the cops. Because she had his property. She told the cops that she did not have to release his medication because he was under her care. But Shaun showed them the letter that was dated the same day of his dr appointment. So she had to have written it and sent it out right after seeing him. They actually cuffed her and put her in the back of the cop car before the nurse went in and got his meds. The cops gave Shaun his meds and asked if he still wanted to press changes. He did not. But when he left the doctors office the cops had still not released her. The cops told all the patents to leave and where going into the back office when he left.

Shaun called the State Medical Licensing office and they where very interested in this. We are not sure if she was ever brought up on anything, but I would assume that if there where more medications that she had taken from patients back there that she could be charged with something. What legitamate use would she have for confiscating medication and then terminating her patents?

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Lizzie2 on May 19^th, 2005, 12:03pm

on 05/19/05 at 11:53:32, Tiannia wrote:

What legitamate use would she have for confiscating medication and then terminating her patents?

Good question. Look up the state board of nursing in your state, or the medical licensing board and check out how many professionals have lost their licenses to drug and alcohol use. Some people have the gall to get out a patient's pain med and never give it to them - taking it for themselves. And then they get caught and lose their license.

The report of people who have there license revoked comes out once a month.

If you can follow up on it, you should see if that was the case with her. Taking the meds and then using them herself after terminating the patient. I mean, meds are supposed to be destroyed - docs can't take them back into their posession - what's the point unless she was going to use them in some illegal way?

My .02

Lizz

Title: Re: This is my Dr. 4
Post by Jimmy_B on May 19^th, 2005, 3:43pm

on 05/18/05 at 20:36:38, Kevin_M wrote:

Therein lies the rub...."when used within the scope of the law". How is a Doctor supposed to differentiate between a Drug Addict and a patient with legitimate means, 100 percent of the time. If the Doctor writes a script for a person without legitimate means, they can and probably will be accountable for that patient.

quote "The language in Webb implied that the distribution of opiates to maintain opiate-dependent patients, even in the context of the bona fide exercise of medical judgment, was not "in the course of professional practice" and, therefore, was unlawful. This position was subsequently incorporated in the first Treasury Regulations implementing the Harrison Act , as well as numerous state statutes. The attitude reflected in the Court's holding has continued to dominate the culture of drug enforcement.

Under the apparently self-evident conventional understanding reflected in Webb, patients who required prolonged use or higher than normal doses of narcotics were considered addicts, regardless of the clinical circumstances giving rise to the use of these medications. Physicians who prescribed narcotics in this way were considered guilty of prescribing excessive amounts of controlled substances, which was deemed to constitute malpractice."end quote

Drug addicts can win an Academy Award when it comes to acting and they will act like they're in pain to get their supply.

A couple of good reads are:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/jfroache/CollateralDamage.html

http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/LawRevPain-Hurwitz92.htm

Even though Narcotics are not very helpful (in the vast majority of Cluster problems), a lot of us have or know someone with moderate to severe pain., that are not due to clusters.

Just my [smiley=twocents.gif]

Jimmy[i][/i]