Appeal denied: 25 years for taking his own pain meds

The famous case of Richard Paey. His appeal was denied:

Richard Paey is a wheelchair-bound father of three young children.
He has no prior criminal record– in fact, he’s an Ivy League law school graduate. He has not one, but two extensively documented and excruciatingly painful chronic disorders: multiple sclerosis and chronic back pain due to an injury suffered in a car accident that was treated by a surgery that made matters worse. (This surgery was so egregiously misguided that TV exposes and numerous large malpractice judgments resulted). Paey has already been in prison for three long years.

Comments

Anonymous
Lawyers wonder why docs don’t trust the legal system. Here is a good example. Read all the links. This is a good example of legal malpraactice by government lawyers. Of course don’t expect the JD’s railing about “medical negligence” on this site to have anything to say about it.
Anonymous
Florida. Nuff said.
SarahW
Disgusting. I just got a summons for jury duty. My service might be deferred a few months, but if it is not, I might just get a chance to let some sudafed-poppin nasal congestion scofflaw go free.
Diora
Mind-boggling. I saw a program about this man on TV some time ago. I think it was either on 60 minutes or on 20/20. I was so hoping he’d win his appeal.
It’s just outrageous.
Anonymous
I cannot believe the appeal court did not overturn this conviction. Its outrageous! We had hoped for Rich would come home. If this is allowed to stand, people in pain may need to move out of the state of Florida or risk being prosecuted as a trafficker.
Linda Paaey
WilliamManginoMD
The real question in the Paey case boils down to “Is somone allowed to carry large quantities of pain pills around-or keep them in their house-as long as they are not selling them.”
The secondary question becomes, “Did the medical-industrial complex” contribute to his having pain in the first place?
I have written extensively on this subject-including a letter to The Saint Petersburgh Times op/ed staff.
Paey got the SHAFT allright, but so will thousands of others. Even if he did forge prescriptions, it doesn’t mean he didn’t deserve to have the medication for his own use.
The so-called doctor in New Jersey [ the world's worst state to live in ] testified that Paey forged prescriptions. Did anyone question the doctor about whether or not HIS prescriptions to Paey were SUFFICIENT for the treatment of Paey’s condition–after the neurosurgeons at Thomas Jefferson Hospital fucked his back up with faulty technology?
What happoened to Paey is more than criminal-they have the wrong guy in jail!!!
WilliamManginoMD
THE PERFECT STORM
The coming together of simultaneous events, from the atmosphere or just here on earth amongst it’s population, often creates a storm. Often this storm is political.
A patient with a legitimate – real – pain condition seeks
treatment from a doctor. The doctor
hesitates to meet the patient’s needs; either out of fear of being
prosecuted for overprescribing,
or that doctor’s lack of understanding of why the patient has an increased need for medication.
This often happens when patients are receiving opioids [ narcotic pain medications. ]
Add to this series of events the ever-increasing police scrutiny of doctors and patients who prescribe and take these medications for pain. We cannot expect the average policeman to
understand opioid receptor function, constitutive genes, and spinal cord “Sensitization.”
These are only three of the complex set of factors that go into deciding – on an individual
physiologic basis – what each person will need to meet his pain
treatment requirements while
receiving opioids. Add to these the concept of gene polymorphisms, and you have most of the
essential ingredients – coupled with the presence of pain itself – for forming “The Perfect
Storm.”
Richard Paey was injured in a car accident. He developed chronic
pain made worse by failed spinal surgery performed with implants that were never proven to be
foolproof cures for his spinal
generated pain after his accident. Pain alone causes changes in the
spinal cord which “Sensitizes”
it so that it converts incoming stimuli into continuous pain-as
perceived by the brain. No
operation or procedure has been developed to heal this type of pain resulting from a “Sensitized”
spinal cord.
After his operation he continued to need escalating dosages of opioids as a result of altered receptor function with the development of tolerance to opioid
medications. This was interpreted as his being addicted, lazy, not interested in getting better,being
protoplasmically deficient,being low class, being a “Druggie,” and being-in general- a “Weakling.”
How do I know this? Because I know how doctors and policemen and
members of the public-at-large feel about people who take opioids. These opinions are
‘out there’ and cannot be
pushed under the rug. The fact that we are genetically pre-determined to need different amounts of pain medications is never taken into account when we discuss these types of scenarios. Yet we place all of our faith in the genetic basis of crime fighting – DNA analysis.
Apparently, among law enforcement officials, ‘what’s good for the goose’ is not “good for the gander.” So we make criminals out of people whose needs differ from ours.
Now why would Richard Paey forge a bunch of prescriptions ? [ if he really did .]
Becaus Mr. Paey is probably a pseudo-addict who acted under the
correct assumption that nobody would continue to believe that he needed all that much pain-killer to get him through HIS
day–not yours and mine. Apparently, not even his doctor. So he ‘saved up’ on his pills-never sold them [ they surveilled him for several months. ]
He could have been referred to a different pain specialist-or one with a more comprehensive
understanding of his situation. But law enforcement is trying to get rid of pain specialists who
truly believe that high – dose opioids may be the last and only
alternative for people who have
failed to improve from operations, physical therapy and pilates with
warm lemonaide.
So he began to accumulate the opioid pain pills out of his well
understood fear. Did he have
other options – maybe. But the question becomes–why do we as a society place people in a position
where they have to chose from different options; some of which are statutorily prohibited [
doesn't mean the legislature was correct ] in order to get through
their day; not yours and mine.
Once the Perfect Storm has been created there isn’t much we can do to preventit’sconsequences. Just like in the movie. Pain patients can’t “ride it out.” They need safe harbours
from which they never have to venture out. Wehave disenfranchised from appropriate medical treatment an entire segment of our population. Paey never tried to sell his pills. One mustquestion the statute under which he was convicted.
The failure of The Florida Court Of Appeals to correct this
injustice, without invalidating
the statute under which Paey was convicted, places them into the same category of doctors who fail
to treat chronic pain adequately; cowards.
This country needs a “Boston Tea Party” – like appraoach to these unfettered and
discretionary prosecutions based on stupidity, myth and prejudice. We
don’t need and should refuse
attempts at clemency–which only legitimizes unfair statutes.
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Appeal denied: 25 years for taking his own pain meds

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