Virginia pain doctor sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison

[struggle4progress]

Source: Associated Press

Published: July 13, 2007

~snip~ The sentence of four years and nine months was far less than the life sentence prosecutors said was appropriate for William E. Hurwitz, 61, whose pain-management clinic in a suburb of Washington, D.C., drew patients from across the country.

The sentence also was less than the 25-year term Hurwitz received at his first trial in 2005. That conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court, which ruled that Hurwitz had been improperly barred from arguing to the jury that he was acting in good faith.

Hurwitz was one of the most outspoken doctors in the United States advocating liberal use of opiates for pain treatment, once appearing on television talk show to tout his views. He said many doctors undertreat pain because they ignore patient complaints or they are fearful of harassment by drug-enforcement agents.

Numerous medical organizations filed briefs on Hurwitz's behalf when his original conviction was heard by the appellate court. They argued Hurwitz's conviction would scare doctors from prescribing appropriate levels of medication. ~snip~

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/13/america/NA-GEN-US-Pain-Doctor-Trial.php


Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/13/america/NA-GEN-US-Pain-Doctor-Trial.php

---

Va. Pain Doctor's Prison Term Is Cut to 57 Months
Originally Sentenced to 25 Years, Specialist Did More Good Than Harm, Judge Says

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 14, 2007; Page B01

A prominent pain doctor who received a 25-year prison term three years ago for drug trafficking was re-sentenced yesterday to less than five years by a judge who concluded during his retrial that he helped far more patients than he hurt. ~snip~

Hurwitz, 61, a former pain specialist based in McLean, was a key target of a far-reaching investigation into doctors, pharmacists and patients suspected of selling potent and addictive painkillers. He was convicted twice of trafficking in narcotics, first in 2004, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

An appeals court threw out that verdict last year, saying that prosecutors had presented "powerful evidence" but that U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler improperly told jurors they could not consider whether Hurwitz acted in "good faith" when he prescribed large doses of medicine. A second jury in U.S. District Court in Alexandria convicted Hurwitz on 16 counts of drug trafficking in April.

He has been in jail for about 2 1/2 years. ~snip~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071301035.html

Unmask an undercover CIA agent to start a senseless war and earn an "out of jail free" card! But try to help folk with chronic pain ...

[Trillo]

1. The powers-that-be want us in pain. n/t

[ninkasi]

2. As someone who has suffered

from chronic pain for the last 10 years, I know what's happening. I have permanent nerve damage due to two damaged nerves in my neck and shoulder. I now have lateral fractures of my ribs, and bulging discs in my lumbar area.

It's very difficult for me to post, or respond to a post here, because I have severe hand tremors. Why, please, should me and millions of others suffer because this country's drug laws are so completely fucked up? I'm not a drug addict. Neither are the many, many others who suffer from chronic pain. I don't get high from taking pain meds, just keep the pain at bay, allowing me to live a somewhat normal life.

For the love of God, I'm a 64 year old white woman who has never even gotten a traffic ticket! Why does my country assume that I'm a drug addict, simply because I'd like to live a semi-normal life? Bush and his neocons will be the death of the country I, and so many of others love,

It took me awhile to reply to this message. It's just too hard to type.

[Auntie Bush]

6. I'm sorry you're in so much pain.

Life must be hell. Let's hope bush will feel that kind of pain when he leaves this earth and goes down, down, down into a huge pit of fire...where he'll have a reunion with Cheney et al.

Sorry Agent Mike...the devil made me do it.

[obxhead]

9. I'm so sorry for your pain, but will add

It's much worse than just shrub when it comes to drug laws. 100's of Dem's and pugs have won an election due to their "stance" on drugs and the uses of them. I would dare to say that millions of otherwise law abiding, well intended, and safe users of many drugs have been wrongly persecuted by the system.

Shrub gets a lot (HU!!!GH11) amount of blame for so many things (rightly so!!!), but when it comes to drug laws and the persecution of good people, shrub is at the end of a LONG line of shit heads.

Again I am so sorry for your pain and I fight against the laws that hinder you from the relief that you need so much.

[melody]

14. These people are sociopaths and monsters, my friend

There are treatment methodologies, though. I suppose this is a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway,
have you been to a pain clinic?

[bmbmd]

21. Pain clinic?

Where do you think this guy works???

[melody]

22. There are non-profit pain clinics also

I have a cousin who used to work at one, which is why I asked.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. I would SO LIKE to scream at that judge and jury!

I have scoliosis (twisted spine), tethered spinal cord (spinal cords are supposed to be free moving not tethered down to bone like mind) and fibromyalgia, 3 herniated discs. If someone were to beat that bunch of folks senseless they MAY COME CLOSE to feeling what it is like to be me every minute of every day. WHY, WHY, WHY does anybody even invent those drugs if doctors can't give them out?

[ninkasi]

25. I feel for you

I have scoliosis too, along with my other problems. To me, the most cruel abuse of government power is the absolute imposing of laws to ease end of life suffering. I'm talking about terminal patients here, many who are suffering from the agony of cancer.

What is rational about forcing dying patients to suffer from the agonies of hell, because adequate pain medical doses would end their lives sooner? Nobody, in my opinion, has the right to dictate that these people who are living in agony don't have the right to ask for medication that will relieve them of their misery, even if it ends their lives by a few days, or weeks.

My children, all grown, had to live through their father's death three years ago. He and I had been divorced for many years, but watching his slow decline and eventual death, still haunts them.

It was so very hard for them, and their step-mother. They all lived in a medical hell for a few months, simply because medical advances could prolong his life, but not, in the end, prevent his death. I've always been on good terms with his widow, and can assure everybody that the whole experience, according to her, and my children, was excruciating.

The medical treatments that permitted him to live longer only prolonged his pain, and the pain of his wife and children's. We are all going to die. He was in his early 80's, so it's not as if he died a premature death. I've signed a living will, and do not wish to be kept alive by artificial means. When my physical condition has so deteriorated, I'd prefer to be released from my body.

I can say, as a chronic pain sufferer, that sometimes, death is not the least attractive option. When a person can no longer control hand tremors, or intense pain, death can seem like a deliverance. I can't judge others, because I don't have the right.

All I can say is that there are medical remedies which could ease a great deal of my suffering, but those remedies are all closed due to our country's absolute psychotic attitude to wards drugs. Think about it...if it were legal for me to smoke pot for my pain, and the nausea that is caused by my pain meads, big Pharmacy would lose the money I spend on drugs that are much less effective in controlling the pain.

Is this what our country has fallen to? Is this current administration the face of America? If it is, God help us.

[Divine Discontent]

20. bless you! I agree, this doc shouldn't be in jail, just horrible n/t

[ninkasi]

26. I can't get over the horror

of men and women who only work to ease suffering, are forced to pay a heavy price for their compassion. We are so screwed up.

[peace frog]

3. Absolutely

Take two placebos, if you don't feel better - DIE.

[TheMadMonk]

8. I'd want to know a lot more before coming down for or against the doctor.

But on the whole I'm smelling manufactured outrage.

Given the severity of the original sentence, it would appear that he was unable to find many (if any) peers to agree with his methods, or even allow that there might be something to them.

Being allowed to argue that he acted in good faith got him an 80% reduction in sentence, but he still broke the law. 'What a guy!' is not a valid defense.

[eridani]

11. True, the OP doesn't go into a lot of detail

But since the Dr. was completely out front about what he was doing, his M.O doesn't fit with that of Drs. who make a lot of clandestine profit from people like Limpballs.

[struggle4progress]

12. Pain Control in the Police State of Medicine (Association of American Physicians and Surgeons)

# AAPS Amicus Brief Filed in Support of Dr. Hurwitz in his Appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit - 9/6/2005
http://www.aapsonline.org/painman/policestate.htm

[struggle4progress]

13. Specialists Decry DEA Reversal on Pain Drugs (Washington Post 2004)

New Rules Called A 'Step Backward'

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 21, 2004; Page A08

~snip~ The letter from the heads of the American Pain Society (APS), the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) and the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) is a response to a Nov. 16 DEA statement that repudiated some parts of a jointly negotiated set of guidelines that had been introduced with fanfare in August.

The August guidelines -- in the form of answers to 29 frequently asked questions -- were the result of two years of discussion and negotiation between pain specialists and the DEA. They were embraced by many doctors as a breakthrough in resolving a deepening conflict between law enforcement and pain management practitioners.

The August guidelines were posted on the DEA Web site and given an enthusiastic review in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But less than two months later, the agency took the document down and replaced it with a notice saying some of the earlier statement was inaccurate and did not represent a DEA policy statement. ~snip~

Separately, five past presidents of the American Pain Society wrote a joint letter criticizing the courtroom testimony of Michael Ashburn, who was the government's expert witness in the recent high-profile trial of William E. Hurwitz, a prominent McLean pain doctor. The letter, sent to Hurwitz's attorney, accused Ashburn, who is also a past president of the group, of making factual errors in describing appropriate prescribing. ~snip~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14853-2004Dec20.html

[badgerpup]

24. A blessing for those who just don't get it...

...composed this several years ago when I was a mod on a board that dealt with chronic pain.

May you walk at least a mile in the shoes of intractable or chronic pain, and may this help you see that this is what happens to real live people, and not just faceless statistics, or 'them'. May they become you.

May you go through much difficulty in finding proper treatment, including jumping through the hoops for physicians who do not take you seriously, who invalidate you, blow you off, or automatically label you as a drug seeker. Thus will you discover that pain and desperation are often much stronger than laws or 'principles'.

May you be subjected to scrutiny, judgement, and contempt, and be labeled as a 'drug addict' and lose any worth or respect in the eyes of society and start to doubt yourself. May you then understand truly how hysteria, mis/dis information and propaganda affect real people...
'you' as opposed to 'them'.

Finally... may you develop compassion, empathy, and understanding WITHOUT have to be subjected to all this... but if you can't...

Bless you, my child.

[struggle4progress]

15. " ... While there was no evidence that Dr. Hurwitz was profiting ...

from the resale of his prescriptions — and the jurors I interviewed said they didn’t think he intended the drugs to be resold — he will still spend more time in prison than almost all the patients who admitting lying to him and reselling the drugs. Thanks to the deals they made to cooperate with prosecutors, seven of the nine patients got sentences ranging from 10 to 39 months. Only two got longer sentences than 57 months — and one of them, who got 72 months, was also guilty of armed robbery and arson.

I’ll leave you with a few questions:

Why should a doctor trying to treating patients in pain serve more time in prison than a patient who dupes him and intentionally violates the law by reselling the drugs? ..."

July 13, 2007, 9:52 pm
A Win for Dr. Hurwitz, A Loss for the Pill-Counters
By John Tierney
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/a-win-for-dr-hurwitz-a-loss-for-the-pill-counters/

[Ilsa]

4. Some people believe we all have a religious duty to be in pain.

I don't understand why. Pretty sickening.

[nebula]

5. How come the US is the only western country on earth

that criminalizes natural or herbal medicine?

Oh, thats right. Because Congress is bought and paid for by big Pharma.

[AndyTiedye]

7. But They Won't Let People Even Buy As Much of Big Pharm's Products As They Need

What's up with that?

[melody]

23. bingo n/t

[Mz Pip]

10. Very few candidates

for higher office will run on a platform of decriminalizing drugs. Sad but true. As nuts as the drug laws are, there really isn't anyone out there who will deal with this issue.

In Canada and England you can buy Codeine over the counter. Do they have more drug problems there than we do here? I don't think so.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[struggle4progress]

16. Yes, but that's not really the issue in this case: the question is why

a pain specialist who, according to all the evidence, was not actually guilty of trafficking (though some of his patients were), who apparently was unaware of and did not profit from the criminal activity of those several guilty patients, and whose only motive appears to have been to relieve patient pain, ends up with a hefty jail term.

Hurwitz doesn't seem to be a "doctor-gone-bad": his whole resume suggests

If, as might to be the case, Hurwitz failed to exercise the full diligence appropriate for his licence-to-prescribe, perhaps limitation or revocation of that license and a fine would have been punishment enough. And how much carelessness was really involved may not be that clear:

Dr. Hurwitz knew of the risks he faced — he’d had previous legal fights with the Drug Enforcement Administration — and he tried to cover himself by making his patients sign a contract. They had to agree to let him send their names and information about their prescriptions to the D.E.A., which he did regularly. They also had to promise to use the drugs only as prescribed, to avoid using illegal drugs and to submit to urine screens. Testing positive for illegal drugs was grounds for being dismissed. http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/william-hurwitz/

[High Plains]

17. Dr. Hurwitz is the tip of the iceberg.

All you pain patients, beware! Every time the drug czar mouths off about prescription drug abuse, you can count on your ability to get your medications being more restricted. Every time the DEA trumpets the bust of another pain doctor as a "Dr. Feelgood," you can count on your ability to get your medications being more restricted.

Doctors are scared. They are scared of being Hurwitzed. And many have been.

The DEA accuses them of prescribing outside the bounds of medicine when they prescribe large quantities of pain meds to chronic pain patients. Can anyone tell me why the DEA is more qualified than pain management specialists to determine what is and is not appropriate medicine?

There were hearings on this issue on Thursday...

[tblue37]

18. I also rely on opioid pain medication for treatment of chronic pain. I am not an addict.

I periodically go off my meds to check my maximum pain level, and I recently asked my doctor to try me on a lower dosage. I am a 57-year-old educator, writer, and editor. I am productive as all get out. I am grateful that my doctors have not been intimidated yet, but who knows what will happen in the future as a result of prosecutions like this.

[HuffleClaw]

27. i remember the 60 minutes show about this guy

the DEA decided to 'make an example of him'. he was the ONLY guy in miles that would dare prescribe any effective pain meds.

i'm so glad i live in Canada.

[bleedingheart]

28. My neighbor told me that his brother in law kept his sister drunk until her death

because her doctor would not give her adequate pain meds for her cancer. She had it all through her jaw area and it was killing her...and yet she was left in horrid pain...her husband just gave her whiskey until she was drunk most of the time and that helped ease her pain...

Our system is really weird about pain management.