Just Doing His Job
Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 by billFrom NY Times
By John Tierney
After I wrote last year about Richard Paey, the wheelchair-bound patient who’s been in physical agony for two decades, a lot of readers asked me what kind of monster could have prosecuted him for obtaining painkillers. If you watched “60 Minutes” Sunday, you could see for yourself.
Scott Andringa, the prosecutor in Florida who sent Paey to prison for 25 years, did not come off well on “60 Minutes,” but he didn’t look dementedly evil, either. He seemed exactly the way I’ve found him in interviews: earnest, conscientious, convinced he had done the right thing. That’s why he scares me.
He’s one of the many well-meaning public officials whose judgment has been so warped by the war on drugs that they can’t see what they’ve become. Andringa, echoing the line of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has assured me he would never stop patients from getting medicine for their pain.
“I have the utmost respect for doctors who try to treat pain humanely and responsibly,” he told me. “I am not a doctor. I have never claimed to be a doctor.”
Yet there he was playing doctor on “60 Minutes” to explain why it was “reasonable” to infer that Paey was a drug dealer. There was no evidence that Paey had sold any of his painkillers (and agents had conducted surveillance of him and his wife for two months). But Andringa inferred that Paey must have been selling them because the prescriptions he received worked out to about 25 pills per day.
“One pill every hour, every day, for two years,” Andringa told Morley Safer, as if this feat of math proved his case. It’s the same mystic numerology you hear over and over from drug warriors like Karen Tandy, the head of the D.E.A., who prefers to focus on the number of pills prescribed without bothering with details like the patient’s needs or the dosage.
Paey had no trouble explaining to me why he was taking 25 pills per day: his doctor cautiously gave him a variety of low-strength pills in order to avoid prescribing the kind of painkillers that tempt drug abusers and invite investigation from the D.E.A. Instead of taking a few high-strength oxycodone pills, Paey took a cocktail of pills containing low doses of oxycodone and other less effective pain killers like Tylenol.
As a result, the total daily dose of oxycodone in all those pills Paey took was less than what he could have gotten in a single high-strength OxyContin pill. And there are some chronic-pain patients who need 10 of those high-strength OxyContins every day because they, like Paey, have developed a tolerance to the drug over the years.
So there was no good medical reason to assume that Paey wasn’t taking all those pills. In fact, he says he wasn’t getting enough pain relief because of his doctor’s fear of the D.E.A. Yet Andringa simply made his own medical diagnosis — too many pills — and proceeded to exploit the extraordinary leverage that prosecutors have been given over doctors and patients.
The typical approach is to put pressure on patients to turn on their doctors, but it can work the other way, too. Paey told me he was offered a deal by investigators: “They said if you’re willing to testify against your doctor it would go a long way to having these charges go away.” Paey refused, and then found himself facing hostile testimony from the doctor, who said he had not authorized the contested prescriptions.
After the doctor’s credibility was challenged in court — he was contradicted both by his own words and by pharmacists who said he’d approved the prescriptions — the prosecutor came up with a mind-boggling new argument against Paey. Andringa told the jurors that even if they believed the doctor had prescribed the drugs, Paey should still be convicted because the doctor should never have written the prescriptions.
Andringa argued that the doctor wasn’t practicing proper medicine — according to the prosecutor’s standards — so the prescriptions were illegal and Paey shouldn’t have filled them. By this logic, instead of listening to his doctor, Paey should have tried to anticipate what a prosecutor would prescribe for him.
I spoke to Andringa yesterday, after he’d watched “60 Minutes” and seen Paey’s wife and the three teenage children whose father may die in prison. “I’m not thrilled about this case,” he said. “I’m only proud that I did my job as a prosecutor.” And self-appointed doctor.
JUST DOING HIS JOB
John Tierney is my HERO for speaking out on this travesty of justice.
I nursed my husband through a very large ruptured disc of the lumbar spine and I saw fear in our doctor’s eyes when we discussed the severe pain. Surgery ended the SEVERE PAIN but the three months getting to that point was a nightmare.
Andringa the prosecutor plays the numbers game for that free drug seizure money. Ever wonder where that money goes? Just a few perks that taxpayers are not aware of!!
When will we admit that the war on drugs is a complete failure/sham? The amount of money wasted and misery inflicted on innocent people caught up in this are a travesty
Why do you continue on your freedom crusade? It will get you nowhere but make you and your readers feel like you’re actually accomplishing something. There are only 2 powerful political parties and WE BOTH are PRO-DRUG WAR. There will be no discussion of Mr. Paey, nor any dissent on the war on drugs. We will continue to marginalize you, throw stones, and do whatever the hell else it takes, to keep the sheep in their place. “Bahhhhh, bahhhhh, I won’t vote Libertarian or 3rd party, because it’s like….wasting my vote or something….bahhhhhh, bahhhhhaha”. We have you all controlled, and you will vote for us, AND LIKE IT! Stop your whining sheep, fall in line and get back in the herd.
Long live the 2 party system!! Where no significant progress or open debate is ever made! Long live democracy! Of 2 lone voices that is. Long live the F’in king!
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Wake the F UP and vote the bastards out already! Vote Libertarian, make it the party we want it to be, and let’s get some action and support thrown behind the plights of the people in these articles.
Vote them out? Good luck! Vote Libertarian? What a joke! The politicians are not going to do squat about this particular gravy train until people start pulling the plugs on their life-support systems, if u get my drift. Evil has descended across this land like nightfall, and it’s a long time ’til the dawn.
“Vote them out? Good luck! Vote Libertarian? What a joke!”
Translation: “Get back in line b!tches! “Bahhhhhhhahahhhh, bahhhhh…yes sir…bahhhhhh” There is a fabricated war going on here between Democrats and Republicans, both of us FIGHTING OVER WHO GETS TO CONTROL YOUR LIVES. Nobody, nobody comes in this circle, do you hear me?”
I’ve got some words for you right wing nutcase, “FVCK YOU!” You’re basically saying we should be happy with 2 choices for our FVKIN POLITICAL SYSTEM? Shove it up your a$$. We’re coming for you punk. Next time you’re bangin your woman in the poopshoot, and calling her a dirty Democrat, I’m gonna rush into your room and knock you over your big fat elephant head with a 2ft replica of Lady Liberty. That is all, have a nice day.
Thank you John Tierney for keeping this up. We will eventually win because the DEA’s policies affect more and more people everyday. As long as we can keep this issue in the news more and more people will see what’s going on. I got involved because my wife has Rheumtoid Arthritis and the only doctor that gave her any decent pain treatment ended up in prison. Thank you DEA.
He was charged with seeing too many patients and writing too many prescriptions. Of course he saw lot’s of patients. Most of the other doctors in the state are too scared of the DEA to give proper care to pain patients.
[...] In a completely off-topic (for this blog) story, I ask this question: Why aren’t more people talking about Richar Paey? [...]
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=60413
Update
Stuff like this reinforces my disrespect for the mindless souls of the United States of America.
Stop bombing other countries for terrorism when you can’t even control the swayed monster of Democracy that is committing just as terrifying atrocities at home.
You are a True Blue Liberal and I am a Social Conservative (with some libertarian leanings). That said, you are doing a terrific job on this story.
I represent long term health providers (nursing homes) who are under constant scrutiny about pain relief. They have to rely on doctors for orders. The doctors are afraid of the DEA. I have heard these doctors talk about this at end of life trainings. It’s a ridiculous catch 22.
The reason I reveal to you that I am a Social Conservative (who admires your writing) is because I am opposed to euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. I want people’s pain effectively treated so that they can live out the rest of their natural lives to the fullest. So they can reconcile with family, or come to terms with things. Therefore, I want their pain effectively controlled so that they can get on with LIFE.
Thank you for your work on this issue.