#313 The DEA’s War Against Patients

Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005
Subject: #313 The DEA’s War Against Patients

THE DEA’S WAR AGAINST PATIENTS

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #313 – Tuesday, 19 July 2005

We’re not referring to the War On Patients where the DEA agents roll
up on medical marijuana hospices all decked out in SWAT paramilitary
gear and poke automatic rifles into the faces of bedridden cancer patients.

No, it’s the OTHER DEA war against otherwise law-abiding medical
patients, where the DEA agents roll up on chronic pain patients who
are simply trying to obtain needed pharms. And this war extends to
law-abiding physicians who are deemed by the DEA to be prescribing
either too many pain meds, or inappropriately prescibing them.

Pain management doctors from across America have been begging the DEA
for a set of minimum guidelines to help assure that they are more in
compliance with government-mandated directives, but the DEA refuses to
issue such guidelines.

This week’s TIME magazine contains excellent coverage about how the
DEA is persecuting doctors. From Tuesday’s NY Times comes an OPED by
John Tierney that gives grim detail to how the DEA’s ambigious
policies trickle down to the state level and put individual patients
at risk – highlighting Richard Paey of Florida who is currently doing
25 years for illegal possession of 28 Percocet tablets.

Please consider writing a succint Letter to the Editor and sending it
to TIME and/or The New York Times.

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Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

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US: Why Is The DEA Hounding This Doctor?

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1136/a06.html

Contact: letters@time.com

Letters to Time Magazine should not exceed 100 words for best chance
of publication.

US NY: OPED: Punishing Pain

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1138/a05.html

Contact: letters@nytimes.com

The New York Times has a 150 word count limit on LTEs and letters sent
must be exclusive to the NYTimes.

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Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism
Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

heath@mapinc.org

And of course, you are welcome to join Steve and other LTE writing
friends of MAP for one of our Media Activism Roundtables held in the
DrugSense Virtual Conference Room.

See http://mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm for all details on how
you can participate in these important meeting of leading minds in
reform. Discussion is conducted with live Voice (microphone and
speakers all that is needed) and also via text messaging. The Paltalk
software is free and easy to download and install.

The password for these meetings is PW: welcome-pal (all lower
case)

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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list (sentlte@mapinc.org) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to heath@mapinc.org if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list (sentlte@mapinc.org) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator
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