When Tucson pain specialist Dr. Jeri Hassman was indicted on 54 counts of prescribing opioid painkillers without a legitimate medical reason in March, federal prosecutors called her a Dr. Feelgood. When, after she refused to buckle under pressure, she was re-indicted in August, this time on a whopping 362 counts, they called her "a drug dealer with a pen."
Thursday, federal prosecutors accepted a plea bargain in which they dropped 358 charges, leaving Dr. Hassman to plead guilty only to four counts of failing to notify authorities that patients had admitted using other family members' prescription drugs. A case that began with a massive blaze of publicity courtesy of federal prosecutors has now ended with a whimper. There was no press release from the Arizona US Attorney's Office. Article (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/322/hassman.shtml)
dejerine
01-30-2004, 01:27 PM
I wonder what we can do to support our pain docs. Although this case is fading away, the message it sends to other pain docs is very threatening. I do not use opioids because they do nothing for my CP, but I feel compassion for those who need them but cannot get them because of fear put in the minds of doctors. A climate of fear is not a nation ruled by law.
I fear it is easier and SAFER for drug enforcement personnel to go after physicians than to get in the swamp buggy and go out out in the Florida swamps to look for real criminals, who shoot at them. I am told only 2% of the money in the war on drugs goes to field agents doing the difficult and dangerous work of confronting dangerous felons, although this figure is hard to verify, and I wouldn't write a letter to ask because whoever is answering letters obviously isn't out in the trenches and may not appreciate the implications.
I believe a pain doctor is the best person to detemine who needs what pain medicine. Actually when I go to a pain clinic, I pay the fees in the very hope of locating a Dr. Feelgood. I thought all docs were supposed to be Dr. Feelgoods. Ministers and psychologists too. Ditto for Dr. Phil and Laura Schlessinger and chocolate on the back 1/3 of my tongue which is the only part of my body which doesn't have central pain. I wish I could find one, since no one has been able to make a dent in unbearable pain and suffering, including some high grade pain clinics. Of course my pain clinics won't prescribe long term opioids because they don't want trouble. So where does that leave the poor patient.
I could use a little feelgood in life, but my body is not that kind of body since Central Pain came knocking and glutamate started socking.
I do not agree that narcotics make a person feel "good". They just make me nauseated and headachy. For diagnostic purposes a pain clinic did IV infusion of an opioid until I was nearly unconscious, but the Central Pain did not abate. I did manage to acquire a huge headache. So much for opioids. After two of three spine surgeries I didn't take pain meds because I would rather have the pain than the nausea and my central pain was far worse than the postoperative pain anyway, so what was the point.
The only thing narcotics do is relieve the uncomfortable feeling which addicted people experience who have become addicted. And if you have ordinary pain, they can help that.
Sounds like if you have a pain state in Tucson, you are SOL if you go to a licensed physician. Tucson has so many ordinary people going across the border to get illegal pain meds at the ten million "pharmacies" just over the line, that I think they have built a freeway to handle the traffic. Illegal use is about as hard to find as cars in rush hour. But, passing on the hordes going South for shopping carts full of pills, someone decided it would be better to go after a trained, licensed, American pain specialist. Call it a hunch, but agents in TUCSON just might have found someone a little more criminal to go after than a pain physician, who obviously would be giving tons of prescriptions, for what else? Pain.
Is it just me or is the reason obvious why agents would rather go after a "drug dealer with a pen" than a "drug dealer with a gun". Hmmm, not dangerous, easy to locate, comfortable seats in the waiting area, everything on record. I wonder what all these big medical terms in the records mean. Hmmm. A few well placed slurs and innuendos should do it. I'm just glad this woman didn't addict grandma in the hospital while she died screaming. Hmmm. Who are these people sitting around in the office? They look guilty too. Probably here for drugs. Its disgusting.
[This message was edited by dejerine on 01-30-04 at 04:08 PM.]