w0w.  it's a complicated case.  showing/proving hurwitz received kickbacks
from drug companies, or from the people who resold the drugs from his
prescriptions on the street, would have made him a drug dealer to me.
however, while being stupid and arrogant is not a crime, it can be perceived
as being unwittingly complicit/contributive in criminal activity.  somewhere
along the line, it appears, his good judgment and methodology was badly
impared.  sadly, the good that he may have been doing was corrupted and over
shadowed by his lack of wisdom and oversight.

truth be told, i would suggest that most if not all doctors have, because of
their huge patient loads (because of the private practice patient load and
appointment time managment paradigms---heck, my pcp told me she has 6000
patients), at least a few such deceitful, drug abusing/seeking patients.
sounds like he had more than just a few and just didn't bother to
scrutinize.

my perception and opinion is that juries are generally never made up of
one's peers, unfortunately.   jury members are often poorly equipped to
understand the complexities of fields outside of their individual expertise
(which makes the term "peers" a misnomer in that sense).  as a result, in
cases like this, juries often rely upon their emotions to decide their
verdicts, despite admonitions to the contrary from the bench.

people will choose not to see what they don't want to see, what is painful
for them to see.  the physical pain of others is palpable to all the senses,
if one is allowing oneself to pay attention.  from what you've described,
this jury was predisposed in their verdict.

as to the media and koop, grrrrrr . . .   i wish the media would stay out of
trials completely, until after the fact, to report about them.  the media
does have influence and the "talking heads" speculations are simply
exercises in bias, sensationalism and appealing to the baser tendancies of
the human condition.   when it comes to medications, the media's penchant
for shallow sound bites does a great disservice to millions and actually
causes many situations to worsen.  and yet, because i'm a mass of
contradictions<smile>, the press needs to remain unfettered, but should
monitor its info-tainment more circumspectly.  as for koop and his
assertions, i wish we could put our moccasins on him for awhile to see if he
maintains his assertions and we know he wouldn't.  of course chronic pain
sufferers are dependent upon pain medications!  how in the heck could many
function, on even the most basic levels, without these meds?  people are
also dependent on anti-biotics and all kinds of organ sustaining meds, and
on electricity and gasoline and jobs, to go about and live their daily
lives.  that doesn't make people addicts.

kate

Thanks Rosie, I wasn't (and still am not) positive about the facts
(since a great deal of the information has been bastardized by the
media to fit the "spin" they want on it, i.e., the evils of narcotics).
The first time I read the 1600 pill a day thing, I thought, "Well,
heck, Hurwitz is getting what he deserves, no one needs that much
medication in a day."  Then of course, I discovered it was an error.

I think that Hurwitz just "forgot" about CYA.  When it's (CYA) done
correctly, then the DEA would have zero to have taken him down with.
It's a pain the butt for the CPer, but if it protects the doc and gets
the patient what he/she needs, then I'm all for it.

I worry about doctors getting caught in "stings" (which I feel is
partially what happened with Hurwitz).  Temptation, whether it's for
monetary gain or to actually make a fellow being feel more a part of
life (hence the doc is "god" like), is a terrible thing.  The DEA
guidelines, which were "rescinded", seemed to be a step in the right
direction for CPers.  Now we are all back to square one, and we have to
try again (Lordy, but that gets old).

Smokie Darling (Annie) - Am I the only one who's noticed that the Koop
commericals began when the Hurwitz trial did, and now that it's over,
they have stopped?

Beautifully stated, O Kate! :-) That's one sharp mind yer totin'. <g>

Hugs from Rosie

It is also like holding gun dealers responsible for murders committed
by consumers who buy the guns.  I guess guns are ok but opiates are
not.  I find it fascinating what we value. -- MZ

Visit my website:
http://www.mzuschlag.com