 
News of the Day ... in Perspective4/11/2004Motion for Acquittal on grounds of perjured testimony to be filed in Paey case. Advocates of pain patients are undertaking a letter-writing campaign, pleading for a Florida judge to declare a mistrial in the case of Richard Paey (link to archives of Mar 9) on the grounds that the main witness for the prosecution had lied on the stand. “The state knew Dr. Nurkiewicz [Paey’s physician] was lying when he said he did not provide the prescription forms and that he only prescribed small numbers of pain pills, but they said he wasn't on trial, and they won't charge him with perjury,” said Paey's wife Linda (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/332/paey.shtml). Home of the high-profile Rush Limbaugh investigation, Florida is also the scene of nearly monthly arrests of pain management physicians. The Paey case illustrates that law enforcement has completely lost the ability to distinguish between medical care and illegal drug trafficking, stated Siobhan Reynolds of the Pain Relief Network (link to www.PainReliefNetwork.org). It also shows the dangers of the prescription drug monitoring data base proposed by legislators from Paey’s district. Through Paey’s relentless prosecution, legislators’ assertion that “prosecutors won’t use private medical information gathered in government computers against patients in pain, is exposed for the hollow assurance it is,” Reynolds said. Additional information: The uses of perjury, in “Tools of the Inquisition,” AAPS News, April 2002.
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