 
Contact: Kathryn Serkes 202.333.3855 October 2, 2003 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Pain Doctor Held Hostage in War on Drugs Washington, D.C. -- A Virginia doctor indicted for prescribing legal pain relief approved and supervised by the Virginia board of Medicine should be released on his own recognizance, according to the attorney for a prominent national doctor’s group. “It's shocking he's been detained this long, and the overzealous prosecutor wants to jail him until trial,” said Andrew Schlafly, general counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), speaking about William Hurwitz, MD, who was arrested last week. “In front of his two young children, about twenty armed agents arrested the good doctor and imprisoned him without bail on the eve of Rosh Hashanah,” said Mr. Schlafly. They had already seized all of Dr. Hurwitz's assets under drug forfeiture laws reserved for kingpins such as the Colombia cartel – all without any finding of guilt. “They seized everything he owned more than a year ago without a trial, so he can’t post his own bail,” said Mr. Schlafly. Instead, the Court will require home confinement if three friends agree to a fully secured $2 million bond – not just $200,000 bail -- and all property used for the bond must be in Virginia. Family and friends are scrambling. “This is almost unprecedented in this type of case. He’s not a flight risk – he’s stuck around for more than a year while they investigated him, he has a family, and besides, they’ve seized all of his assets. He’s not going anywhere.” said Mr. Schlafly. “The Administration is making good on its threat to treat doctors like war criminals,” said Mr. Schlafly. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gene Rossi declared to a reporter that "our office will try our best to root out [certain doctors] like the Taliban. Stay tuned." And earlier this month, the President pointed to physician prosecutions as the example of how he wants to pursue terrorists. “This is exactly the ‘excessive bail’ that the Founders were trying to prevent with the Eighth Amendment. It’s guilty until proven innocent, and punishment without guilt.” NOTE: The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons is a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all specialties, dedicated since 1943 to protection of the patient-physician relationship. AAPS is dues supported, and accepts no government funding, or pharmaceutical or other corporate underwriting.
More Information about Pain Management Prosecutions (More information on the "Communicate and Cooperate" 3-point plan and recommendations for legal reforms is posted on the AAPS website at www.aapsonline.org.) Read "Pain Control in the Police State of Medicine" by Dr. William Hurwitz in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Vol. 8, Number 1, Spring 2003 : www.jpands.org NOTE: The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons is a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all specialties, dedicated since 1943 to protection of the patient-physician relationship. AAPS is dues supported, and accepts no government funding, or pharmaceutical or other corporate underwriting.
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