I can see the distress the patients are going thru. I suffer extreme pain and prefer using marijuanna instead of using the vicodin. I have arthritis in hips, back knees, neck, wrist, hands and feet. With the use of marijuanna, I can get up and atleast attempt to accomplish something. And my attitude is better. I worry every day that the feds will arrest my 215 dr. Now at least I am safe from the local cops.

"some of Dr. Schneider's former patients have filed malpractice lawsuits claiming they became addicted because of his prescribing, other patients said he had been a godsend and that they are suffering now without him."

These so-called former patients who claim to have become addicted and are filing malpractice lawsuits are nothing but SCAM ARTISTS!!

Physical dependence on opioid's is a minor side effect that is easily overcome by gradually decreasing the dosage once the patient has recovered and the pain level has abated. Example: if a patient were taking 60 milligrams of oxycodone per day following surgery, and is now recovering, but has developed a physical dependence on the medicine, they can decrease the dosage to 30 milligrams for several days. Then 15 milligrams for a few days. Then 5 milligrams. Now that the patient is taking one percoset a day it's easily managed. Now go 48 hours. Then go seven days. They now have no physical dependence on the medicine.

I support the "Pain Relief Network" and believe they should win their legal battle.

Good luck to PRN, and thank you DRCnet.

It seems the crusaders looking to make names for themselves are willing to lay many lives on the chopping block for their glory in this witch-hunt society, propagated by the federal government bent on liberating us from our liberties. If you good poeple out there don't vote for Ron Paul, this will only be the beginning of a totalitiarian rule depriving us of our blood earned liberties and rights! This is not a joke! This is our last chance to honor the blood of our forefathers....or to spit on it with our fears and ignorance! TRUTH!

D.L. Matkins Sr.

Why can't people be allowed to take whatever pain killer they want as long as nobody else gets hurt?

Maybe this lawsuit will help. It can't make things worse. This is a witch hunt and a usurping of the doctor-patient relationship. I don't know how much schooling a DEA agent has to have but I know they aren't qualified to take this doctor's garbage out. I can't believe the doctor and his wife are still in jail. Have we gotten to the point where a doctor can't get a recognizance bond? These agents are thugs.

The post above that suggests tapering as a way for pain patients to avoid acute withdrawal is technically accurate, but in my experience (as someone who has had multiple surgeries for chronic back pain caused by disk herniation), no doctor has ever offered that option. I was always afraid to ask because I thought such accurate knowledge would identify me as a "drug seeker".

However, if (god forbid) I have a re-occurrence of back problems, or another injury that justifies opioid pain relief, I will insist that the doctor agree to prescribe a tapering regime or I won't accept the initial script.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how that plays out.

BTW, I agree with the contention that those suing the doctor are greedy opportunists. But there are plenty of other people who do suffer through withdrawal after becoming dependent who do not take legal action.

The real risk here is that all of this doctor's patients will now be forced to find another physician to help them. Good luck with that!!! Most doctors now seem to think that everyone is an addict, or a potential addict. Which is the lesser of the two evils? I choose to take my medication (after three shoulder surgeries that left me disabled) rather than not be able to function at all. If someone has a chronic condition who should care if they are dependant on narcotic medication? I would much rather be "dependant" than to be in excruciating pain all the time. Good luck to this doctor and his wife. We need more docs such as him in the world.

If you don't think your doctor has been intimidated by the DEA, think again. Your doctor's prescriptions should be made on the basis of your health and comfort. But they're not. Even more important, at least for the doctor, is whether the prescriptions conform to a pattern that the DEA finds interesting. No doctor wants to write a prescription that the DEA will find interesting, even if it's the best thing for the patient. It's no fun to be in jail.
Typically, doctors don't like being in jail. When a doctor weighs the benefit of your pain relief against the cost of his becoming an object of interest to the DEA, you can expect that your pain will have less weight, and that you will suffer unnecessary pain.

Health care in America: it's about many things, and your health and comfort *may* be one of them. Mostly, though, it's about money and power. It's appalling what America has become. It's time to change course.

Bupronorphin (I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling?) has been found to be very effective in helping people get off opioids. There's a big difference between addiction and dependance. A diabetic, for example, cannot become addicted to insulin.

I have been on methadone maintenence for close to ten years. All clients must do annual "educational updates" (a Department of Public Health requirement in my state) that consists of :HIV/HepC 101, an overview of the clinic's rules and regs, and "Addiction Education". The nurse, explaining the difference between "addiction" and "dependence" said:"Depencence means that you are physically reliant on a substance (ie:drug) that you need to treat a chronic medical condition. "Addiction" is the physical reliance on a substance that, without which, you can't function; the pursuit of which becomes overwhelming". Now mind you, this woman was a moron. The point she was making was: "Dependence" is medically sanctioned "Addiction", and "Addiction" is "Dependence" we haven't sanctioned. I would guess that close to 50% of the people on my clinic were first introduced to opiates by doctors for
legitimate" (and often severe) pain.Unfortunately thanks to anti-drug hysteria doctors are running scared, on the look-out for "drug-seeking behavior" . Yes, I need relief; I'm seeking relief; drugs will relieve me, therefore, I AM seeking drugs! Christ, what a tragedy. Of course, many people are forced to do what they have to do. What about the elderly cancer patient who doesn't have the black market option that many resort to? But then, why should any of us have to resort to it at all?

The comment posted on 11:02 12 January defines "addiction" (vs "dependence") the best I've seen: Dependence is sanctioned dependence -- like insulin -- and addiction is unsanctioned dependence. It is a legal construct, not a medical one. We ask, "Is the patient dependent on the drug or is he/she dependent on the pain relief the drug brings?" There is no way to know outside of a long-term clinical setting. I suspect that many pain patients themselves don't know. But we let the police decide. Even if all prosecutors also had a medical degrees, they'd have a conflict of interest because their job is to get convictions. Besides that, addiction is not a crime, except for the poor, the black and the brown. The DEA has exceeded its statutory authority in the way it has interpreted the Controlled Substances Act. Give pain treatment back to the docs. But, remember, just as an ob-gyn cannot guarantee all babies will be normal, a pain doc cannot guarantee all patients will have a normal life span.

JohnC

I've done my fair share of damage to my neck, shoulders and back; bike accidents, car accidents (in one, I was thrown out of the passenger side window and slid on my back for quite a ways). Thankfully, I have found a doctor who prescribes medicines that help, but at the same time he thinks I am there because "he has a reputation" and I just want to get good pills. Without these medications, I am not able to get out of bed some mornings. When the pain gets very bad even vicoden and ultram don't help. I would love to sign a petition, is there an online one?

I thouhgt the FDA wrote the PDR
Not the DEA with their little star
DOJ is a house of ill repute
Not us doctors with much astute
SHAME on judges Gaschler and Bostwick
They made a decision that was way to quck
Haysville,Kansas Doctor Schneider is a good man
He is a credit to Hippocrates plan !

J. Casey MD, Philosophie Doctor

If patients get addicted that is their fault, if they really do not need the narcotic.. Many of us are being injured and disabled by a product not FDA approved for back and sciatica pain the FDA knows this drug is disabling patients and so does the drug company and they let it go on, because of GREED, and the DRS should know if they read the phamplet or leaflet that come with the product if it is not to go into the spine or not, yet they do not and do not tell their patients what is being used. This is a steriod called Depo Medrol the label clearly states not for the spine yet this conitnues by the drs in pain clinics, because of GREED. We end up with adhesive arachnoisitis this is gluing our spinal cord nerves together, thus disabling a patient and causes a debilliatin pain there is no cure for ,this has to stop.That is another reason people have to take strong pain meds and they do not even help us, so we resort to living in pain day in and out and this is not our fault.
FDA did not write the PDR it has to come from the AMA why would the FDA do this when they cannot regulate our food, drugs etc to make sure their safe, they need more funds and help and Congress will not give them the funds, we need to put the blame on the right source Our Physicans need to take the responsibily to tell their patients about the treatments they are getting and the product being used, and stop the Wall of Silence , all need to read this book get it from your library..While pain meds do nothing for us, we need medical Marjuina leglagized for people in pain, and not fire them from their job is they have a Dr permission stating they are using this for pain, this may put our drug manufactures out of busines and God knows we wolud not want to do that!!!! We wonder why the kids can get these drug yet we who desperately need pain help, cannot get it if the DOJ wants to do something for the people then they need to forget about the big Drug Companys and help the people in pain ,stop the Profits B4 Patients ,it should be Patients B4 Profits, yet when Greed is in the picture they will not do this. Stop injuring and disabling patients doctors and we would not have to depend on narcotics to get thru life Think about this.

The DOJ does not nor should it be allowed to "practice" medicine. Doctors are licensed to "practice" medicine by the states, not the federal goverment. Perhaps the states should be the ones to issue a new version of the current DEA number that allows doctors to write perscriptions?

I am sure you are wondering why I have put "practice" into quotation marks. Medicine, while very good in most respects is by no means always a exacting profession. While most doctors do the upmost to get it right everytime, everyone will tell you they have had someone who they treated, outcome be less than optimal. It is called a license to practice for a reason.

Until a definitive test to show how much pain someone is in (it cannot happen) doctors must make judgement calls. I agree that practices that are going to be dealing with large, prolonged opiod treatment regimes shoud keep exacting records, but that is to protect the doctor from just this type of railroading. I wish only the best to the doctor, his wife, family, friends and patients. I am sure at this point they are all suffering.

A pain patient

I find it interesting that people with no experience living every day with severe intractable pain often think that they know best. If the average person without pain had to live with the pain that so many do after injury, disease, or surgery, they would change their attitude. I myself didn't think that the strong drugs were necessary until I was in chronic severe pain and the great surgeons and other professionals could offer nothing in the form of relief except medication. After everything else was tried, after 21 major surgeries, it is medicine that finally allowed me to return to work, be a part of my family and their activities, and just return to society with any quality of life. There is no doubt whatsoever that there are people that use drugs that really do not require it. But in that case, I can not be the judge. It must be left with the medical professional, the doctors that have been educated to understand the causes, symptoms, and treatments, not law enforcement, and definitely not the ever so loud civilians that make statements not supported by the facts. In the 17 years that I have been treated for chronic severe intractable pain, I have seen a lot. I have seen doctors so scared that they are going to be arrested for following widely accepted treatment guidelines concerning pain management that they simply can not adequately care for their patients. And the patient, left to suffer with the pain, is often chastised or worse, prosecuted, for seeking relief elsewhere. If doctors were not afraid of prosecution, following the accepted guidelines, the problem with undertreated pain patients would not exist and the problems that arise from their search for relief would be relatively few, if any. And in response to another post here that methadone is NOT good for pain treatment; you could not be farther from the truth. I have been on almost every strong opioid there is over the course of the past 17 years in severe pain. Methadone works better and longer than the others, including morphine and Oxycontin, but leaves your head clear and lets you function normally. In my case, I only need to take my medication 2 times a day, morning and night, and don't need to be taking pills all throughout the day. In a testament to the safety and quality of methadone and it's use, the White House National Drug Policy website highly recommends methadone and you can read it for yourself at the below link:
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/methadone/index... Again, people make all sorts of uninformed statements and it hurts the everyday pain patient that is not having or causing any problems for themselves or society. It makes it harder and harder to get the medical care that is REQUIRED by those truly enduring severe pain on a daily basis so that they can carry on everyday life. Fortunately, legislatures have acknowledged that pain should indeed be treated sufficiently and many are or have been passing laws regarding pain like the state I am in Florida. The biggest problem that I see in society is the fact that there are so many people that are feigning injury to get drugs from well meaning legitimate doctors. It is those people that cause the drug diversion problems and use them to get intoxicated on. Almost every person that I know that is truly in severe intractable pain, uses their medication correctly and doesn't abuse the drugs they receive. It is a matter of needing the daily and regular doses of the medication to bring down the level of pain to a level that you can live with. Most severe pain patients will tell you that there is no complete relief from their pain. They, like me, need every dose of their medication to relieve the pain and are not involved in the diversion or abuse of the medication. There are always exceptions to every rule, and those are the INDIVIDUALS, that need to be identified and dealt with. Not the doctors that are following the guidelines and treating pain appropriately. And in their defense, I have had excellent doctors over the course of the last 17 years that have treated my pain adequately. However, even those doctors are often visited by the DEA, and other law enforcement officials who often intimidate and threaten them for doing their job. I don't claim to have all the answers. However, the current situation of the war on drugs interfering with legitimate practice of pain management needs to be addressed by the legislatures to protect the health care providers and intractable pain patients from overzealous law enforcement persecution and prosecution!