"Coincidences"
at
Pain
Patient
Rally
6/26/98
Last week, we reported that pain patients had rallied at the U.S. Capitol to call for adequate pain medication for all who need it and to protest the state medical boards and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for interfering with the objective. (See our story at http://www.drcnet.org/wol/46.html#painmarch.) Skip Baker, President of the American Society for Action on Pain (ASAP), has reported that while he and other activists were setting up for the event, three women whom he didn't recognize approached him and asked for t-shirts. Skip pointed them to a suitcase that held the shirts. Another activist asked them if they had paid for the shirts, and one of them responded that "David Baker said they could have them." They proceeded to remove four or five ASAP t-shirts. Skip was stunned to hear this, because while his real name is in fact David, virtually no one knows this, and the only way to find it out is to examine certain official documents. (DRCNet's David Borden has known Skip Baker for three years, and had no idea until last week that his real name was anything other than Skip.) Though Skip didn't recognize the women, another attendee was reminded of three female DEA agents who attended when patients rallied in support of Dr. William Hurwitz at the Virginia medical board's hearings two years before (http://www.drcnet.org/pain.html). Also, one of the pain physicians who was to receive an award at the rally had his license to prescribe controlled substances revoked by the DEA and was too upset to attend. His offense -- failure to file a change of address form. The doctor had moved several months before, but the DEA only took action against him one week before the rally. It should be stressed here that there is no hard evidence that these coincidences were anything other than coincidences -- but they do seem fairly suggestive. (Visit ASAP at http://www.actiononpain.org/.)
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