This will be the last item in this, The Hurwitz Collection, RSS feed.

The entire contents of the Hurwitz channel have been incorporated into the following RSS feed which will be ongoing, and all future developments in the Hurwitz case will be followed as part of:

The War on Doctors and Pain Crisis Weekly
An HTML view of this feed is available: HTML view

Please also consider the Addiction, Pain and Public Health website's other RSS feed (also launched in February 2006):

The Harm Reduction for Alcohol and Drug Use Disorders Weekly
An HTML view of this feed is available: HTML view

I sincerely appreciate your time and interest, and I hope you will all continue to find doctordeluca.com and it's related RSS feeds useful and interesting.

Thanks,

..alex...
Alexander DeLuca, M.D., MPH
adeluca@doctordeluca.com
http://www.doctordeluca.com/

This channel: "The Dr. William Hurwitz Collection" will be discontinued as of 2006-02-28. I apologize for any annoyance this causes.

It has been rendered obsolete by the following, more active, new RSS feed entitled: "War on Doctors and Pain Crisis Weekly Update" (which will usually be updated several times a week). Rest assured this new feed will include all important Hurwitz-related resources added to doctordeluca.com

The URL to subscribe to the new War on Doctors and Pain Crisis (at least) Weekly Update feed:
http://www.doctordeluca.com/wod-main.xml

To see what the feed looks like (in HTML) use this URL:
http://www.doctordeluca.com/wod-main.htm

I will repeat this item in this deprecated Hurwitz channel one or two more times in Feb. 2006, then it is over. All new Hurwitz documents added to doctordeluca.com will appear only on the new 'War on Doctors' feed (links above).

Thank you, ..alex...

See also:
War on Pain Sufferers Special Resource Collection - this is an 'archive of archives.' Includes in-depth collections on the case of Dr. Nelson in Billings, MT; Medical Marijuana 2005-2006; The Dr. Hurwitz Collection; the Cecil Knox / Beverly Boone collection, and The Myrtle Beach Massacre which took down Dr. Bordeaux, Walter, Jackson, and others.

Drug War Journalism and Advocacy archives

War on Doctors Peer-Reviewed and Academic Articles, Official Reports, and Legal Documents archives

Chronic Pain and Opioid Therapy Collection

The Main Library Page of the Addiction, Pain, and Public Health website.

Sheldon Richman; The Price of Liberty weblog; 2005-02-15
A brief review of the trials of Dr. William Hurwitz in historical context. I agree with Richman's conclusion: 'The war on drug users and doctors is the product of a totalitarian mentality. People should be able to buy whatever drugs they want, subject only to the principles of self-responsibility and liability. Doctors should be able to give their best advice to patients without fear of being second-guessed by prohibition agents...'

Frank Fisher, M.D.; PRN Press Conf., Alexandria, VA; 2005-04-14
"Dr. Hurwitz was willing to toss a life ring to pain victims. Society responds to physicians like him, by conducting witch-hunts. We have to stop this, because when we persecute well-intentioned pain-treating physicians, we assure our own future suffering. By burning Dr. Hurwitz at the stake, we are literally throwing open the gates of Hell."

Ken Moore; The Connection Newspapers; 2004-12-09
""More than in most clinical circumstances, the failure of patients to act intelligently, responsibly and honestly can lead to disaster," [read Hurwitz'] Web site. "For all of these reasons, patients who undertake opioid maintenance therapy should behave in a way that is beyond reproach or suspicion in all matters relating to their use of medications. Patients who are unwilling or unable to do so jeopardize not only their own health and safety, but the health and safety of other patients with chronic pain."

Tina Rosenberg; Editorial Observer; New York Times; 2005-03-26

"Dr. Hurwitz has been prosecuted as a drug kingpin because some patients sold their pills, although prosecutors never claimed he made a penny from it. That sends a chilling message to doctors who treat people with extreme pain."

See also:
Selected Major Media on the War on Doctors and the Pain Crisis, 2005

The Title (above) links to "No Relief in Sight" by Jacob Sullum, Reason Online, 1997.

See also:
Pain Without Treatment, Wrong Without Remedy by William Hurwitz, 1992.
Deadly Morals by Katherine Finkelstein, Playboy, 1997.
The Police State of Medicine by William Hurwitz; 1997.
Treating Doctors as Drug Dealers by Ron Libby, 2005.
The Challenge of Prescription Drug Misuse by William Hurwitz, Pain Medicine, 2005. [Note: published while Hurwitz was in Federal prison awaiting Appeal]

EXCERPT: Legally, Dr. Hurwitz’s conviction in effect establishes negligence in medical practice as a federal crime, and puts Department of Justice policemen in the business of regulating an increasingly important area of medical practice. Socially, this case will worsen an already serious medical problem – the under-treatment of pain in America. The prosecutorial overreaching in this case will have a severe chilling effect on the willingness of doctors in the future to treat severe disabling pain.

Robbins, Russell, & Taaffe; 2005.

This is the main brief in the defense of Dr. Hurwitz in his Appeal which will be heard in 2006.

Portenoy, Campbell, Foley, Cleeland, Miaskowski, & Payne. Submitted to Judge Wexler, 12/10/2004.
"Dear Marvin D. Miller, Esq. [for Judge Wexler],
We are Past-Presidents of the American Pain Society and have decided to take an unusual step in writing you about the expert testimony that you have heard at the trial of Dr William Hurwitz. We are deeply concerned that serious misrepresentations in the testimony provided by the government's expert, Dr. Michael Ashburn, will undermine the welfare of patients who suffer in chronic pain..."

The Title (above) links to Dr. DeLuca's letter, 2005-02-05.
EXCERPT: It is very clear to me, and to my colleagues and peers in addiction and pain medicine, that neither the prosecution nor the jury in Hurwitz understood the principles of addiction medicine as promulgated by ASAM, especially the principles of “titration to effect” and “the benefits of long-acting opiates.” This is not surprising given their exposure to the false testimony of the government expert witness, Dr. Ashburn...

See also:
Siobhan Reynold's Letter to Judge Wexler, 2005-04-03.

Andrew L. Schlafly, Attorney for Amicus Curiae, AAPS, 2005-09-06.

Samuel Rosenthal, Counsel for the Foundations, 2005.

National Association of Attorneys General, 2005-03-21.
EXCERPT (emphasis in the original):
"We are concerned that recent DEA actions send mixed signals to the medical community and are likely to discourage appropriate prescribing for the management of pain."

See also:
Attorneys General Letter to DEA Administrator Tandy, 2005-01-19.
The Amazing Vanishing FAQ, Drug War Chronicle; 2004-12-24.

Drug War Chronicle #368, 2005-04-15
"The most closely watched in a growing procession of prosecutions of doctors involved in aggressive pain management with opioids came to an end in a suburban Washington, DC, federal courthouse Thursday as presiding federal circuit court Judge Leonard Wexler sentenced Northern Virginia pain specialist Dr. William Hurwitz to 25 years in prison as a drug dealer for his prescribing habits..."

Ronald T. Libby; Cato Institute; 2004-12-21
ARTICLE BEGINS: A Virginia doctor has become the latest victim of the government's crusade to enforce federal drug laws that make it difficult for sufferers of chronic pain to obtain effective medication able to ease their distress. Dr. Hurwitz faces life in prison for prescribing medication to sufferers of chronic pain... He was convicted on December 16 on 50 counts, including illegally prescribing narcotic pain medication to patients, causing the death of one patient, and seriously injuring two others...

Drug War Chronicle #368; 2004-12-24
FIRST PARAGRAPH: The battle between federal law enforcers and pain docs, patients, and academics over the proper use of opioid pain meds such as Oxycontin is turning white hot. Between DEA's sudden reversal on a collaborative effort with pain specialists over what constitutes acceptable opioid prescribing and the recent successful prosecution of Dr. William Hurwitz, mainstream medical organizations and personalities that had up until now been quietly complacent have begun to go on the offensive.

Josh White, Washington Post, 2002-12-23
FIRST PARAGRAPH: Eighteen people who illegally sold large amounts of OxyContin and other powerful prescription painkillers have pleaded guilty to drug charges in federal court over the past two months and for the first time have openly implicated two Northern Virginia doctors in widespread conspiracies to put the drugs on the black market...

LINK to: Billy's Lament and, The Appeal
FIRST STANZA: Billy's Lament
======================
I'm locked up in jail convicted of crime
Berated, assailed with insult and time
Enough to consume the years I have left
A sentence so long it leaves me bereft
Of prospect to live to see freedom?s light
It's hard to imagine a much grimmer plight
Yet through the ordeal my soul is at peace
Sustained by your love and the hope of release.