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Desperate Florida Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Gallagher Strikes Out Unjustly at Dr. Merrill to Distract from Crippled Campaign
 

 
John P. Flannery; Pain Relief Network press release; 2006-07-01; Posted: 2006-07-15
[Identifier: http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/MerrillGallagherFlannery06.htm]
 
Related resources:
PAIN RELIEF NETWORK website  ;  Our Chronic Pain Mission website
 
War on Doctors Academic and Legal archives  ;  Drug War Journalism and Advocacy archives
 
See also:
Trial Begins for Suspended Doctor [Merrill] - Melissa Nelson; Associated Press; 2006-01-11
 
Paey Appeal Selected Transcripts: Defense Attorney Flannery Addresses the Court, February 2006
 
Reply Brief of the Appellant Dr. McIver - J.P. Flannery; Forth Circuit Appeals Court; 2006
 
John P. Flannery Esq. Biography - Vision, Passion, Experience
 
War on Doctors and Pain Crisis Weekly - RSS feed:   HTML view:
 

[This Press Release in Adobe PDF Format]

(Panama City, Florida)
Florida State's CFO, Tom Gallagher, tilting right in a hotly contested Republican Primary for Governor, trailing his primary opponent, and embarrassed by his own admissions of an extramarital affair, of dog theft and of drug-taking, tried to change the political subject by unfairly attacking Dr. Thomas Merrill, who did no more than treat chronic pain patients when other physicians refused to help.

John P. Flannery, II, a former federal prosecutor from NY, and defense counsel for Dr. Merrill, said that "Gallagher is so busy trying to salvage his phoney baloney political career, and win this primary for Governor, that he is desperate to have the public talk about anything else than what he did wrong himself."

Days ago, Florida's CFO Gallagher released an attack on Dr. Merrill, equating Dr. Merrill's prescription of pain medicine to chronic pain patients with drug dealing, and insisting that the deaths of his patients were a result of his prescriptions, rather than suicides prompted by the patients' excruciating pain, or the patients' personal misconduct.

"Gallagher is a proponent," Flannery said," of Florida's wrong-headed no-tolerance policy when it comes to treating chronic pain patients with opioids, although these powerful medicines are both legal and necessary, that is, if the patient is going to have anything like an ordinary life."

"The State of Florida," Flannery said, "has a policy of intimidating any doctor who would dare to help chronic pain patients and, as a result, a doctor who prescribes medicine, and the patients he treats is criminalized. CFO Gallagher makes great pretense at having 'family values' and yet he has thrown his political weight against those families who value a loved one suffering from chronic pain."

A "chronic pain patient", according to the medical literature, is a person who has had ongoing, unremitting and excruciating pain, without remission for 6 months. It is pain that has not responded to surgery or to alternative therapies. Physicians must administer opioids if the person is going to have any relief, and function normally.

Florida criminalizes physicians and patients alike. On appeal is the 25 year mandatory sentence of a patient, Richard Paey, featured on 60 minutes, who did nothing more than take pain medication for his chronic pain condition; ironically, Mr. Paey is receiving more pain medicine in prison, than he was charged with possessing for his chronic pain condition; that appeal, argued on February 7, 2006, awaits the appellate court's decision. "Apparently," Flannery said, "when it comes to treating chronic pain, the Florida prison doctor gets it, but the state prosecutor does not."

"What's really tragic," said Flannery, "is that if a chronic pain patient is not treated, the patient may commit suicide - as the pain is unbearable. One patient told me that it was like his legs were in a furnace and on fire. Can you imagine such pain?"

"We have raised serious challenges to this prosecution," Flannery said, "that we will pursue on appeal, among other things, whether this prosecution is a re-run of past misconduct by the government, and of course, we will scrutinize the questionable testimony of the medical examiner."

"As for CFO Gallagher," Flannery said, "Gallagher's drive-by political media attack against Dr. Merrill signals the free fall of his primary campaign."

As for where anyone could learn more about chronic pain, Flannery said, "you should really try the Pain Relief Network's web site as your first and most reliable resource." http://www.painreliefnetwork.org/.

[This Press Release in Adobe PDF Format]

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