Coming
in August!
Dime's
Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils

Order Now!
Today's
Stories
July 31, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
Sex, Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden

CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness

July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War

July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)

July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert

July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link

July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter

July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof





Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.


|
July
31, 2004
Politics
of Pot
A
World of Pain
By
FRED GARDNER
On that great day when all the single-issue
groups assemble to pursue their mutual interests, cannabis users
will find they have a lot in common with their fellow citizens
who use synthetic opioids to cope with chronic pain. Patients
in both groups have had to rely on a handful of doctors willing
to approve their drug use without regard to bureaucratic constraints.
Because opioids can be fatal, the pain specialists are taking
an even greater risk, vis-à-vis law enforcement, than
their cannabis-consultant colleagues. So struggle against self-pity,
comrades, rise up out of the single-issue trap, and meet some
prospective allies.
Joe Talley is an upstanding
67-year old North Carolina country doctor--tall, folksy, garrulous,
a Navy vet, a skilled toy maker, a reptile collector--who expects
to be indicted by the federal government on multiple murder charges
before the end of the year.
Talley put out a shingle as
a general practitioner in Grover, N.C. in 1969. Except for a
brief stint teaching medicine, he practiced in Grover until April
2002, when the state medical board -acting at the behest of the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration- revoked his license.
Talley had become known, over
the years, as a doctor willing to prescribe opioids to patients
who claimed to be in severe pain. "Word of mouth seems to
travel faster in the pool hall than in church," he observes.
He is being charged federally in the deaths of people who allegedly
overdosed on opioids he prescribed and people who overdosed after
buying opioids from his patients. While preparing his defense,
Talley, who has not lost his sense of humor or perspective, has
written up a number of "situations for which doctors aren't
trained." Here are two of them:
* A 27-year-old North Carolina
farmer, a good ole' boy I shall call Billy Bob, showed up at
my office with a big lump on his shin. It turned out to be Ewing's
sarcoma (yes, at age 27!), and unfortunately there were already
snowballs on the lung films. Johns Hopkins had one of their send-me-your-poor-downtrodden-weird-cancers
programs going, but when Billy went up there, they had little
of promise to offer him, so he returned home to die. To their
credit, Hopkins sent along a generous supply of Dilaudid.
I had no hesitation in continuing
the Dilaudid, and his rapid escalation to a fairly prodigious
dose gave me no pause. I wasn't going to let the guy die in pain,
and if he was getting any highs on the side, hell, he deserved
a break! Billy was a remarkably strong man, and he was able to
remain on his feet and ambulate to the office until just days
before the inevitable cascade of systems failures and eroding
metastases brought the story to a rather quick and merciful close.
The family expressed their profound gratitude for my keeping
him comfortable until the end.
About a week later one of the
most strikingly beautiful patients in my practice presented with
tremors and shakes, in obvious withdrawal. Debbie could have
been a model anywhere had her heroin addiction not destroyed
he life (and incidentally got her kicked out of my office for
selling my Xana to buy the stuff.)
Debbie: "Please, doctor, I've just got to have something
for this headache!"
Talley: "Come on, Deb,
we know each other. You know I can't do that. Go see your supplier
if that's what you've got to have."
Debbie: "I CAN'T! HE DIED!"
Billy had the sarcoma all right,
but it was one of those few cancers tha kills a guy without inflicting
all that much pain. So he had pills he didn't need. He couldn't
have gotten within 50 miles of Debbie, until he was furnished
with the perfect gift certificate. I thought of writing tha one
up in a journal: "New Palliative Treatment for Terminal
Cancer: All th sex you ever dreamed of but couldn't get until
you secured the proper mediu of Exchange."
* This story involves a transient
patient I'll call Sam. He was a sligh little man, around 65,
silver-haired and of dusky complexion, obviousl emphysemic. He
told us he was from St. Louis, had come to North Carolin for
the funeral of his uncle, then had been screwed over by USAir
(entirely believable!) over a K fare, and was stranded for the
next 5 days. But he had cancer, and he described how the surgery
and/or the post-op radiation had damaged the nerves, making him
hurt terribly all the time.
He said his doctor in St. Louis
had been giving him Dilaudid, which was making his life bearable,
but which was running out today. (Yeah, right!)
But when we asked him where his cancer was, he removed his coat
with the high furry collar to reveal half his neck missing! He
had indeed had a radical neck dissection. Then he produced a
well-worn professional card, giving the name and address of his
physician, a Dr. Fitzgerald in St. Louis. And so, of course,
we called him.
Receptionist: "Dr. Fitzgerald's
office. This is Michelle."
Talley: "Yes Ma'm, we
got your patient, Sam What's-his-name, out here in Grover, North
Carolina, and-"
Receptionist: "SAM? My
goodness, what's he doing way out in North Carolina? Oh Yes,
now I remember, he said he had a real sick uncle out there! Isn't
he a dear, doctor?"
Talley: "Yes'm, he is.
Uh, could I talk to Dr. Fitzgerald about him?"
Receptionist: "Well, Dr.
Fitzgerald is at lunch. But could I help you in any way with
him?"
I asked her to pull the record
and confirm his story. After an appropriate pause... Receptionist:
"Ye-ess, that's right. Today is the 21st, isn't it? Yes,
doctor, his prescription for Dilaudid should be running out today.
Could you help him out for a few days until he can get back?
You know, we can't call in a Skedule II."
That was enough for me. But
my paranoid partner wanted to call the doctor's office back,
using directory assistance instead of the number on the card.
(Dick saw an addict under every rug, and a wire under every lapel!)
To humor him, I did so. Indeed there was a Dr. James Fitzgerald,
General Surgery, with an identical address, although a different
phone number, for some reason. The call went like this:
Receptionist: "Dr. Fitzgerald's
office, Michelle speaking (but with a different voice). What?
You called 10 minutes ago? Doctor, I've been at this desk the
whole lunch break, and nobody's called in the past hour! I don't
know who you called, but- No, wait! Don't tell me, let me guess!
YOU GOT OLD SAM OUT THERE, HAVEN'T YOU?"!!!
Sam had an HEENT cancer, all
right, but surgery apparently cured it. Now, at 63, with bad
emphysema, who was going to hire him? So he stashed his girl
friend in a Ramada Inn in St. Louis, ran a private phone line
in, printed up some professional cards, and his itinerary was
describing an ever-increasing spiral around the country.
We had long since learned that
the local KGB had no interest in such as Sam unless we had actually
bitten for the scam, and then they would only want him as a witness,
so we didn't even bother to call. (We did call a couple of nearby
doctors in the area to give them a heads up, but Sam probably
knew not to go to the well in the same area repeatedly.)
I asked him how often he successfully
pulled off this scam, and he said about a third of the time.
But 20 Dilaudid tablets, bringing $60 apiece on the street? It
was a living!
So much for the expensive workups
to determine if a patient has "generators" for his
pain, also the bye that cancer patients get but others don't
get.
PS: Before somebody starts
up about about my cavalier attitude about diversion leading to
some nice kid in St. Louis going to a party, shooting up some
of the Dilaudid Sam had passed along to his retailers, and coming
to a tragic end, I would say, "Who thinks that kid wouldn't
have found something else to indulge his passion for incredibly
dangerous behavior with, would have stayed home and done his
homework that night, if only suckers like me didn't keep getting
had by the Sams of the world?" And before the feminists
whom I know lurk amongst us start weighing in on my chauvinistic
and sexist portrayal of a poor woman who was forced to sell her
body to meet the demands of her disease, I would save them the
trouble and say, "OINK."
Since his practice was closed
down, Talley has been helping former patients arrange to see
other doctors. He says he's been struck by how many have volunteered
the information that "they can make do with half the opiates
if they have a joint." This jibes exactly with what researchers
in Sandra Welch's lab at Virginia Commonwealth University have
learned from animal studies: cannabis use can reduce the need
for opiates by about 50 percent.
Magic Numbers
Martin Klos is an Oregon MD
who has been disciplined by the state board for "overprescribing"
opioids. His punishment includes monitoring by another pain specialist.
"During our last visit," Klos reported to a colleague,
"he was very specific about working with me to find dosages
for my patients that would treat their pain, but at the same
time would be 'below the horizon' of the regulators' radar to
keep me out of trouble with the board, the insurance companies
(which have been the source of the majority of complaints against
my prescribing) and other doctors. These are the dosages of pain
medication that he felt to be acceptable by Oregon regulators.
"Duragesic 150 mg [patch]
wearing at a time
"Oxycodone 240 mg per day (3 Oxycontin 80's per day)
"Morphine 300 mg per day and
"Methadone 100 mg per day.
"No pretense was even
made as to therapeutic equivalents, or functional evaluation
of the patient. These are the doses that 'should keep me out
of trouble.' When I discuss this with patients, they universally
have decided to try to lower their doses to meet these expectations,
knowing these are artificially set by the threat of a regulatory
system.
"I have been upfront with
the patients, and have discussed this with them at length with
each visit, so I do not feel this is unethical. They also have
the ability to change doctors to a more technologically capable
physician (I cannot have hospital privileges so long as my license
is on probation with the medical board) for injections or medication
management.
"Regulators have strongly
affected medical practice in Oregon, and all the doctors and
the medical school seem to agree with the medical board that
this is a perfectly legitimate way to practice pain management
in our state."
Fred Gardner can be reached at: fred@plebesite.com
Weekend Edition
Features for July 10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
Keep
CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home
/ subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|