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|12.17.04 @ 1:48PM|#
Surely this is the law we've been promised that will drive down medical costs. If we can just sweep every scumbag off the street and those who are compassionate to them then...
something...
pain...
Public health?
In conclusion;
(step one) steal underpants
(step two) ???
(step three) Profit!
|12.17.04 @ 2:38PM|#
Makes me proud to live in the land of the free.
|12.17.04 @ 2:45PM|#
(step one) steal underpants
(step two) ???
(step three) Profit!
That is the funniest thing I've read since breakfast. (Although admittedly, your only competition was an engineering final exam.) Is that a quote from some TV show? I can always use more manic cartoon obsessions.
In all seriousness, though, this case pisses me off immensely. This isn't just about men armed with assault rifles busting down doors and arresting people who pursue the wrong kind of happiness. Now they're going after people for trying to relieve their fucking pain.
I'll be disappointed if Hurwitz goes quietly. It would make me feel better if he blew his own brains out first. That's what I would do.
|12.17.04 @ 2:56PM|#
Could this be reversed on appeal?
|12.17.04 @ 3:12PM|#
Lord Duppy:
To answer your former question:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underpants_Gnomes
I love Wikipedia!
drf|12.17.04 @ 3:14PM|#
just gonna play devil's advocate, martha stewart style here:
the guy's done wrong. he deserves punishment. you libertoids gonna tell me you think guys should get a pass if you disagree with the law? he broke the law. and he must be punished.
there. you know who you are. those are your arguments. now move along. if you'd like, we can send someone over to explain the finer points of today's home shopping network controversy.
|12.17.04 @ 3:17PM|#
Lord Duppy,
It's from an episode of Southpark. And the perpetraitors are gnomes, and they explain to the youth why big corporations are a very good thing. It's a pretty good episode. My quote had nothing really to do with the cartoon, just absolute beffudlement.
Alan|12.17.04 @ 3:26PM|#
I've been following this story for a while, and Hurwitz's conviction is extremely disheartening. While I suspect his chances of reversal on appeal are good, the most troubling aspect of this case for me is embodied in the attitude expressed in this quote, "doctors acting in good faith and in accordance with established medical norms should remain confident in their ability to prescribe appropriate pain medications.". What room does this leave for experimental treatment? Major organ transplants and open heart surgery are a standard procedure across the country today, but 50 years they were outside "established medical norms". If the first surgeon who performed an unsuccessful heart transplant or coronary bypass had been successly prosecuted for Manslaughter (if not Murder, as today's prosecutors might have pushed for), there would be a lot fewer of us alive today.
|12.17.04 @ 3:31PM|#
Alan.
Stop making sense.
STOP IT!
This is the WAR on DRUGS we're talkin bout.
|12.17.04 @ 3:58PM|#
Ruthless and Alan:
Whether this can be reversed on appeal depends on a number of factors. I did not follow the case that closely, but I am somewhat familiar with the issues. The appellate court would reverse if the trial court committed a legal error that adversely affected the jury's decision. I do not know what motions or objections were made during trial and how the court ruled. As such, it is hard to predict what an appellate court would do.
If the case is appealed based on 'insufficiency of the evidence', the odds are extremely slim. Our courts give great weight to jury verdicts and this will not be overturned unless the jury verdict simply is unsupported in any conceivable way by the evidence. While I think that the jury got it wrong, it is exceedingly rare for an appellate court to reverse on that basis.
An article I read a while back and that I cannot now find did a study of appellate reversals. The best grounds for reversal (based on odds of success) come from jury instruction error - the judge incorrectly instructs the jury on the law. The worst grounds for reversal is insufficiency of the evidence. So, unless there was some motion incorrectly decided, I think the chances for appellate reversal are quite slim.
CodeMonkeySteve|12.17.04 @ 4:08PM|#
(1) There is no "established medical norms" for opiates. It's entirely individual, and a dose which doesn't even take the edge off for one patient may kill another.
(2) I think karma dictates that each and every member of the jury die a slow, horrible, painful death without access to medical care.
(3) The Doc should, at the very least, pull a Galt and never, ever practice medicine again.
(4) Profit!
|12.17.04 @ 4:19PM|#
drf-
I see your point about how the law should be enforced even if we disagree with it. The problem is that the law in this case is so vague that enforcement and prosecution are inevitably arbitrary. So how do we know if he violated the law?
drf|12.17.04 @ 4:23PM|#
hey thoreau,
this was my version of your "kerry would be worse". watching some of the (neo)conservative elements froth about martha stewart, etc. and those that say that if you don't like getting frisked, don't fly, etc.
and i agree that the arbitrary enforcement is a huge problem. it's just that the hyperinterventionists (thanks, rick!) don't mind problems, so long as it doesn't have an effect on their side.
gotta go walk across the rubble, take it to the terrorists, and read chapter three of heather has two mommies.
happy friday to you!
drf
|12.17.04 @ 4:25PM|#
thoreau
I think drf was kidding. Of course, I might be wrong, I lack the clairvoyant powers some have. :)
|12.17.04 @ 4:26PM|#
Sorry, drf! I, of all people, should have known better. My apologies.
And I hope that this doesn't count as lying, or changing my story after the fact, or any other offense that might get Gary to go after me.
|12.17.04 @ 4:27PM|#
ya beat me.
drf|12.17.04 @ 4:42PM|#
jeez thoreau. do you suppose jason merogovian bournebart the french gay engineer journalist with a jewish wife living in new york would call you on that one, senator?
:)
Warren|12.17.04 @ 4:50PM|#
This is so fucking depressing. After reading shit like that, the only way I can get through the day is with narcotics. Thanks DEA, for my junk habit.
|12.17.04 @ 4:56PM|#
Code Monkey "I think karma dictates that each and every member of the jury die a slow, horrible, painful death without access to medical care."
With unending, excruciating back pain.
|12.18.04 @ 4:22AM|#
I agree that the jurors should suffer, but what about that prosecutor? Would flaying followed by a thorough salting be good enough? What a truly disgusting human being.
Adam|12.18.04 @ 11:32AM|#
For the second time this year, I bought a New York Post...it was a pleasant surprise (to put it mildly) to find this article on the op-ed page!!
|12.19.04 @ 7:12PM|#
From the USA Today statement by the DEA...
The small number of doctors we've arrested � and the flagrant nature of their crimes � should reassure the medical community that DEA does not play doctor.
Jason Sonenshein|12.19.04 @ 11:21PM|#
Everything I have read about the prosecution and conviction of Dr. Hurwitz indicates that they are a tremendous injustice. I feel terrible for Dr. Hurwitz, his family, and all the patients forced to live with excruciating pain because the DEA has decided to go after doctors who do nothing more than provide effective pain treatment. Perhaps, as a result of cases like this, Americans will finally recognize the drug war for the cruel, wasteful, mean-spirited, authoritarian madness that it is, but that's probably wishful thinking on my part.
E. Naeher|12.20.04 @ 10:31AM|#
The small number of doctors we've arrested ? and the flagrant nature of their crimes ? should reassure the medical community that DEA does not play doctor.
Translation: the odds that the Seekrit Police will come after you arbitrarily are slim. So don't make a fuss, or they might increase.
I remember reading articles a few months ago regarding physicians who were refusing to perform elective procedures on medical-malpractice attorneys as a sort of protest. Wouldn't it be great if the AMA would get its members to refuse healthcare to policy-making bureacrats? Two birds with one stone: not only would we see some policy changes tout de suite , but the federal payroll would be reduced by thousands overnight, thus neatly solving our little budget deficit!