New at Reason

August 31, 2007

In his new column for Fox News, Radley Balko investigates the oddball prosecution of Dr. Bernard L. Rottschaefer.

Comments

|8.31.07 @ 10:33AM|#

another great article!

|8.31.07 @ 10:52AM|#

I hate to use this word (even stronger than [female dog] IMO, but Mary Beth Buchanan is a Cunt, w/ a capital C.

excimer|8.31.07 @ 10:54AM|#

I can't imagine why the Bush Administration didn't want to fire her...

|8.31.07 @ 10:55AM|#

Fire her? Shit, she's on the shortlist to replace Gonzales.

|8.31.07 @ 11:22AM|#

Hey, Radley's writing for Fox News-That's to their credit! Cuz they need something laudable to offset their Soviet style, rah rah, war/foreign policy coverage, and their often ridiculous and shameful Muslim bashing.

Shannon Love|8.31.07 @ 12:09PM|#

It seems that we have an inevitable trade off between treating people for severe pain and risking others becoming addicted to painkiller. The more easily we make drugs available for the treatment of pain, the more easy we make it for addicts to get the drugs they need to maintain their addiction.

Yet, it seems that somewhere along the line the decision got made that protecting people from the risk of addiction was more important than helping people in pain. We would rather let person A suffer great pain than risk that person B will become a painkiller addict.

Who made this decision? Did we all have a vote I missed?

Why does one individual have to involuntarily suffer for the benefit of another? Why does the government get to say that the suffering of an addict is more important than the suffering of another person in real pain?

Ultimately, addiction is under individual control. People choose the short term psychological benefits the drug gives them over the long term consequences. People can and do stop making that choice.

People do not choose pain. Pain happens to people against their will. People cannot choose whether or not to feel pain.

We need to shift the legal presumption back to erring on the side of over treating pain and let the addicts watch out for themselves.

Jennifer|8.31.07 @ 1:21PM|#

Rick, I think it's great that Fox News runs columns like this one. It means Balko's pieces have a chance of being read by folks who don't already agree that the War on Drugs is bullshit.

Juanita|8.31.07 @ 2:07PM|#

Why does one individual have to involuntarily suffer for the benefit of another? Why does the government get to say that the suffering of an addict is more important than the suffering of another person in real pain?

It isn't the suffering of the addict they are worried about, but rather the negative downstream effects on society that drug use causes. What about all the dealing, prostitution and theft addicts cause? What if an addict drives high?

Drug use is sinful, It cannot be allowed in a Christian nation, you should get pleasure through hard work and religion, that is why it is ilegal. A few individuals suffering in pain is the price we have to pay for our freedom, which encludes the fredom to not be enslaved by drugs, the US is a drug free society. It should eventually be a tobbaco free and perhaps alcohol free society.

Alcohol is safe, it has a long history of safe use in western society, drugs are 10s of 1000s of times more addictive and unhealthy and can't be used safely.

Tym|8.31.07 @ 2:41PM|#

Shannon Love - I agree.

|8.31.07 @ 3:17PM|#

A few individuals suffering in pain is the price we have to pay for our freedom,...

So Juanita, where did the "we" in your statement come from? Are you telling us that you feel their pain? Have you checked with Jesus to see if he would approve of the trade-off you so cavalierly set forth above? What you are really saying is you don't mind people suffering needlessly as the war on drugs is more important to you than their pain. Frankly, I don't think Jesus would approve.

Ironically, you along with most of my fellow Christians have, over the centuries, morphed into the Pharisees that Jesus took to task back in his day. Jesus asked people to follow him, you and your ilk want to beat people onto the path of righteousness or suffer punishment. Not very "Christian" if you ask me.

Alcohol is safe, it has a long history of safe use in western society, drugs are 10s of 1000s of times more addictive and unhealthy and can't be used safely.

You can't be serious. The addiction rate for alcohol is about 11%, the addiction rate for heroin is about 17%. The 6% difference is a far cry from your "10s of 1000s of times more addictive" statement you make above.

Shannon Love.... well said

|8.31.07 @ 3:18PM|#

Federal prosecutors have never charged Riggle with perjury.

Why would they, their side suborned it. Greater good and all that...

|8.31.07 @ 5:05PM|#

Jennifer,

I concur. Rave on, feral genius!

Now if Fox will just run a non-interventionist. What? Dreaming is free. Right?...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95AEzyWZX8I

|8.31.07 @ 8:24PM|#

"why would they, their side suborned it. Greater good and all that.."

Greater good my ass. Since when is the greater public good focused on getting Mary Beth Buchanan a feather in her cap publically. This case is a travesty. Mary Beth ran around Pittsburgh and called this poor man a sex abuser, etc. Because of the sex allegations from an allegedly credible source, the US Attorney's Ofice of Western PA, many in the Pittsburgh community ran from this physician and refused to assist him with his defense.

Mary Beth Buchanan deserves to be disbarred and put in jail for the crime she has inflicted on Dr. Rottschaefer.

Siobhan Reynolds|9.1.07 @ 10:46AM|#

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401699.html
Maia Szalavitz wrote this interesting piece in the Washington Post for those of you who are so sure you know what addiction is.
Also, she only glances by it, but opioids are actually far less addictive than alcohol, if any substance could actually be regarded as addictive.
Dr. Rottschaefer, like all the railroaded physicians we have been working to free was the victim of a wildly unscrupulous DOJ.
The DOJ apparently senses they can continue to get away with this behavior because the courts have yet to stop them, and the Congress treats the drug war as a sacred cow-no matter how many American citizens it destroys.
Siobhan Reynolds
Painreliefnetwork.org

|9.2.07 @ 1:45PM|#

Buchanan (who now heads up a domestic violence program within the Department of Justice) was politically savvy, ambitious, and had taken on a number of high-profile cases that made her a rising star in the Bush administration, including spending $12 million to nab 55 people on low-level charges of selling glass-blown bongs over the Internet...

You're kidiing me, right? How could you jusifiably spend that kind of money for those results? Hell, how could you, without fraud waste and abuse, possibly spend that kind of money ordering bongs on the internet?

Don't answer, I know the WOD is it's own justification. Jeez...

|9.2.07 @ 2:42PM|#

From my understanding, Mary Beth Buchanan spent $12 million to indict 55 people and only one actually was found guilty. That one was Tommy Chong.

|9.3.07 @ 8:16AM|#

It seems that we have an inevitable trade off between treating people for severe pain and risking others becoming addicted to painkiller.

I don't see the addiction side of the dilemma as such a bad thing. Addicts are often quite functional when they can get their fix.