As much as I feel for a guy in this position, my first thought was to wonder why he couldn't get medication?
but in the interview he states:
Paey: .... I was convicted because the prosecutor hammered away at the jury that I was an addict and that my doctor was a pusher. I was sort of blindsided when the prosecutor started to make that argument—that I was nothing more than an addict. I can’t think of a worse slur to attach to a person.
So apparently he was getting medicaiton.
In the next question:
Paey: Right. It became a comedy of bureaucracies. One agency prosecutes me for taking too much medication. And that was their explanation—that my dose was too high for one person to be taking, therefore I must be selling it. Even though they conceded they had no evidence of that. Then I get to prison, and the doctors examine my records and my medical history, and they decide that as doctors, they have to give me this medication, and in fact it was in higher doses than what I’d been getting before.
It certainly was an irony that I was prosecuted for taking too much medication, then the state went ahead and gave me more once I was in prison. And I think that irony made many people take a second look at my situation. It raised a red flag in many peoples’ minds that something strange was going on, here.
If the account is true then that is sad really. It does seem like there's a very a high chance he had a crummy lawyer. I would sure like to hear the other side of this story though i.e. the prosecuters side and see what came out in the trial.
This is starting to make a little more sense to me now. I have a friend who for several reasons had a doctor at the VA prescribing pain killers for various ailments. This had been going on for a long time. He got a new doctor and they gave him a drug test. He tested positive for pot and the doctor stated that he could get his meds but he would have to undergo periodic random drug tests. My friend refused the tests and decided to go without the pain killers. I never realized he was taking so many as I know he went through a withdrawl period. There's a real concern about people abusing their subscriptions by taking the pills to get high and/or selling them. In my friends case I'm sure the doctor was concerned about that. Whether he should be or not is another matter but this is starting to sound similar to what my friend went through.
One further point:
reason: Are you getting the medication you need?
Paey: Well, at some point we’re going to have a cash crisis. When I got out of prison, I went down to Social Security, and they said they’d never seen a pardon before. Before I went to prison, I was getting Social Security disability, and was on Medicare A and B. Well, when you get convicted of a felony and go to prison, you lose all of those benefits. They’re not really sure how to handle it—if the pardon makes me eligible again or not. They’re now telling us that it may not be until next June until they know. That was terrible news.
Don't think what he says here is right:
What Prisoners Should Know About Social Security