this is your war on drugs

[natedogg]

Here is an interview interview with Richard Paey, a paraplegic man who was sentenced to 24 years in Florida for intent to distribute after he obtained painkillers without prescription because he couldn't find any doctors willing to give him what he needed. After living with MS, a car accident and a botched back surgery, Paey suffered from severe chronic pain and was thwarted by regulations and forced to live in pain. He circumvented them on his own and was sentenced to 24 years in prison after a SWAT team raided his home. Yes, a SWAT team raided his home with his wife and two kids.

He was pardoned recently by the governor of Florida only after some persistent journalists turned him into a cause.

From the interview

[ QUOTE ]
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.


[/ QUOTE ]

If you're not sickened by the drug war yet you're not paying attention.

natedogg