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Pill Sham
(Jacob Sullum, Reason, April 23, 2004)
Here's a bit of legal information that may interest Rush Limbaugh: Under Florida law, illegally obtaining more than 28 grams of painkillers containing the narcotic oxycodone — a threshold exceeded by a single 60-pill Percocet prescription — automatically makes you the worst sort of drug trafficker, even if you never sold a single pill. Even if, like Richard Paey, you were using the drugs to relieve severe chronic pain. Although prosecutors admitted Paey was not a drug trafficker, on April 16 he received a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years for drug trafficking. That jaw-dropping outcome illustrates two sadly familiar side effects of the war on drugs: the injustice caused by mandatory minimum sentences and the suffering caused by the government's interference with pain treatment. A juror later told the St. Petersburg Times he did not really think Paey was guilty of trafficking, since the prosecution made it clear from the outset that he didn't sell any pills. The juror said he voted guilty to avoid being the lone holdout. He suggested that other jurors might have voted differently if the foreman had not assured them Paey would get probation. The prosecutors, who finally obtained the draconian sentence that even they concede Paey does not deserve, say it's his fault for insisting on his innocence. "It's unfortunate that anyone has to go to prison, but he's got no one to blame but Richard Paey," Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis told the St. Petersburg Times. "All we wanted to do was get him help."

******Kind of takes your beath away. But, seeing as this is Floriduh and Gubnor JEB continues to hold the citizens of the state somewhere back in the 1940's, it should hardly surprise anyone. Think about it - if the prosecutors admit that he did not traffic, how can a judicial system that is WORKING convict himof trafficing? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE????? Oh, and you can probably take it to the bank that Limbaugh will never see the inside of a courtroom over his doctor shopping - but you probably already knew that...*****

posted by A Curmudgeon 9:08 AM