WARY OF MONITORING

That was a wonderful article about the dilemma of pain medication,
however I am strongly against prescription drug monitoring. My husband
is Richard Paey. He is a chronic pain patient who had a high need for
strong pain relievers due to a car accident, a botched spinal
operation and his MS. He was well-documented in having gone to
numerous pain clinics and had not doctor-shopped. Yet he was still
targeted by the police. They stubbornly dragged him through three
trials, he spent 31/2 years in prison and then was miraculously
pardoned in September.

Although it was illegal at the time, the police pulled Rich's
prescriptions from pharmacies and decided he was taking "too much"
pain medicine; that was the sole basis of their actions against my
husband. Therefore, I don't trust the police to act appropriately with
information obtained from the pharmacies. I do not believe our case is
isolated. In most cases, the pain patient accepts a plea agreement so
no one ever hears about it.

I wish prescription monitoring would be the silver bullet that could
solve some of these problems. Unfortunately it will solve some and
create others.

Linda Paey, Hudson