PASCO MAN'S APPEAL IN SUPREME COURT

TALLAHASSEE - A wheelchair-bound man's appeal of a drug trafficking
conviction should be rejected, the state argued in papers filed
Monday with the Florida Supreme Court.

Richard Paey, now serving a 25-year prison sentence, says an
appellate court misapplied the state's drug trafficking law when it
upheld his conviction in December.

Lawyers for Attorney General Bill McCollum replied that Paey failed
to allege sufficient grounds to warrant the Supreme Court's jurisdiction.

The law at issue classifies the possession of large amounts of
controlled substances as trafficking regardless of them being sold or
distributed.

A former lawyer and father of three, Paey injured his back in a 1985
car crash and has multiple sclerosis. He said only large doses of
narcotics calm his pain.

The Pasco County man contends he was not part of any trafficking
scheme and possessed the drugs strictly for medical use.