One of Richard Paey’s prison drawings.
FLORIDA — A wheelchair-bound man, suffering from paralysis, severe chronic pain, and multiple sclerosis, was raided by masked, gun-wielding agents and ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison for possessing a one-month supply of his own doctor-prescribed painkillers. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws enabled this to happen, and remain a dangerous threat to the freedom of Americans who have never been accused of a violent crime.
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NO RELIEF
The case of Richard Paey dates back to 1985. In that year, Paey, a husband and father, became paralyzed after a severe automobile accident. His condition worsened after a botched surgery.
One of Richard Paey’s drawings while incarcerated.
“I felt like my legs were being dipped into a furnace,” Paey explained to CBS. “They were burning, and I couldn’t move them. It’s an intense pain that, over time, will literally drive you to suicide.”
Mr. Paey knows this because he tried to kill himself twice. “And for me, death would have been a form of relief,” he said. Adding to his misery was a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. His condition made it nearly impossible to do anything except lie in bed, on a steady dose of prescription opiates.
His pharmaceutical regimen included Percocet, Vicodin, and Acetaminophen, and codeine. Because of his agonizing condition, his doses were substantial; Paey would take 2 dozen pills per day. Over time he became tolerant to the drugs, and required larger doses to feel relief. This placed him in a dangerous position of attracting police attention — something doctors were themselves wary of.
“One [doctor] was quite frank and said that I was, in a word, he said, ‘screwed,’” Mr. Paey recalled to CBS. “And I was in that medical nightmare zone where you’ve gone through all the treatments, and nothing works. And what does work, what does help, no one wants to prescribe because it attracts attention, and no one wants that attention.”
Paey and his family, once New Jersey residents, had moved to Florida. His original doctor from New Jersey agreed to continue prescribing the advanced doses of painkillers and deliver them through mail and fax. To ensure that Mr. Paey never ran out of painkillers — an agonizing prospect — the doctor allegedly left some of them undated.
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