PRN Calls on Obama Lawyers to Stand Down in Their Drug War on Patients and Doctors

PRN Calls on Obama Lawyers to Stand Down in Their Drug War on Patients and
Doctors

WASHINGTON, May 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pain Relief Network (PRN) is
calling on the Obama Administration to require the Department of Justice to
join the organization's recent filing of a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari
before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Dr. Sharon Johnston.

In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday, May 13th, that
the bellicose rhetoric represented by the characterization of drug
criminalization as a "drug war" was a barrier to dealing with the nation's
drug issues.

"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a
'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at
war with people in this country."

"This is a great opportunity for the Obama Administration to put its money
where its mouth is concerning what is perhaps the most damaging aspect of the
failed War On Drugs," said Siobhan Reynolds, President of PRN and nationally
renowned pain relief advocate. "The Department of Justice has been prosecuting
physicians at a frightening clip. The DEA has charged some 400 doctors with
violating Federal drug dealing laws within the context of their medical
practices since 2003. While the DEA was clearly proud of the figure when it
released it to the Orlando Sentinel, the Obama Administration should stop the
carnage at once."

The Pain Relief Network is a national organization petitioning the United
States Supreme Court to review the terrible injustice done to Dr. Sharon
Johnston, of Ft. Myers, Florida, convicted by a bamboozled jury of "drug
dealing" simply for treating undercover drug agents posing as patients in
pain. Dr. Johnston is now serving 30 months in prison.

"Her sentence is actually fairly light, when compared with what occurred
during the Bush Administration," said Reynolds. "Physicians across the country
have been sentenced to 10, 20, sometimes 30 years in prison. One compassionate
physician is serving several life sentences on trumped up charges."

Reynolds contends that the Johnston case provides the Obama Administration the
opportunity to uphold the rule of law, rather than permit business as usual at
the USDOJ. "Government lawyers appear to have forgotten that they took an oath
to uphold the Constitution, not to destroy it."

As medicine is regulated in the 50 states, the case offers the Obama Justice
Department the rare chance to reaffirm the architectural structure of our
federal system by joining in the Pain Relief Network's 10th Amendment-based
request for a full hearing by the court. "The Administration can also show
substantive empathy right away, for the 50 million Americans in pain currently
being denied pain treatment by doctors terrorized by the Department of
Justice. These desperate Americans shouldn't be made to wait for the President
to appoint a new justice."

For more information:
http://painreliefnetwork.org/blog/to-the-obama-administration/.

SOURCE Pain Relief Network

Siobhan Reynolds, President/Media Relations, Pain Relief Network,
+1-505-603-8875, SReynolds@painreliefnetwork.org