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Text Box: Volume 16 No. 1 Text Box: Page 6 Text Box: The Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism Award 2006 Honoring Jean Heller first distinguished herself as a journalist in 1972 when she broke the story of the U.S. Public Health Service’s study using poor black, Alabama farmers in a syphilis experiment conducted at the Tuskegee Institute. Her reporting of the study for the Associated Press, in which more than 100 of the unwitting participants died, resulted in massive reforms of federal rules governing human and animal experimentation. Heller studied journalism, world history and political science at the University of Michigan and Ohio State University, and then headed to New York City, where she took a job at the AP. Later she joined Cox newspapers and covered the Watergate scandal, campaign finance reform and the Carter campaign for Newsday in Washington, DC. Stints at Booth Newspapers in Michigan; and the Jackson Hole Guide in Wyoming rounded out her experience before she joined the Times. Heller joined the St. Petersburg Times in 1988 as Washington correspondent, and has since worn many hats: City editor in the North Suncoast and Tampa bureau chief, as well as a member of the editorial board. She became an expert on the water wars that raged in the Tampa Bay area and currently covers national transportation issues, including roads, highways, ports and airports. In 1991, Heller used her investigative skills to acquire satellite photos that led her to conclude there were far fewer Iraqi troops amassed on the Kuwait border than the former Bush Administration claimed. Again, in 2003, a curious Heller checked out similar “evidence” presented by Colin Powell that was supposed to show 265,000 Iraqi soldiers massed on the Saudi border. Again Heller discovered satellite photos showed no Iraqi troop buildup at all. Heller also enjoys good mysteries, which she sometimes reviews. In fact, her love of the genré led her to write her first book in 1994 titled “Maximum Impact,” an aviation thriller that delves into air safety, conspiracies and cover-ups. In 1998, she published “The Handyman,” about a serial killer. For her excellent reporting, Heller has received numerous honors and awards over the years including two second place finishes in the Pulitzer Prize competition, a Polk Award, a John F. Kennedy Award, the Worth Bingham Prize, two National Newspaper Association first place awards and first place in the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. Her dedication to truth in journalism makes her worthy of the Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism award for 2006. By Nano Riley

Jean Heller

(Continued from page 5)  

 “Chilling Effect" of the Drug War …
minuscule percentage of registered doctors. True, but an objective observer would point out that (1)simply hearing about the investigation of a

colleague would cause many doctors to draw back; (2)DEA does not count investigations done by the states; and (3)only a few of registered doctors treat pain, and even fewer treat chronic pain.  In sum, a substantial proportion of doctors who treat chronic pain are under investigations, and the investigations rarely end. Such doctors can expect repeat visits by undercover agents paid to find that the doctor is prescribing outside the "normal course of medical practice".

 

Pain treatment in Florida

Florida is a leader among states who prosecute both pain treating doctors AND patients. In Pinellas-Pasco in 2004, Richard Paey was sentenced to 25 years, mandatory minimum, for prescription fraud to obtain pills after his doctor, threatened by DEA, abandoned him. Floridians now pay the bill for the 900 milligrams of morphine sent daily to his destroyed spine by his sewn-in pump. In Broward County, Penny Spence decided in August not to risk 25 years. She took a plea that included no prison time but branded her a felon, unable to work at her life profession, nursing. Police had found in her car, after a single car accident, a vial of pills prescribed for her recently deceased mother. In St. Lucie County, last April, Dr. Asuncion Luyao, age 64, was sentenced to 50 years in the Florida prison system, convicted on one manslaughter charge and trafficking after a patient died and several others sold their pills. In Pinellas in 2006, Dr. Jayam K. Iyer had her DEA registration number pulled and is looking for doctors for her worst patients. DEA had sent an undercover agent posing as a patient to determine if she crossed every "t" and dotted every "i". Apparently she didn't. But the real reason was her 4th rank as a painkiller prescriber in Florida.

 

This pattern is nationwide, often known as "the chilling effect" for the impact it has on pain treatment. Pain doctors opt out rather than risk their livelihood (and the assets they would need to defend themselves) to the whim of prosecutors.

 

While the trend is unfavorable, Florida is fortunate to have two articulate professionals for this topic: Ronald T. Libby, professor of political science and public administration at the University of North Florida (http://www.unf.edu/~rlibby/), and David B. Brushwood, JD, of the University of Florida (http://www.cop.ufl.edu/departments/PHCA/FacultyStaff/Brushwood.htm).

(Continued from page 4)  Legal Panel Report 

guidelines for acceptance of cases promulgated by the Florida ACLU.

                 ● We are currently assisting in an injunctive action to prevent implementation of a new state statute prohibiting petitioning and electioneering within 100 feet of a poll station entrance, even when it occurs on private property or at a public forum.

 

 Thanks to the following attorney members of the Legal Panel for their time and efforts: Morry Bornstein, Marcia Cohen, Karen Doering, Rick Escarraz, Nancy Gorman, Mark Kamleiter, Dorreen Doe, and Bill Penrose.    Thanks also to Becky Steele, Carol Steele, Dwight Lawton, Ray Arsenault, Jeanie Blue and Thom Foley who regularly attend legal panel meetings.  Special thanks to Jerry Moore who makes telephonic threats to attorneys so they’ll attend meetings.                                      Bruce G. Howie, Chairman