Paey

Paey has already been in prison for three long years.

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Unusual: 25 Years for Taking Own Pain Meds 2008

But they did manage to convince his New Jersey doctor -- who Paey claims authorized his prescriptions -- to testify that, in fact, Paey was forging them.

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Unusual: 25 Years for Taking Own Pain Meds 2008

Writing in support of clemency, leading academic pain specialist Russell Portenoy, MD, said, "the information available indicates that any questionable actions [Paey] took, actions which led ultimately to his arrest, were driven by desperation related to uncontrolled pain."

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Disgusting: Pain Patient Appeal Denied 2008

(For more information and to help support Paey and others caught up in the war on pain doctors and their patients, visit the Pain Relief Network.)

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Unusual: 25 Years for Taking Own Pain Meds 2008

Portenoy wrote that despite the fact that Paey required high doses of opioids, those doses were "clearly in the range used by pain specialists in this country."

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Disgusting: Pain Patient Appeal Denied 2008

Paey has described his pain as constantly feeling like his legs had been "dipped into a furnace."

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Disgusting: Pain Patient Appeal Denied 2008

The majority suggested that Paey seek clemency from the governor, claiming that his plea for mercy "does not fall on deaf ears, but it falls on the wrong ears."

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Disgusting: Pain Patient Appeal Denied 2008

In a jeremiad of a dissent, Judge James Seals called the sentence "illogical, absurd, unjust and unconstitutional," noting that Paey "could conceivably go to prison for a longer stretch for peacefully but unlawfully purchasing 100 oxycodone pills from a pharmacist than had he robbed the pharmacist at knife point, stolen fifty oxycodone pills which he intended to sell to children waiting outside, and then stabbed the pharmacist."

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Disgusting: Pain Patient Appeal Denied 2008

[For more information and to send an email to urge Crist to free Paey, please click here]

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Disgusting: Pain Patient Appeal Denied 2008

To add to the exquisite ironies of the case, the reason Paey qualified for such a lengthy sentence was due largely to his possession of acetaminophen (Tylenol), not opioids.

Maia Szalavitz: Cruel and Unusual: 25 Years for Taking Own Pain Meds 2008