DoC’s note: On Thanksgiving Day Dr. Paul H. Volkman wrote this letter to the supposed “victims” of his government-created “crime” of appropriate medical care. November 22, 2018
Paul H. Volkman 19519-424
I-2, USP Coleman 2
Letter to my “victims”:
As you know, I treated one of your relatives for severe, chronic pain, which may have resulted from injury, or commonly from back pain after years of hard, manual labor in construction, cement, roofing, carpet laying, carpentry, logging, teaming, etc. I relied, as I had to, upon my patients’ honest reports of their pain levels, their activity levels, their ability to sleep, and symptoms associated with pain, like muscle cramps and hypertension. I adjusted the doses of pain medicine according to these self-assessments, to my observations, and to urine drug testing results. I also monitored and took care of all other important medical issues, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and emphysema. Every one of my former patients, who had been threatened and coerced into testifying against me at my trial, described me as their trusted physician. Every patient was forced to testify that they had been prescribed “too much medicine”, and that they had become addicted to narcotics as a result of my treatment of them. Prior to initiating their treatment, I explained that EACH OF THEM would become DEPENDENT on opiates, but that this was NOT the same as DRUG ADDICTION, as none of them would experience a drug “high”, only relief of disabling chronic pain. These points are specifically included in the text of the OHIO INTRACTABLE PAIN TREATMENT ACT, controlling law for medical pain management in Ohio, where I practiced. Each patient related that the pain medicine I had prescribed enabled them to resume activities of daily living, while previously often virtually bedridden; some even resumed former jobs, played golf, had sex, cooked dinner!
I was well aware that pain medicine fetched high prices on the street when resold, or stolen. I required my patients to buy a small, $80 safe from Wal-Mart, bolt it to the floor, and keep their prescriptions in it at all times.. Anyone who reported that their pills had been “stolen” was dismissed from my office for presumptively diverting their pain meds.. I called patients in for pill counts, urine drug tests, and even required them to take their prescribed doses in my office so I could observe them, all in the effort to verify that my patients needed their medicine and actually took it as prescribed.
Patients who suffer severe, chronic pain from various injuries and diseases are not, in general, healthy people. Severe, chronic pain by itself causes dangerous hypertension, accelerated heart disease, stroke, gastric bleeding, and vastly increased incidence of suicide. That is why, as a pain doctor, I also considered it my responsibility to treat all of these other problems as well, as best as I could. Forrest Tennant, MD, a giant among America’s experts in pain management, testified at my trial that many of his patients passed away after two or three years; he considered it his role to provide palliative comfort care for essentially terminal patients. He prescribed the same combinations and similar doses of the medications I had prescribed (since I had modeled my practice upon his published guidelines and practices). [Dr. Tennant’s renowned Veract Pain Clinic has been shut down, and he has, shamefully, been raided for possible federal drug trafficking felonies!] During 2003 to 2006, some thirteen or fourteen of my patients out of about 500 died from their chronic conditions, actually far fewer than would have been expected from such a fragile population. Most were not autopsied, but the ones who were had evidence of severe heart disease, the presumptive cause of death. None of them had toxicology results which were consistent with drug overdose deaths. Despite these results, the government charged me with thirteen counts of “illegal distribution of controlled substances, resulting in death.” This despite the fact that the government had presented no evidence that I had ever profited from my alleged drug trafficking, or that medicine I had prescribed had ever caused drug addiction, much less overdose deaths. Despite the fact that I had always strived to take the best care possible of my chronically ill, suffering patients, I was convicted of being a drug dealer, and in effect of murdering four people. I was even convicted of “use of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense”, since the clinic owner owned a registered gun!
These horrifically misguided and unjust convictions, vacated by the Supreme Court, but then reimposed by the Sixth Circuit, naturally led many relatives of my former patients to blame me for their deaths, hate me, and scream for my execution, at my one hour sentencing hearing after my nightmarish, Stalin-esque, show trial.
I have nothing to apologize to them for. I was actually the victim in that grim scenario. These relatives, and most of the general public, have been duped by government propaganda blaming and scapegoating pain doctors for opioid overdose deaths, while over 90% of the deaths resulted from street heroin laced with deadly fentanyl, smuggled in by drug cartels. The government’s WAR ON DRUGS, particularly its WAR ON PAIN DOCTORS, has made it almost impossible for some 100 million American chronic pain patients (according to statistics from the CDC and the Institute of Medicine) to legally obtain the pain relief they have an Eighth Amendment Right to. This has driven 50,000 people per year to overdose on ibuprofen and die from gastric bleeding, 50,000 to 100,000 to commit suicide, and 65,000 last year to opiate overdose death. About 900 may have died while taking physician-prescribed pain pills, but most of these deaths were likely from chronic conditions, as was the case with my patients.
I pray every day to God that someday soon I may be vindicated, exonerated, and liberated from federal prison, through a pardon by President Trump. I also pray that the angry, bitter, hateful, lynch mob of relatives will ultimately realize that their government has victimized me, as well as all of them, by the cynical, vicious demonization of the one-third of adult Americans who have legitimate need for daily, strong pain medicine, and of the pain doctors who, at great risk to themselves, try to take care of them, out of compassion and concern.
My life has certainly been destroyed by this unconscionable miscarriage of justice. But clearly my family has been devastated as well. Since 2006 when my office was shut down, my family has been terrified by the impending specter of my imprisonment. I believe my wife Nancy developed a brain tumor from the overwhelming stress, and died in 2008. My 43 year old son has completely withdrawn from any communication with me. My daughter Jane, 40, struggles with depression from my incarceration, and from my sad separation from my precious grandchildren.
In 2003, my medical malpractice insurance became prohibitively expensive; without it, I was no longer able to practice emergency medicine, as I had for 30 years. I knew that pain management was a dangerous field of medicine because of the government attacks on pain doctors. But I needed a job, and could work in a pain clinic without insurance. I thought that, if I carefully followed all legal requirements and best practices, I could earn a decent living, pay for my daughter’s law school tuition, and avoid legal disaster. This was a naive and frankly stupid, deluded decision. I thought I was smart enough to practice medicine in a snake pit. But the government snakes followed no Rule of Law. I was just another doctor the government decided to put out of business and into jail, absent any evidence at all of wrongdoing, one way or another, however they could. I was unwilling to give up working as a doctor in 2003, at age 57, but after only three years, I was shut down from pain management, and at age 65 I was slapped with four consecutive life sentences. Pain management had seemed like the best answer for me at the time. But it certainly was a disastrous blunder, in light of the consequences. I wish I had been smarter. I hope and pray that my family will forgive me for the pain my misplaced self-confidence, which bordered on arrogance and pride, caused to them. I hope that God may see fit to reunite me with my beloved family for at least some of the years which may remain to me.
Sincerely,
Paul H. Volkman, MD (The University of Chicago, 1974)
PhD (Pharmacology and Toxicology, The U of C, 1972)
19519-424
USP Coleman 2, Box 1034
Coleman, FL, 33521
DoC’s note: This letter exemplifies the truth for ALL physicians charged for illegal distribution since the first, Dr. James Graves, in 2002. We have to spread this truth across the country. If you want to see the illegal treatment of doctors and patients end, you need to join doctorsofcourage.og HERE. Print this letter off and take it to your physician. We need to get medical associations involved as well. Physicians need to place this letter in their waiting room for all to see, and get on board with DoC.
I believe that the government would like for all chronic pain patients to go ahead and hit the streets for illegal drugs, overdose on them and die. That way, the government will not have to pay for pain prescriptions, doctor visits, and ultimately, upon their death, the government will be relieved of all types of payment for each such deceased patient. The more deaths, the better they like it!
We are definitely in a Hitler-type government-orchestrated legal genocide era. Americans need to wake up. Because with the toxic food, toxic lifestyle, toxic, toxic, toxic…more Americans will end up disabled, on illegal drugs to assuage their anxieties, more luetism (homeopathic miasm explained in the video on Homeopathy), and more death.
The government is a bully and they have destroyed so many lives. I am sorry for the lose of your wife. That is directly related to stress as you mentioned. I pray along with you as a chronic pain patient that President Trump pardons you and all others falsely accused of being a good doctor. Shame on all of them.
Thank you, Karen, for your support. However, pardon isn’t enough. When you get pardoned, you are still considered a criminal. We need exoneration and compensation for all we’ve been through having our lives ruined. You know, if the government would recognize that drugs aren’t the cause of addiction, they could repeal the law they just passed that is adding 10s of billions of dollars to the debt that won’t accomplish a thing, and there would be money to pay all the innocent physicians sent to jail.
Why don’t we close our borders here the hero on and fentynal are coming from, addiction went starting in 2013 when the Obama administration decided to change the laws. Instead of blaming our drs blame the cartels sending the immigrants with drugs.
Oh, that’s right, everything that is wrong is always Obama’s fault. Most drugs come thru ports of entry or by submarine. But let’s put another “Berlin” wall up so you can feel safe from all the immigrants “flooding our country” coming to do you harm. How it must be scary to feel like the boogeyman is coming for you all the time.
Why aren’t liquor stores rated and the owners prosecuted for making people alcoholics? I hope when some of these doctors are exonerated that the prosecutors are brought up for perjury I know it’s a long shot but still.
We have to end the immunity in the DOJ, and make that retroactive for any innocent person convicted illegally. That is an act of Congress. But that is what it will take to stop the rogue out-of-control DOJ.
Thank you pain drs trying to alleviate the pain that even their close relatives want to turn on the drs for. Chronic pain is real, and only drs can prescribe relief. So wrong to blame a pain dr tryingg to alleviate pain of your loved one.
Amen Doctor,,,,many pain patients ,,me included know exactly how corrupted our government has become..U r innocent,,along w/99.9 %% of the doctors they locked up on TRUMPED UP CHARGES,, changing definition,laws,regulation to MAKE the innocent guilty,,ie TYRANNY..Tampering w/jurors before trail,to contaminate jury’s,,its all corrupt,,,,and it needS to stop!!!!Thank u for your sacrifices,,tooo much of one,,,in my book,,There not doing any of this in Europe,,,they actually honor informed consent..Until they video all these b.s.. data,survey’s and taggig the brain w/ a inability for inform consent,,Your all innocent,,,after all who tags the brain areas of so called addiction???a human,,usually a shrink,,,maryw
I agree that Dr. Volkman does not owe an apology to anyone for simply practicing medicine. The vestige of America’s desire for Justice is dying. This nightmare has affected untold numbers of people around the country and many have been killed by the DEA. Congress is moving in the direction of change. We got to get on board and work toward a congressional hearing and audit.
Where are the lawyers, or even the ACLU in cases like this?
Aren’t there physician legal aid groups to help doctors put through this?
Where are the media, to report how doctors are losing their licenses and livelihoods, without evidence, and with coerced testimonies, most likely given under duress?
Why is the US government allowed, time and time again, to get away with dispensing this form of “justice”?
When will the general public open it’s eyes to what’s going on?
I’m so sorry this happened to Dr. Volkman, but thank you for the work you did, while you were allowed
Many of us have approached the ACLU. They aren’t interested. They are primarily an anti-Christian organization and will go after nativity scenes on government property, but to heck with innocent people being destroyed illegally. No, there are no legal aid groups willing to help doctors. Most lawyers won’t because they are in one big happy fraternity, and this gives money to all of them for a long time. It’s all about the money, honey.
The media is working with the government to spread propaganda. They publish the press releases against the doctor that the US Attorney’s offices release, but my press releases have not yet been published by any of them. There are a few individual reporters who have seen the light and have written occasionally, and there are some documentaries being created, but for the most part, media is a part of the problem, not the solution–at least for now.
The government gets away with this because they are the government. Gone are the days of doing right because it is the right thing to do. Now we are in a culture that the end justifies the means, and the end is to achieve convictions and promotions in the DOJ.
The public with open its eyes to what is going on when enough people pass the word and educate their friends and family to what is happening. Passing on the posts here, supporting us financially so we can make trips to Washington, conventions, and other publicity would go a long way. Every dollar spent through membership or donation (after taxes) is used to further the cause. There is no personal gain except in the end, we will be exonerated.
Dr Linda Cheek,
Thank you … You worded the TRUTH very well!
God be with all Doctors (practicing and wrongly convicted) who care enough about their patient’s to appropriately care for them with all their medical needs …
Be Blessed ❤
Dr Linda Cheek, this is absolutely outrageous!!! This poor man never should have seen one day inside a prison cell. I keep wondering when this witch Hunt is going to end and yet it keeps getting worse. This doctor owes no one an apology!! He did nothing wrong! I thank him for trying to help people like myself when other doctors abandoned us. The pain medicines I took gave me a life that otherwise never would have been possible. Doctors like him literally saved my life years ago and for that I may so grateful. He never should have been arrested or convicted!! I am sitting here in disbelief that 12 people actually convicted him when there was such a glaring lack of evidence. Not to mention that a prison sentence of 4 consecutive life terms is ridiculous!!! We don’t give prison sentences like this to most murderers. I am so sorry this is happening to doctors in this country, I am so very sorry that this doctor is now paying with his life for simply trying to give us some quality in ours. I really hope one day that this travesty of Justice can be reversed and this man can spend the remainder of his days with his family.
We can reverse this, and get all doctors exonerated. But we can only do that through teaching the truth–that opioids don’t cause addiction. Try to get that out to everyone you know. Share Doctorsofcourage.org with everyone. We can only fight the propaganda with the truth.
I apologize, I’m not used to using WordPress and didn’t realize you had responded.
Since I posted that comment I have learned a lot and now know we are all on our own.
The ACLU aren’t willing to help us. Our Senators & Congresspeople aren’t listening and I was just made aware of 3 new bills in NY in the last 2 days!
However-HR 817 seems like it could be hopeful. It’s the “Combating the Heroin Epidemic Through Forensic Drug Testing Act of 2019”, I hope this might help differentiate between what opioid killed who and give further proof that it’s not prescription pain meds.
Calling it a “Heroin Epidemic” , instead of an opioid crisis also seems hopeful.
I’ve been getting very involved in all of this and it’s very frustrating to find so many people unwilling to listen to the truth, but after the Jan Don’t Punish Pain Rally, I saw at least 20 different regional news stories generated in different states, featuring the rally, hoping the next one in June at the CDC HQ & the national one on May 22nd will also kick up some dust!
Jessica, I’m not sure what I didn’t respond to. Was it an email? A comment? I try to respond to everything sent to me, but possibly something slipped through the cracks.
But the direction you are focusing on here won’t get us diddly-squat. (I guess that dates my age). As long as the people in the US think that opioids cause addiction, it doesn’t matter what kind of “epidemic” you want to call it. And there isn’t an epidemic, period. That is government-created, and government-driven. We have the same percentage of addicts now than we ever have had. Basically, the government propaganda allows them to attack doctors and incarcerate them to forfeit their assets, period. That is what we have to stop, in addition to the lie that opioids cause addiction. That is what DoC is about, but people just won’t listen and act. So we will be moving into a very dark era of medicine that will last decades. But the government will achieve one thing–legal genocide of the population that is the most costly to them.
The only way congressman will listen that all physician stop all kinds of narcotics at once. They will get you for scheduled 2 ,3,4 as well. Otherwise they will keep prosecuting the physician, if not narcotic they will charges for false visits and fraud without consulting medicare. It is insurance co who informed the govt.these doctors are prescribing costly medication too frequently.there is lot of interference by govt.for medical practice.medical board AMA are not supportive at all. It is 20-25 years prison time for you.i am not peronoid it has happened to me.
I agree with all you say, Dr. Jain. It’s just impossible to get the regular doctor in practice to read the writing on the wall.