CHRONIC PAIN PATIENT PARDONED! PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #354 - Saturday, 22 Sep 2007 On Thursday, Sep 20, in a 4-0 vote, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet issued a full pardon to chronic pain patient Richard Paey. He was serving a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years for a "drug trafficking" conviction when in fact he sold no drugs illegally. Please read what happened in his own words at http://www.november.org/thewall/cases/paey-r/paey-r.html Paey had served almost four years during which time his family and attorneys filed multiple unsuccessful appeals up to the level of the Florida Supreme Court. His last possibility at having his sentence commuted was thus laid in the hands of Governor Crist and the Cabinet. Together, these four men made their unanimous decision after just 40 minutes to not only commute Paey's sentence, but to give him a 100% pardon of his misguided conviction. Millions suffer needless pain because of federal and state laws and those who enforce them get between doctors and patients. Florida law currently deems prison cells to be a suitable location for otherwise law-abiding citizens whose only 'crime' is having one or more medical conditions which call for treatment with opiod drugs. Such misguided laws and policies will only be changed when enough citizens stand up and demand change. The best way to do that is to contact your state and federal elected officials and to educate your local media. Please consider sending a Letter to the Editor of the St. Petersburg Times - the largest newspaper in Florida and the newspaper closest to Paey's home. Their Friday coverage is here: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1081.a04.html Please also consider sending letters to other newspapers which are covering this story. News clippings, with new clippings being added daily, may be found at http://www.mapinc.org/people/Richard+Paey Thanks for your effort and support. It's not what others do it's what YOU do. Richard thanks the many organizations and individuals who supported him. In a message to the November Coalition http://www.november.org/ he wrote: Tom & Nora & My Good Friends at TNC: Free at last! Free at last! And it wouldn't have happened without TNC. I struggle to find the words. Thank you so very much. Sincerely, Richard Paey Former Florida Prisoner #R29228 Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides Or contact MAP's Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how to write LTEs that get printed. PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list ( ) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( ) will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource =.

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