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Andy ManhartDaily Nebraskan
Doctor gives coke pain killer
for famous, regular patients
NEW YORK - Cocaine may
not have been in Marcus Welby’s
black bag, but it has been the drug
of choice for decades at Dr. Milton
Reder’s practice * a balm for
Marvin Mitchelson’s headaches,
Sonny Bono’s sciatica, Whitey
Ford’s sore shoulder and David
Brenner’s bad back.
The state says cocaine is not
good medicine, and told the physi
cian to stop. He has refused.
“These days cocaine has a bad
name. What can I do aboyt that?”
asked Reder, who said Monday he
has been treating patients with
small amounts of cocaine for 40
years. “I say it’s the best local
anesthetic.”
Brenner, the comedian, ac
cused the state Health Department
and county medical society of “a
witch hunt... They can’t get Nori
ega, they can’t get the crack deal
ers a few blocks away, but they’re
going after an 89-ycar-old hu
manitarian.”
Reder uses cocaine, legally
purchased from pharmaceutical
companies, to treat a variety of
maladies. A liquid solution, about
13 percent cocaine, is applied with
metal swabs inserted through the
nostrils against a nerve center at
the base of the brain. Reder, his
patients, and some doctors say the
procedure relieves pain, although
no one is sure why.
Reder’s treatment was no se
cret. He has participated in medi
cal studies and been the subject of
newspaper and magazine features,
which invariably focus on his
many celebrated patients.
The Health Department’s ob
jections boil down to these: Reder
doesn’t always examine patients
before treating them; he doesn’t
make sure they are not former
cocaine addicts; and he uses too
much cocaine.
Reder says most of his patients
have been examined many limes
before they come to him, and that
he examines those who have not.
And he says he administers too
small an amount -of the drug to
hook anyone.
He vigorously denied a report in
the New York Daily News that
state investigators “found about a
half-dozen patients who went to
Reder’s office just to get high.”
“Prescribing cocaine for non
specific pains is like taking a
sledgehammer to a tack," said
Thomas Coffey of the Health
Department.
The state cites the New York
County Medical Society’s conclu
sion that Rcdcr’s procedure has
“no basis in scientific medicine”
and should not be covered by in
surance. But the society also con
ceded the procedure “appears to
help some patients” and urged a
study of it.
Such an experiment is planned
by two Yale Medical School pain
specialists.
Dr. Kumala Sinha, director of
the pain clinic at New York Uni
versity Medical Center, said she
and her colleagues experimented
with the treatment on patients who,
for example, had headaches that
weren’t helped by conventional
treatment. f‘In our experience,
about 50 percent of the patients did
show some improvement,” Sinha
said.
“There are certainly a group of
patients who benefit from those
treatments,1 ’ she said. “Not every
one, but there probably is a role for
this kind of treatment.”
She said she has known for
years about Rcder and a number of
other New York City area physi
cians offering similar treatment,
including some at New York Uni
versity, whose names she would
not reveal.
Reder came to the attention of
the Health Department because of
his large orders of pharmaceutic a!
cocaine. After an investigation,
the departrnenton March 1 ordered
him and 20other physicians to stop
using the drug.
At first Rcder agreed, but he
later wrote the department a letter
saying he had changed his mind
and wanted the medical society to
review its opinion. On Wednes
day, the society said it had done so
in 1987 and planned no change. It
also said it was not considering
legal or disciplinary action against
Reder.
State officials say they are still
investigating and won’t move
against Reder until they confer
with the medical society.
Elections announced
Official denies
ties to Bolivia
drug trafficking
ASUNCION, Paraguay -- Gen.
Andres Rodriguez, who seized power
in a violent coup last week, denied
links with the drug traffic and an
nounced Monday that elections will
be held May 1, with only communists
excluded.
Four cronies of ousted President
Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Para
guay for nearly 35 years until the
coup, were accused of using public
funds and graft to obtain “luxurious
mansions, expensive apartments
abroad and sumptuous automo
biles.”
Reporters asked the general about
casualties during eight hours of fight
ing Thursday night and early Friday
that ousted Stroessner.
“Believe me, total casualties -
dead plus wounded - do not exceed
50,” Rodriguez replied. Earlier esti
mates by embassies and civilian wit
nesses put the number of dead alone
at nearly 300, but no official figures
have been released.
Rodrigue* also said Congress has
been dissolved and that the new presi
dent would take office immediately
upon election. Some opposition lead
ers said they didn’t have enough time
to prepare for the election.
Strocssncr was given asylum in
neighboring Brazil and was slaying
in Itumbiara, a remote city 270 miles
southeast of Brasilia. He is living in a
house owned by the government
power company, which operates a
dam on the nearby Paranaiba River.
At the first presidential news con
ference Paraguayans could remem
ber, Rodriguez said rumors of his
involvement with the drug trade
“were spread by people trying to
defame me.
“1 detest drugs,’’ he told reporters
let into his office in small groups. “1
swear as a Catholic and as a family
man; I swear on my children, 1 have
no connections with drugs.”
Paraguay has become a way sta
tion for cocaine produced in neigh
boring Bolivia. Foreign diplomats,
academics and media reports have
linked Rodrigue/ with traffickers,
but no proof has been presented and
no charges have been tiled.
Asked whether he would cooper
ate with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, he said Paraguay
‘‘will cooperate with all foreign gov
ernments and agencies, including the
United States, and the more help we
get the better. We will fight to
gether.”
In Washington, Slate Department
spokesman Charles Redman said
U.S. relations with Paraguay will
depend on the actions of the govern
ment on creating democracy, re
specting human rights and suppress
ing narcotics trafficking and cultiva
tion. ‘‘We will be watching closely
the extent to which the provisional
government allows opposition par
ties to campaign and the ipcdia to
broadcast the positions of the candi
dates and their parties,” he said.
Rodrigue/, a 65-ycar-old cavalry
general, said Stroessner “was not a
dictator.’’
“If the Colorado Party elected
him for so many years, it must have
been because of confidence in him,”
he said. After seizing power in 1954,
Stroessner held elections every five
years and won by landslides.
Asked what prompted the coup,
Rodriguez said: “In recent times he
was not producing good results for his
parly, which had trusted him.”
Rodriguez did not explain the
remark, but he appeared to be speak
ing of an internal struggle between
Stroessner supporters and “tradition
alists' * who wanted to draw a distinc
tion between the 101-year-old party
and the dictator.
Bush calls tor superpower synergy in Central America
WASHINGTON - President
George Bush said Monday there is a
chance for “a new spirit of coopera
tion” between the Soviet Union and
the United Stales in solving Central
American problems.
Bush was asked at a news confer
ence if he foresees a deal with Soviet
* President Mikhail Gorbachev to re
solve the region’s problems, which
include a superpower dispute over
leftist ruled Sandinistas.
I
I he Soviets help supply the
Sandinistas while the United States
provides aid to the anti-Nicaraguan
Contra rebels.
Bush said he wouldn’t make a deal
on Contra aid, but added, "lean see a
possibility of cooperation in Central
America."
The Soviets don’t have "substan
tive interest in that part of the world,
certainly none that rival ours. So I
would like to think they would undcr
t;-1
stand that, Bush said. And there
arc so many areas where we could
demonstrate a new spirit of coopera
tion and this would clearly be one of
them.”
The United States has an “un
shakable” commitment to democ
racy, freedom and free elections in
the five-nation region, he said.
Bush hasn’t spelled out his Central
American policies, particularly the
Contra aid question and the fighting
in neighboring El Salvador between
the U.S.-backed government and
leftist rebels.
Bush said he is reviewing the pol
icy of his predecessor Ronald Re
agan, which involved unswerving
support for military aid to the Con
tras.
But officials have said no Contra
aid will be sought in the near future
and the administration is willing to
support regional efforts toward a
diplomatic solution to the Contra
war.
Bush and Secretary of Slates
James Baker haven't yet named a
new assistant secretary of stale for
Latin America.
Baker has settled on Bernard
Aronson, a Democrat who helped the
Reagan administration win Contra
aid, but the appointment hasn’t been
announced, said the sources, speak
ing on condition of anonymity.
Nebraskan
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Wire Ector Diana Johnson Production Manager Katherine Policky
Copy Desk Editor Chuck Green Advertising Manager Robert Bates
Sports Editor Jeff Apel Sales Manager David Thiemann
Arts 4 Entertainment Circulation Manager Eric Shanks
Editor Mickl Halier Publications Board
Diversions Editor Joeth Zucco Chairman Tom Macy
Sower Editor Klrstin Swanson 475-9868
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Graphics Editor Tim Hartmann 473-7301
Photo Chief Connie Sheehan
The Daily NebraskanfUSPS 144-080) is published by the UNI. Publications Board Ne
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1989 DAILY NEBRASKAN
»
Keport cites violations on West Bank
WASHINGTON - The Palestin
ian uprising in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip led to a “substantial in
crease’’ in human rights violations by
Israeli authorities last year, the State
Department said Tuesday in its an
nual report on rights conditions
worldwide.
The report, covering conditions in
169 countries and territories, praised
the Soviet Union for “remarkable
changes” in the human rights field,
including the freeing of all prisoners
detained for political or religious
offenses.
The section on Israel was one of
the harshest on that country since the
State Department be1 an issuing
human rights reports in the mid
1970s. It said the actions of Israeli
authorities “resulted in .iiany avoid
able deaths” among Palestinians
since they began their uprising 14
months ago.
The Palestinian uprising caught
the Israeli army “by surprise,” the
report said. The armed forces, “un
trained and inexperienced in riot
control, responded in a manner which
led to a substantial increase in human
rights violations,” it said.
Shortly after the report was made
public, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minis
ter Binyamin Netanyahu defended
the actions of Israeli forces.
Israeli soldiers ... maintain as
best they can, apart from a few excep
tions, the standards of proper conduct
that no country in the world could
maintain, he said in Jerusalem.
In a separate statement, the Israeli
army’s chief prosecutor defended the
legality of Israeli operations, saying
Palestinian prisoners were given due
process of law.
Since the December 1987 start ol
the uprising, 374 Palestinians have
been killed and thousands wounded,
most by army gunfire.
From time to time since the vio
lence starred in the occupied territo
ries, the Stale Department has ex
pressed criticism ol Israeli efforts to
bring it under control, but the report
appeared to go beyond the earlier
statements.
In a report to iho House Appro
priations subcommittee on foreign
operations. Amnesty International
said that while both sides have used
violence in the Palestinian uprising,
there have been excesses on the Is
raeli side.