For you doctors out there who believe that what happened to Jeff Skilling could never happen to you, take a moment to read the NY Times’ John Tierney’s chilling opening blog post on the re-trial of Dr. William Hurwitz, the Virginia doctor who is a sacrificial lamb for America’s voracious drug prohibition policy. Dr. Hurwitz is being prosecuted on drug trafficking charges for prescribing pain medications that his patients allegedly abused or sold without his knowledge:
Jonathan Fahey, one of the prosecutors in federal court in Alexandria, Va., told the jurors in his opening statement that Dr. Hurwitz was a drug trafficker ó part of a drug-trafficking conspiracy, in fact ó because he prescribed large quantities of OxyContin and other pills while ignoring clear ìred flagsî that his patients were misusing and reselling the pills. The prosecutor said that Dr. Hurwitizís prescribing was ìwithout a legitimate medical purposeî and ìin its wake it left destruction, devastation and death.î [. . .]
[Defense attorney Richard] Sauber used his opening statement to tell the jury over and over that the case boiled down to one question: Was Dr. Hurwitz a doctor or a drug dealer? Calling him a ìpassionate advocate for patients who had been unfairly treated,î Mr. Sauber talked about Dr. Hurwitzís work in the Peace Corps and in Veterans Administration hospitals, and his belief that too many patients were in pain because doctors were afraid to give them proper dosages of opioids. Mr. Sauber also promised to do something that the defense didnít effectively do in the first trial: use expert testimony to show that the dosages prescribed by Dr. Hurwitz were within the bounds of legitimate medicine.
The Hurwitz case is an appalling reminder of how the Drug Enforcement Agency has pursued a perverse agenda in its pursuit of pain doctors. During Hurwitz’s first trial, the DEA actually changed their own guidelines during the trial and removed them from its website because the defense was going to show that Hurwitz prescribed by those guidelines. Meanwhile, DEA head Karen Tandy publicly stated that Hurwitz deserved 25 years in the slammer because he ìwas no different from a cocaine or heroin dealer peddling poison on the street corner.î
Sound familiar?
Tom,
I recently read about the unbelievably tragic case of Rebecca Riley, a 4 year old who it is believed died of an overdose of Clonidine, which she had been prescribed for bipolar disorder since she was 2.
A summary of the affidavit used to arrest her parents is here (probably the most upsetting thing I have ever read) http://www.southofboston.net/specialreports/rebecca/pages/021007-affidavit.asp
So doctors in the US can prescribe powerful psychotropic drugs to toddlers but not pain relief to adults?
These 3 letter agencies are out of control.
Tom: I’m stuck trying to find the parallel between Hurwitz and Skilling, would you care to elaborate?