August 31, 2007
Drug Detox Should Have Been Prescribed, But Doctor Chose to Fuel Addiction
A Panama City doctor was just sentenced to 20 years in prison for “over-prescribing” methadone, oxycodone and morphine, and possibly others. In case ‘over-prescribing’ doesn’t sound like a real bad thing to you, try this: he knowingly prescribed these drugs to people who were already testing positive for cocaine and marijuana. In other words, instead of prescribing drug detox and drug rehab, as we would hope any doctor would do, he fuelled their addictions.
Two of his patients died after overdosing on drugs he had prescribed.
He didn’t defend himself, he pleaded guilty. That’s the only good news.
This doctor is 76 years old. Guess where he’s going to die? What an end to a life and career that started out helping people.
If we can really crack down on unethical doctors, get them into prison, and get patients who have been over-prescribed into drug detox and rehab, we might have a chance at winning the war on prescription drug addiction.
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