DEA Surge in Prescriber and Pharmacy Investigations Touted

DEA Surge in Prescriber and Pharmacy Investigations Touted

By Ed Coghlan.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports it is increasing the pressure on prescribers and pharmacies that it believes “dispensed disproportionately large amounts of controlled prescriptions.”

For 45 days in February and March, the DEA used special agents, diversion investigators and intelligence research specialists who developed what the press release says are 366 leads to DEA field offices—about half of which resulted in active investigations.

This resulted in 28 arrests, 54 other enforcement actions including search warrants and administrative inspection warrants, and 283 administrative actions of other types. These additional actions included scheduled inspections, letters of admonition, memoranda of agreement/understanding, surrenders for cause of DEA registrations, orders to show cause, and immediate suspension orders (the immediate revocation of registrations).


The press release promises that the DEA plans to keep the pressure on.

DEA works with various federal and state partners on data sharing agreements to enhance its ability to identify individuals and companies who are contributing to the prescription opioid crisis, including a coalition of 41 state attorneys general and the Department of Justice’s Opioid Fraud and Detection Unit, an initiative of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It is also dedicating additional resources to its domestic divisions to carry out investigations.

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Authored by: Ed Coghlan

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Chiran gupta

A recent study published by a group of epidemiologists led by Dr. Fink concluded that cracking down on prescription opioids is directly responsible for spiking in overall opioid OD deaths.This is because most of the increase in OD deaths are coming from street heroin laced with Fentanyl and its analogues. Infact the need of the hour is harm reduction with safe prescription opioids or legal heroin to addicts who are reluctant or not ready for rehab not branding them and their doctors as criminals. The only exception would be If a doctor knowingly prescribes opioids to a new patient without adequate justification.

Ironically the results of the study was released the day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions touted his new policy to go after medical professionals to fight opioid crisis.

M. Cameron

I have a friend who took the medicine responsibly. Went to the same Pain Management clinic for over 3 years. The friend got called the day before the appointment, got message on the answering machine that medicine level was low, stated an out and out lie based on a UA submitted at the last month’s office visit, then stated—–you are being dropped as a patient. Will not return phone calls.
What happened to their oath of “do no harm”!
I am so sorry to see the suffering that my friend is experiencing. All of which could have been avoided.
This doctor and her staff have no compassion. I only pray that they will be investigated for their inhumane treatment of people.
By the way, I have seen additional posts stating that this same doctor “dropped” 70 patients in January, 2018, because of too many patients. Did the same to them as they did to my friend. Also falsified tests.
I’m sure an investigation can verify the information


Shame on everyone involved in this perseqution of chronic pain patients. Why are we being targeted for taking legally prescribed meds when HEROIN is the problem? I am ashamed to be an american. I have no hope for a decent quality of life. I willl join my son in the afterlife. This is my last comment or action to fight for the pain relief I deserve. Done.


Erin and everybody reading this posting: all of us have the legal right to file a lawsuit against the CDC, Medicare (because of its Opioid Overutilization Program targeting certain beneficiaries) plus individuals I will not name here. Citizens have the right to file suit against a government entity if that entity is violating the civil rights of a person or group. Example is Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka KS which made it all the way to the Supreme Court is an example.

Much medical research with patients, data and resulting best practices for using opioid therapy to control intractable pain took place in the 1990s. Do an internet search “Opioid therapy intractable pain” and your browser will display a significant quantity of web links.

And if there is a class action lawsuit, investigate if you can join it as an affected party.

My reduction in long acting meds has compromised me, too. Compromised my ability to return to school, possible return to work as a professional, keep up with housework and adding acupuncture will take time (maybe 2 months) to get my body’s ability to generate natural endorphins.

Yes, we have the right and we have the power. I am wondering if the various pain non-profit groups are discussing the merits of filing such a lawsuit. We (as human beings) are being violated. Viciously and with disregard to existing research supporting the use of opioid therapy for intractable pain.

ACLU – where are you? Help us!


This is a disgusting overreach by the federal government. Natural opiates (straight from the poppy plant) are (were) widely available in a multitude of climates, and in my view, a gift from our Creator. How dare the government limit pain relief! Even the fact that a pain sufferer has to petition a third party (a doctor) for pain relief is demeaning; it stands to reason that the more articulate and convincing among us were able to procure pain relief more easily than someone less able to communicate clearly.

These are dark dark days for pain sufferers like my dear, sweet husband (who never abused a substance in his entire life). There are work-arounds, but at great potential legal risks. How dare they.

I’d normally never wish intractable pain on anyone, but I do now. I’m glad there are groups willing to go to bat for this invisible population of chronic pain sufferers. God bless you.


The wording of what the DEA states it is doing, to “help’ stop “addiction” simply pi44es me off. Can’t help it. The will or just the needs of “good” people …..Jeff, have been systematically removed. Patients, people have tirelessly written, called, amd e-mailed our representatives, HHS, CDC, FDA, and any other agency that has any involvement in “guiding” us out of the “opioid crisis”. No one is listening. Agenda, fulfilled.


I will emphasize the suggestion to look up Dr carl Hart addition studies. His discoveries of human behaviours and mind altering drugs are fascinating!! he would be an excellent subject for an article with hopes he would become an advocate.


Please use the caution when thinking of using illegal medicines made from ‘not for human use ‘ substances (blood for one) or meds unapproved by ANY country. Investigate. Investigate. Investigate.


One more thing….

Please look into Dr. Carl Hart regarding addiction studies. And doctor “deaths” connected to studying and using GcMAF therapy.

If you’re afraid of the Rabbit hole stay in bed.


Are you kidding me? This has gotten so out of hand its becoming laughablee.

They seriously believe they are saving lives. The reality is they will cause more suicides and deaths by taking away from not only the legitimate pain sufferers but also the doctor’s who care about their patients quality of life.

There are something like over 100 million people living with chronic pain. THEY claim somewhere around 70,000 (last I heard) opioid deaths. They forget to mention many of them were not ONLY opiods but mixed cocktails like with alcohol, Valium, Xanax etc. That makes a HUGE difference.

Ignorance is the villain here and I feel very bad for the caring doctors who at the expense of fines, loss of license and/or jail are only doing what they promised, give quality care for their patient.

I have only one thing left to say and I hope people wake up to this MADNESS! (key word)

If you do not know this phrase, Please, I beg you to do your own research and make up your own mind. Me writing it here allows people to say “oh, you’re just a conspiracy theorist!”

REEFER MADNESS the movie. Watch the movie then research why that came into effect. Find out WHO started the whole movement and WHY. Next, find me a legitimate source to show how many lives have ended because of using this plant. I don’t mean Cartel/Government/Gang killings (all three are the same) but consume, smoke, ingest, wear deaths. Then, when you get all those answers tell me why alcohol is legal?

Tell your congressmen, senators etc, you’re tired of all the BS and money grabbing politicians to either do your bidding or get off the pot. Too many Americans forget that the government works for us and is not a get rich platform for them. Let them know you will get results by cleaning house of all who refuse to do their jobs.

One can do little but all of us together can create a country we used to be proud of.

If you have not watched this documentary you owe it to yourself to see how not 1 person, but how as a collective group achieved a miracle.
Winter on Fire: Ukraine fight for freedom.

carl s. dunn

Prohibition created powerful crime families called the Cosa Nostra, which means “our thing”. When you take away the prescriptions of millions of pain patients, just what did our oh so intelligent leadership do? Stop and reduce the opiates being prescribed legally by the medical profession. And what did these geniuses create from this smart decision? By the way, just because you are rich doesn’t make you intelligent, just powerful. So now, these really smart leaders and movers and shakers steering the government are doing what the voters demand! Prohibition again! What will we get? More organized crime families! Tax free dollars being made under the table, bribes made to sneak them thru the holes in the borders, payoffs to the right official to look the other way, and don’t forget how great these leaders look in the press! Look! Opiate use is down! Suicides are up! Insurance companies don’t have to pay for more long term medical bills! Kill the patient! Yes, our plan is coming to fruition! If the DEA was created for illegal drugs being used, sold, and smuggled into America, why are they now going after the doctors and pharmacists and forcing chronic pain patients to buy illegal heroin and fentanyl to relieve their pain or commit suicide? Maybe it is time to vote for a third party from the bottom to the top and get rid of these leaders who obviously are drunk with power to destroy your lives. Only problem is the third party hasn’t shown it’s face that is saying what we want to hear. Maybe the Libertarians, but sometimes they seem off the deep end. Somehow the people must wake up and fight for the right to choose their own destiny. At least get involved with a third party and grow it into a movement big enough to challenge the status quo. Otherwise this scene is never going to change.


I’m on a lose dose patch, break through med, muscle relaxer. 6 herniated, bulging discs, osteoarthritis arthritis, fibromyalgia and sciatica. 0 abuse history. EVER. Don’t drink. EVER. Now the pharm are refusing valid scripts @ 4 weeks. Blatant lies, “CVS corp. said we cant dispense”. I go down the road to another CVS, they want a Dr. diagnosis @ 5 PM. Next AM it’s sent, am told meds ready. I return again for promised pills and patches. Pills dispensed, patches denied! 100 mile round trip. He says to return yet AGAIN, 3rd time, day 30! (all 3 filled same day, month prior!) Luckily, another Savon had my last box of patches. Pharms are playing DEA. “We don’t have it and wont order”! Im told this at my nearby Sav on and other pharms. A drugstore in Jan., who had my meds ready, “lost them” before I could pick them up. Mgr., who filled (off the next day), said he’d put them aside! LIES, LIES, LIES! Ended up in the ER! Why I called Target/CVS nearest my home in advance and told “we have it”. I arrive 4 hours later and they don’t! Tech lumbers around with prior customer’s unfilled script stuck to her 12″ arm and types one finger at a time. I sat 30 minutes after giving my ID, only to leave empty handed. (They verify quantity at drop off; why I called PRIOR !) “We’ll order, return in 3 days”. (after I’m out). I didn’t drop my scripts off earlier, as they “lost” an earlier fax and I didn’t want to risk loss of my opiate. WHY I PHONED TO ENSURE THEY’D BE IN STOCK! So I went to the CVS 20 mi. away, near my Dr., where I usually go. She SUDDENLY says: “We cant fill this anymore! Corp. called for an hr said to deny!” (She fills muscle relaxer). Im in a panic. 1 day left of pain pills and a couple patches. I called corp who says: “NO SUCH CALL WAS MADE”! They’ll “reach out”. No apology, just try to justify why I must now fill 3 meds 3 days a part, filled simultaneously a month prior! What recourse have we? Im tired of being stigmatized and treated like a criminal at 60, due to accidents no fault of my own. CVS has near 1800 complaints of near death experiences, seizures from denials, wrong meds dispensed, pill shortages, etc. Leave our Dr. alone! Unconstitutional. I SAY WE GET A LAWYER AND ALL JOIN IN A CLASS ACTION SUIT! I rather die than suffer more than I am. My pain is exacerbated by the anxiety of my med refusal. I know folks taking double dosages of what Im on! Tortured for wanting to function; exercise, do the yard, carry my groceries and SLEEP. God bless you all.


DEA has Drs running scared when they shouldn’t be . Drs are taking away necessary medication to manage chronic pain and hurting their patients. I can’t see suing my Dr for malpractice because he took away 1/2 of my treatment due to the DEA. That’s the only reason my meds were taken along with the ability to manage it and still be somewhat active. If a patient was managing themselves well and shows no sign of detox after losing a pain Med, doesn’t that show they aren’t abusing ? Frankly I feel myself and others have been labeled as addicts. When I filled my rx I still have, CVS told me i didn’t have insurance. Their system deleted me and Aetna Medicare had to call and make the pharmacist call cvs for technical help to get my info back in their system. The delay left me without medication for a day and a half. My contract with my Dr states I can’t fill anywhere else without notification and it was a holiday weekend. CVS implemented a new policy for first time opioid rx,’s limiting the patient but I wasn’t a new patient . Medicare had Walgreens as preferred for the last 2 yrs and now back to CVS. If the war on drugs was to go after the illegal , deadly crap on the street, you aren’t doing your job based on legitimate patients treatment being taken away. Yes there are some bad Drs and PA’s writing unnecessary scripts , etc… Please quit ruining legitimate managed patients quality of life!


Grieving, I’m very sorry for your pain. I can’t imagine. Around 2000 there was a Joint Commission, tasked with accrediting hospitals, who joined up with Pharma. They encouraged doctors to prescribe opioids. Doctors were told they were safe, as were patients, but it was really about profits. Now the CDC is targeting chronic-pain patients who are now and have always handled their medication responsibly. No amount of unfairness towards them will alleviate your pain. Depriving chronic pain patients of pain medication is resulting in suicide. A friend of mine, a retired doctor, shot himself in the head with a shotgun at the only pain clinic in our town. The next town with a pain clinic is a two hour drive away. If the local clinic fails to meet your needs it can be quite a burden. The CDC needs to clean up the mess they are making before more people die. Again, I am sorry for your suffering. It should not have happened.


It’s not fair that you lost your son. It’s not. There needs to be middle ground, though. There are chronic pain patients who commit suicide because the pain is unrelenting. I have tried other pain control options. Some of them made me have suicidal thoughts (look at the warnings in Lyrica commercials). Some caused me so much stomach pain that I was doubled-over. Some made me so tired that I struggled to keep my job and it was my FRIENDS who told me something was wrong with me because I wasn’t really participating in life outside of going to work and going home. They raised an alarm. I was becoming depressed with that medication, too, and it happened so slowly that I didn’t see the change… Unlike when I bawled my eyes out at work with the other drug that caused depression…

If I was not on the medication I’m on now, I could not work. I know, because I was there when I was in my 20’s… and this is 15 years later with additional decline in my condition since then. I have widespread osteoarthritis and my mother was disabled in her 50’s because arthritic spurs were cutting her spinal cord. Doctors used to assure me that my arthritis wasn’t going to be like hers, but guess what? I have it in my neck and lower back now… in my feet, ankle, knee(s?), hips, SI Joints, shoulder(s?) and fingers. Doctors don’t try to reassure me now. Doctors have asked me how I’m still working, and that’s so hard to be asked because I try not to think about it… It was like being hit upside the head with something I didn’t want to consider… I quietly said, “The medications help.” It’s true. I use epsom salts, heating pads, I do what physical activity I can, I have over-the-counter creams, I did physical therapy/t’ai chi/yoga… I walk for exercise now. I have real limitations — things I used to do, I am not physically able to now. I’m 38 years old. I don’t know what 10 more years will bring… 15 more years… 20…

Maybe I will be disabled and unable to work in my 50’s (like my mother).

I’m going to hang on to what I can. And that’s the role of the medication. I fill out questionnaires asking if I can bathe myself, if I can dress myself, if I need help going to the bathroom.


Dear Mr. Grieving,
I am so sorry for the loss of your son sir.
My son is a heroin addict too. He like your son is likely going to die from his own choice to get high from a medication not meant for him. There is nothing that can help him but himself no matter what anyone does. They both made their own decision to ingest or inject those drugs. No one else did, even his doctor. To punish a whole group of patients that did follow the rules is Unamerican. I lost a nephew to a car accident so I know the devastation of losing a loved one but did not say take cars away from everyone because he died in a car accident. Consider yourself lucky that you do not have to live in constant pain.
Thank You.

Kathleen Kaiser

I thought it was interesting that in this article they have changed the name of the problem from opiate crisis to prescription opiate crisis. So does that leave out the heroin and Fentanyl that’s on the streets? Are they not going to pursue that problem because that’s where the real problem is.


My son DIED from this mess and while everyone whining about their pain and govt over reach and money let me tell you there is NOTHING MORE PAINFUL THAN LOSING A CHILD!! His doctor was criminal in his actions and should go to jail!! The DEA is doing something to try and turn the tide so to say. I welcome anything. No parent should ever lose a child AND I can tell you his doctor was giving him way too many pills. There will always be something to help with pain so all this complaining is a bit much. I say thank you DEA.. it’s too late for my son but hopefully this madness can be stopped soon!!


FIRSTLY, why isn’t this a human rights issue? Why does the “government overreach monster” have the right to see my doctor with me, and tell my doctor to do anything EXCEPT treat my chronic pain, or he’ll go to jail and lose his license to adequately treat the patients he loves??? (They don’t, but doctors and we pain patients are afraid of the government, I guess.) Where are all the lawyers in this country? Why aren’t they jumping up and down to initiate a class action lawsuit to prevent any more doctors turning down patients’ documented need for opioid pain-relief regimen, the ONLY relief that works, after having tried everything else? (I’m saying DON’T sue the docs, their hands are tied! SUE THE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES and get CEASE AND DESIST ORDERS!!!) Legitimate pain patients are suddenly dropped from care, left to find contacts on the street, or left for possible suicide? Dropped and left on the floor, crying and writhing in pain? (Yes, it’s been that bad for me at times, before my doc and I found what works for me — opiate therapy! I’m dependent but not addicted. Why does it matter to you, anyway? I’m in my 60s, retired, and it’s really none of your business what my pain control looks like. That should be between my doc and me (and my family, if I so choose). If I want to stand on my head to relieve my headache, I’ll by golly stand on my head to relieve my headache!! As long as it’s Biblically correct or allowed; legal; not hurting me; and not hurting others, That’s always been my mantra.

SECONDLY, this whole thing stinks and reeks of a money trail!! What power-mongering group, or individuals, is/are benefitting from this WAR ON PAIN RELIEF?! Do they understand they’re causing great harm and often irreversible damage to many patients’ bodies and psyche to deny us access to the medicine that keeps us going? Are the government officials closet sadists and masochists and love to watch and hear of human suffering? We treat our pets better than this. I would not withhold pain medication from my dogs if I knew they were hurting. Would these government officials do the same? Probably not.

And, THIRDLY. You can’t tell me that at least ONE family member or close friend of any of our Congressional representatives, or Judiciary, knows not a soul who’s dying of cancer or has any illness or traumatic injury. Not one — not ONE lawmaker has seen first-hand the agony of a chronically ill person? A course should be required for those lawmakers who don’t care.


When the government breaks the law, there is no law. Just a bunch of money grabbing politicians who want to do away with pain medication and bring in dope, for nothing more than tax dollars. They are dishonest, information fabrication and want to feed each other’s organizations like PROP for tax money, an addiction facility who the Croatian lobbied for these very moments.


The biggest part of the problem medical board lawyers and DEA agents who “know” better than doctors, whether or not they are trying to practice legitimate pain management Can they read my mind?! I doubt that they can, They can no more do that than any one of us can know what pain another feels. This is what I call, the “Human Condition”. I had patients, who would come into my exam room, for their monthly medications for pain, that just ‘knew” that the other people in the exam room were just “addicts” looking for a fix! That is about as smart as the DEA agents, who know all of the doctors are just writing prescriptions to make the patients addicts, and boost their incomes. Well, karma is catching up with all of you. To the DEA agents, one of these days the people are going to figure out that you don’t have any idea about who is a legitimate pain patient. They will hate you! One of these days, after you have abused and beaten your own bodies to a pulp, you will be contemplating suicide, because no doctor will have the guts to write you a prescription for your chronic pain! You all go after low hanging fruit because you think you know more than you do. You are on the “right side” of this fight…YOU THINK! The judgemental patients, who think they have the education to do my job, will also be wishing you had minded your own business about the other patients’ needs. At least I know death will mean I have permanent relief. I believe will end up in a place much better, than this world of pain. being judgemental makes you part of the problem. Loving my neighbor means I trust him and do no harm to him. I do not I have suspicions that I cannot prove. And a big part of the problem includes physicians, who are too lazy to figure out the correct way to treat chronic pain. Yet, they sit on the sidelines judging those who do! People are screwing this world up acting on their suspicions, and not the facts. They condemn the people, in chronic pain, to a living hell. What do they deserve for that?

I agree with Robert. He’s telling it exactly as it is!

Danielle L Mroz

I’m reall concerned about these actions, they do not feel safe to me. I mean how could they be positive that the narcotic medications were only being sold as drugs of abuse to users or being diverted as forms of illegal drug cash? That not one individual was an actual real patient and that no harm would come to them as a result of the DEA actions? I mean who are they boasting they have saved? I don’t believe Doctors and Pharmacies are responsible for killing all these people. This has been very alarming anyway we look at it. But very effectively I would have to say if the agency saying that they are protecting us, is doing something that it harming even killing people as collateral damage, I call that a hate crime of genocide because these sick people are being left abandoned with no hope of continuned care of perscribed meds that due to ill health their lives depend upon. The fact that I read in some articalsthat cocain unknown to users since who know how far back was laced with Fentanyl, and that death reports no matter how many drugs or old age disease ect. Countrd as opiate deaths? I also have read other countries threw out the world report the same thing. So who is trying to mis lead us, and how have they been able to get into every big illicit supply chain taint thd drugs and kill. ?
This is the real issue at hand


If government agencies would look at statistical facts that even with the drastic changes they rushed into and the drop in opioid prescription rates that the heroin overdose death rate is climbing.
Drug use will be a part of American society forever. Apparently what we have been doing the last 45 years is not working. Maybe it is time to look at the Portugal way to change the drug culture of America. All we are doing now is enriching drug cartels at an even faster rate. Billions upon billions going to criminals.

Thank You.

Absolm Flazed

Baby out with the bath water. People need to email or twitter to trump, sessions, DEA congress, surgeon general, AMA, Oprah, View, Talk Shows with legit chronic pain needs.

Opioids work for me without damage to internal organs. Tylenol, Tropolol, Ibuprofen, alcohol all have unacceptable aside effects. Alternatives like yoga, mindfulness, hypnosis, nerve blocks don’t work but on 20-30% of those who try them.

Whomever wrote that suicide rate among chronic pain patients is going to go up is 100% right. Let’s get off our rear ends and start writing now.


so are they going after Legit doctors and interfering in patient care causing harm ,and torture to Chronic pain Patients or Are they finally busting the illegal Heroin dealers and their addicts ?
Enough is enough their job is to stop Illegal drugs not moniter drugs .I am confused by this article I guess.


In the meantime, people who truly need medication cannot get it. More and more chronic pain patients are becoming bedridden and have either lost their jobs or they fear that they will lose their jobs because they need medication to function. I support trying to bring the dose of medication but Drs are trying to do it too fast to protect themselves as they fear an investigation. Even the elderly cannot get medication for their pain. Families are being destroyed and chronic pain patients have no where to go. As a result, we will lose them to suicide. People who legitimately need medication are unable to get it. This has been taken to the extreme.


The DEA is breaking the law. The Controlled Substance Act passed under the Nixon administration was designed to go after drug dealers working to bring in illegal drugs into our country, not to go after Physicians.

Before our eyes we are watching our government becoming a police state with their version of the Geheim Staatspolizei, Gestapo. Where are all the nightly news stories about the many daily arrests of drug cartels working inside and outside of our borders? The job they were charged to do when they were created by President Nixon and Congress. How about the numerous containers of Fentanyl confiscated from the Chinese? How about the counterfeit pain pills they make so perfectly, that are extremely difficult to tell from the real thing?

Intimately Doctors so well that they refuse to prescribe a Tylenol 3 for fear of a DEA investigation.

Could it be the 10,000 Baby Boomers that retire each and everyday, collecting Social Security and Medicare? This represents the $123 trillion in unfunded liabilities we cannot afford. Regardless that the CDC admitted they had it wrong, that it’s not legitimate pain medication, but illegal drugs that is fueling the Opioid Epidemic, they will continue to go after the innocent.

2016 – 45,000 people commit suicide, 123 per day. As of April 3, 10,819 People have committed suicide.

A blistering Inspector General report from 2015 found that more than 300,000 veterans likely died while waiting for VA health care, including some who committed suicide as they waited for mental health services for conditions like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).


With the “war on drugs” a complete and utter failure the DEA had to act like they are doing something so they go after doctors because they are an easy target and they think they look like they are doing such great work. What a joke they are, and at the expense of many innocent lives.

The only thing Mr Patterson and his associates are going to do is increase the death of “their”??? loved ones as he puts it. First they have our doctors scared to the point where they look the other way, or down at their feet, saying the same old thing the past 2 years about this ridiculous crisis. Now they’re going to start on our pharmacist????? Really??? Our pharmacist who already have to account for every single pill that comes in or goes out of their facility as is. What do you want to bet Trump is behind this one too? We need a leader who can get the illegal drugs off the streets such as heroin and illegal Fentanyl. We need a leader who can stop them from coming in from China and Mexico among other places. We don’t need someone in such an authoritative place that’s only answer is to take ALL of the opioids away completely. Especially those that are prescribed by ones physician who give LIFE not. DEATH. He’s got to be one of the most hard headed men I’ve ever seen. I can just hear him now,” I’m too busy doing this and that, I don’t have time to deal with stopping the illegal drugs so let’s just pull them all together. That’s going to solve everything and everyone’s problem. There is no such thing as chronic pain, it’s all in ones head. Now back to my golf game and trying to keep the mistakes I’ve made in my life covered up.” I’m willing to bet it goes like that to a tee…….


The standards they set may be arbitrary, and the process is unfair. I read about seizure of assets, which essentially makes it impossible for people to continue to provide care. The basis of “suspicion” is arbitrary and damaging and harm is done without due process even being involved. I’ve seen reports of doctors being PRESSURED out of practice. This is a disservice. Where is “innocent until proven guilty?” Where is the AMA in this? Professional organizations have surrendered to tyranny. We are in a very, very bad place. Legitimate patients go without care and are demonized. In the United States, this shouldn’t be permitted.

Medicine is based on research and science. The practice of medicine is being impeded by the tyranny of so-called “law.” Patients have committed suicide and families have lost loved ones. It’s truly a tragedy that’s been muted by the media screaming “opioid epidemic” and the lawmakers who are practicing medicine to get votes.

This is a sick, sick, sick dystopia in action. The justice system should intervene on behalf of patients. Doctors and researchers should be the ones to address issues — not the DEA, law enforcement and politicians.