Doctor jailed for 30 years for overprescribing pain killers`

[Yorick]

Ronald McIver. Despite the prosecution NOT proving criminal intent.

I have no link to the story, as I read it in the NY times today, and I'm pissed. Disbarring him would be punishment enough. 30 years jail?? The article raises serious problems such as the DEA removing it's FAQ page from it's website... how do you know how to not cross the line, if you don't know where the line is???

Anyone else read the article? This is beyond a joke. 30 years? People who sentence seem to have no understanding about the punushment they are meting out. It's almost like it's just a number. 3 months in prison would be bad enough for most people. Heck, even a week.

I read the article and I think they've jailed a good man.

[VulcanRider]

Google only turned up a few, mostly repetitive, links about this. Most are generic rants against the Bush administration's drug war overzealously chasing doctors. This one is as good as any. Sounds like the DEA is really pushing to show what badasses they are.

I'd guess the judge who sentenced him understood the punishment, but had no choice because of mandatory sentencing guidelines.

[robertthebard]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/ma...=1&oref=slogin

From the article:

Some of his patients sold their pills. Some abused them. One man, Larry Shealy, died with high doses of opioids that McIver had prescribed him in his bloodstream. In April 2005, McIver was convicted in federal court of one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and eight counts of distribution. (He was also acquitted of six counts of distribution.) The jury also found that Shealy was killed by the drugs McIver prescribed. McIver is serving concurrent sentences of 20 years for distribution and 30 years for dispensing drugs that resulted in Shealy’s death. His appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Supreme Court were rejected.

Goes a long way to explain why I can't get much help for my chronic migraines.

[Ziroc]

That's a complete joke. 30 YEARS?!?! See, it's crap like this is what scares Doctors to prescribe needed medicine. They FEAR the DEA.

I sometimes have to take pain meds for my back and hip pain, so believe me, because of a FEW assholes that are drug seekers, people that DO need it are all looked at suspeciously at first.
REALLY sucks. I have a kick ass Doctor, so I'm ok now, but man.. atop being in misery, you gotta deal with some Doctors that look at you odd (at first).. just crazy.

And 30 years? crazy. DEA, why not get to work on these online drug scams? THOSE are an issue.

Just crazy.

[ 06-18-2007, 02:17 AM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

[JrKASperov]

It's a sad world where people can get arrested for humanely making a mistake in their jobs, even how sad the results may be. In Holland they're threatening to sue some social workers because a family they were tied to had a murder drama or some such. Good motivation for people who are devoting their work to other people in the first place.

[Nightwing]

I have to say there are a great deal of Dr.s out there who blindly perscribe and do more harm in tragic ways than good. Not being part of the jury and not hearing all the evidence it is hard to say. I have seen first hand the devistating affects irresponsible dr.s have on there patients however. He may deserve exactly what he got.

[robertthebard]

My grandmother had such a doctor. The problem with the aggressiveness of the DEA is that it makes it really hard for somebody like me, who has been fighting debilitating headaches for over two years now, to get any real help. Everybody is "gunshy", and understandably so. I don't think that every prosecution by the DEA was unwarranted, as I have known people that will get the script simply to sell them, and it's a shame that it has such an adverse affect on people that are trying to ply a trade they invested a lot of time and money into.

[Nightwing]

At the rate Dr.s give out samples it is strange they are so tough on this. If I wanted I could 4 or 5 anti depressents and anti psycotics in no time free from our docs. It really is strange what the DEA chooses to do and what not.

Pain meds are a little different I guess.

[Kakero]

Emm..his prescription killed someone. You guys act as if he didn't do anything wrong and go gaga over it.

[robertthebard]

No, I pointed it out in the snip I quoted from the link I provided in my first post. However, I am getting the impression from that article, and from personal experience dealing with my chronic migraines, that this is a problem above and beyond what Yorick may have had in mind with the OP.