After the break, the story of Dr. Michael D. Jackson, facing 25 year in prison because the DEA has accused him of prescibing prescription painkillers “beyond the scope of medical practice.”

“Beyond the scope of medical practice,” of course, as determined by the drug cops at the DEA, not by other pain specialists.

Statistically, a very small number of patients of any medical practice, especially in pain management, “doctor shop” for medications, with the sole purpose of selling them for enoromous profits.

The typical scenario is as follows: Legitimate patients present the same medical/surgical records to several doctors in different cities. The records are usually extensive and support the etiology and diagnosis for protracted, severe pain that has been unresponsive to conventional treatments. Each physician in turn, after careful evaluation of the medical records and a focused physical examination, arrives at the same diagnosis. He then initiates the appropriate multi-disciplinary treatment plan, which invariably includes the closely monitored use of long-acting opioids. The problem is, the small group of “patient-dealers” divert (sell) the “extra” pills. Now the DEA gets involved; they arrest these patients and send them off the jail. However, the new approach to the “war on drugs” is to arrest the treating physicians on charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and labeling them as unscrupulous drug dealers! This new strategy of the “war on drugs” is unfathomable, and the doctors in most cases don’t even know each other!

MY STORY as it relates to the above scenario: I’m a 59 year old African-American, born in the Bronx. At the age of 10, my family moved to the infamous Brownsville “projects” of Brooklyn, New York. My parents, neither of who finished high school, told by sister and me that the only way out of the ghetto is by getting an education. With their constant support and by the grace of God, I was accepted into college at the age of 16. My education was interrupted by the Viet Nam conflict (Air Force) and I did not return to college until I was 29 years old. From that point, I proceeded to earn three college degrees with honors in chemistry, biology, and a doctorate in medicine over the next 13 years while helping raise a family and working full time in a factory.

In January 1998, I received a phone call from Jackson and Coker, a physician recruitment agency. They presented two employment opportunities with the same salary and benefit package. One opportunity was in Florence SC, and the other was in Myrtle Beach, SC. The choice was easy. Myrtle Beach provided the added incentive of a two year training program to qualify for board certification in the relatively new specialty of pain management. At the time, I kept a daily journal and every day since my interview, I thanked God for the opportunity of a lifetime! I began my training April 15, 1998 and subsequently passed my board exam two years later. I then returned to Alabama to start a practice in pain management.

In April 2000, I was offered a position by Pinnacle Healthcare Services to head up a brand new pain management/primary care center back in Myrtle Beach for one year, then return to Alabama to open a subsidiary clinic in my home town. My change of location registration with the DEA was approved, and I began practicing on May 1, 2000.

In June 2001, I received a phone call from the DEA in South Carolina, requesting that I help them determine which of the prescriptions that they had in their possession was signed by me and which had been forged. I met with them and cleared up the matter and after the two hour session, they thanked me then proceeded to inform me that they were revoking my DEA registration, alleging that I was dealing drugs out of my office from April 1998 to March 2000. They said that the practice was under investigation since 1996, yet they never warned me or the seven other doctors, who went there to practice over the next five years, that we were in harms way and could be judged guilty by association. The fact of the matter is, as I illustrated above, a small number of patients were selling their medications, wholly without the knowledge of the treating physicians. However, we were all arrested on completely trumped up charges, then railroaded through the “justice” system, convicted by a confused jury of our peers and sentenced to long prison terms without possibility of parole! NOTE: I don’t believe the jury understood the definition of chronic pain management and the long term used of opioids, nor the concept of legally prescribing controlled substances in good faith, during “the course of the professional practice.”

The average age of the doctors involved was 53 years of age, without prior criminal records. Also, if we were truly guilty, then our average “take” amounted to 49 cents per day, before taxes! We would all have to be mentally incompetent to agree, at the time of our employment interview, to write illegal prescriptions for mere pennies a day! The DEA’s response was, it didn’t matter, it didn’t make sense! I guess there must be a shortage of big time millionaires, “well connected” drug dealers (fun intended).

Presently, I face going to a Federal penitentiary for the next 24 years and eight months without possibility of parole for a CRIME THAT NEVER HAPPENED. My family is devastated, not only because I’m facing a prison term, but they witnessed what my wife of 23 years and I went through during the grueling years of my medical training, at such an advanced age (I graduated medical school at age 42). It makes no sense that I, as a 53 year old physician, would suddenly get involved in the drug trade when I’ve spent years lecturing to students about the abuse of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. I also spoke about teenage pregnancy, getting an advanced education (doesn’t have to be college). As an aside…imagine a product of the ghetto, becoming a board certified physician, Chief of Staff of a hospital, and Chairman of the Alabama Army National Guard Medical Board! Yet, the DEA and the U.S. Justice Department would have the general public believe that I was a common street-level drug dealer. What “profile” were they using?

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 7th, 2006 at 10:02 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Pain Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.