Free Republic

EDITORIAL OBSERVER Federal prosecutors in Virginia want Dr. William Hurwitz, recently convicted on 50 counts of distributing narcotics, to go to prison for life without parole when he is sentenced in mid-April. For the 50 million or so Americans who suffer from chronic pain, the fate of Dr. Hurwitz should be of some interest. He is a prominent doctor committed to aggressive treatment of pain. His behavior in some cases was inexcusable. Patients for whom he freely provided large prescriptions should, at the very minimum, have been given more close supervision. But malpractice should be cause for loss of license....

Bush Policy To Target Prescription Drugs Tracking patients' use key part of new anti-drug effort WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's national anti-drug strategy will for the first time target the use of pain relievers, sedatives and stimulants for nonmedical purposes, a problem that has exploded in the last decade. A key part of the strategy being released Monday involves government efforts to help states develop monitoring systems to track a patient's use of prescription medicine. The monitoring programs flag cases that indicate a pattern of abuse, such as "doctor shopping," where a patient gets prescriptions for drugs from multiple physicians....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's national anti-drug strategy will for the first time target the use of pain relievers, sedatives and stimulants for nonmedical purposes, a problem that has exploded in the last decade.A key part of the strategy being released Monday involves government efforts to help states develop monitoring systems to track a patient's use of prescription medicine. The monitoring programs flag cases that indicate a pattern of abuse, such as "doctor shopping," where a patient gets prescriptions for drugs from multiple physicians.Prescription medicine now ranks second, behind marijuana, among drugs most abused by adults and young people, said...

Tuesday, December 30, 2003 Medicaid recipients may be selling drugs FRANKFORT - Some Medicaid recipients in Kentucky are using their benefits to sell prescription drugs illegally for profit or to supply their own addictions, authorities say. Police and prosecutors in rural Kentucky say the state- and federally funded program that helps more than 670,000 of the state's elderly, poor and disabled is a significant source of drugs that have ravaged the region. It's impossible to estimate the degree to which Medicaid is used to funnel prescription drugs into Kentucky's black market. Medicaid spending on the most popular painkillers - such...

Drug use by teenagers declines, continues its decline Associated Press - December 20, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) - American teenagers are cutting back on their use of illicit drugs and cigarettes, but alcohol consumption is holding steady, the government says. An annual survey of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders done for the Department of Health and Human Services, found declines in many kinds of drugs for high school students, especially for Ecstasy and LSD. Overall, the Bush administration said the annual survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse showed an 11 percent drop in illegal drug use in the past...

RAIDS ON RUSH ARE DETAILED Warrants: He Broke Drug Laws West Palm Beach, Fla. - A Palm Beach County law enforcement task force investigating whether Rush Limbaugh illegally obtained prescription painkillers seized the talk show host's medical records from three doctors, according to search warrants made public yesterday. Authorities are looking into whether the conservative commentator violated the state's "doctor shopping" law by getting doctors to write him overlapping narcotic prescriptions and failing to tell them about each other. From March to September, Limbaugh picked up 1,733 hydrocodone pills, 90 OxyContin pills, 50 Xanax tablets and 40 pills of Kadian...