[1stFreedom]

I didn't know doctor shopping was against the law.

Smells like a witch hunt to me.

[Shermy]

I didn't know doctor shopping was against the law.

Well if it is, we might as well lock up 5 or 10 million addicts - starting with the sleeping-pill-poppers in Congress. Gotta be at least 20 % of them, they got such stressful jobs...

...signed by Asim Brown, a law enforcement agent assigned to the state attorney's office anti-money laundering task force

Money laundering? Patriot Act used?

[Boxsford]

I didn't know doctor shopping was against the law.

No kidding. I didn't either. Are we being watched this much?

[Sloth]

Apparently it is:

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Broward woman charged with deceiving doctors to get drugs
©Associated Press
September 28, 2002

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- A woman has been charged under a new "doctor shopping" law passed to prevent deception in obtaining prescription drugs.

Marilyn Georges, 53, was charged Thursday with six felony counts of "doctor shopping": obtaining the same controlled drugs from more than one doctor within a 30-day period by using deception. The law went into effect July 1.

"This is the first time we've filed such a case in this division," Broward Assistant State Attorney Sharon Mullane said. "I believe there will be plenty of others. This is a problem that has existed for some time."

Prosecutors said three unsuspecting Broward doctors wrote Georges eight prescriptions for oxycodone, a narcotic painkiller, and alprazolam, a sedative, in a little more than a month.

Police first questioned Georges last month after two people died days apart in her home. One death was due to a drug overdose, according to the Broward Medical Examiner's Office. Authorities are conducting tests in the other case.

Georges told police she "misled" three doctors into prescribing for her at least 130 tablets of alprazolam, the generic form of Xanax, during three days in August, according to police records.

Georges is accused of visiting three doctors to obtain prescriptions for oxycodone and alprazolam on July 24 and 25, and again on July 10 and Aug. 16, according to prosecutors.

Plans for a database to monitor an estimated 13.4-million prescriptions written every year in Florida failed to win approval during last spring's legislative session. State officials estimated it would cost taxpayers $1.5-million to collect the prescription data.

Walgreen's has a system that can track prescriptions filled at any of its more than 500 branches in the state.

However, that system does not interact with other drug stores and chains.

"There are more deaths from prescription drugs in Florida right now than illicit drugs. This is the drug abuse problem right now," said Joe Spillane, a pharmacologist at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. "There's got to be a way to make a better system."

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Note this article says the law is "new" in 2002 so they'd have to show that Rush was doing it after that time.

[babygene]

"I didn't know doctor shopping was against the law"

Wow! When I wanted a viagra prescription I didn't go to the family doc... He might tell my wife, and she thinks I'm a stud.

I didn't realize I was breaking the law.

[utahagen]

I hear you. "Doctor shopping"?! Give me a break. Are we living under a totalitarian regime?

[lepton]

I didn't know doctor shopping was against the law.

Shopping around for a doctor that'll treat you in the manner you wish to be treated is not illegal. What's illegal is to go to multiple doctors to each prescribe you drugs. For example, going to several doctors to each prescribe you the months worth of pain-killers - thereby providing yourself with an excess of the drugs, as well as messing with the doctors treatment via deception.

[Grammy]

I have a friend who suffers from chronic serious pain, and pain medicine allows her to function. Without it she would be bed ridden.
Every year, at about this time, her Dr. starts looking over her chart and realizes that he has prescribed a bunch of pain meds for her, and he may get in trouble. Then he sends her off for a round with several other doctors, some pain management doctors, or rheumatologists.... to let them prescribe for her for a while. This then looks like she is Dr. shopping. It is a pattern that has happened to her for many years, and isn't helpful for her well being. About the time she gets comfortable with her Dr, he shuffles her off to another.
Pain management is a serious problem that gets muddled by recreational users or addicts. One is legitimate, the others .......

[ImpBill]

I'm with you and would like to the statute that by the "letter of the law", shopping for a Doctor is against the law. And if there is a law that says this then we are indeed in deep doo doo and I might not be able to post again as I will be in jail for "Doctor Shopping" myself. I am in a new area and I have seen three doctors so far that don't measure up to my standards and am still looking for one to act as my GP. Turn me in and get the reward.

[B Knotts]

I didn't know doctor shopping was against the law.

Anything which is not compulsory is prohibited.
Anything which is not prohibited is compulsory.

OK...we're not quite there yet, but we're headed in that direction at a rather rapid pace.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

I thought one should always seek a second opinion, or maybe a third or a fourth. I doctor shopped through three doctors before I took all their advice en total and had spinal surgery.

[InterceptPoint]

Smells like a witch hunt to me.

Of course it's a witch hunt but the law is the law.

I happen to think the drug laws are stupid and violate our constitutional rights so I can take Rush's side in this matter and maintain a logically consistent position. For all of you Freepers who believe in throwing people in jail for taking drugs you don't like then you must either agree that Rush should serve his time according to the law or admit to holding an irrational position on drug use. You simply cannot be for drug laws that restrict the use of drugs that Rush is using and take the position that he should not serve time for not obeying those laws.

I know I'm right.