Free Republic

ALEXANDRIA, Va. —William E. Hurwitz, the prominent doctor on trial here for drug trafficking, spent more than two days on the witness stand last week telling a jury why he had prescribed painkillers to patients who turned out to be drug dealers and addicts. But the clearest explanation of his actions — and of the problem facing patients who are in pain — came earlier in the trial. It occurred, oddly enough, during the appearance of a hostile witness, Dr. Robin Hamill-Ruth, one of the experts who was paid by the federal prosecutors to analyze Dr. Hurwitz’s prescriptions for OxyContin...

Clinton linked to 'international trafficking in women' Documents show presidential mission invited organized crime members Posted: October 26, 19991:00 a.m. Eastern By Charles Smith © 1999 WorldNetDaily.com Despite White House denials, the Clinton administration has had major contacts with Asian organized crime syndicates such as the Triads, and has befriended kingpins of international prostitution operations. Unraveling the tangled web involving Bill Clinton, Beijing and Asian organized crime starts with the president's close, and self-described "old," friendship with Arkansas restaurant owner Charlie Yah Lin Trie. Trie, who managed to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bill Clinton and the Democratic party, is...

In February 1999, Dr. Frank Fisher, a general practitioner in Shasta County, Calif., was arrested by agents from the California state attorney general's office and charged with drug trafficking and murder. The arrest was based on records indicating that Dr. Fisher had been prescribing high doses of narcotic pain relievers to his patients, five of whom died. He lost his home and his medical practice and served five months in jail before it was discovered that the patients had died from accidents or from medical illnesses, not from the narcotics he prescribed. All charges were dropped last year, and Dr....

Jacob Sullum'sSyndicated Column Pill Sham (4/23) Hair Net (4/16) Abetting Betting (4/9) Earlier Columns April 23, 2004 Pill Sham A man seeking pain relief gets 25 years for drug trafficking Jacob Sullum Here's a bit of legal information that may interest Rush Limbaugh: Under Florida law, illegally obtaining more than 28 grams of painkillers containing the narcotic oxycodone—a threshold exceeded by a single 60-pill Percocet prescription—automatically makes you the worst sort of drug trafficker, even if you never sold a single pill. Even if, like Richard Paey, you were using the drugs to relieve severe chronic pain. Although prosecutors...