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When Is a Pain Doctor a Drug Pusher?
NY Times ^ | June 17, 2007 | TINA ROSENBERG

Posted on 06/20/2007 5:40:59 PM PDT by neverdem

Ronald McIver is a prisoner in a medium-security federal compound in Butner, N.C. He is 63 years old, of medium height and overweight, with a white Santa Claus beard, white hair and a calm, direct and intelligent manner. He is serving 30 years for drug trafficking, and so will likely live there the rest of his life. McIver (pronounced mi-KEE-ver) has not been convicted of drug trafficking in the classic sense. He is a doctor who for years treated patients suffering from chronic pain. At the Pain Therapy Center, his small storefront office not far from Main Street in Greenwood, S.C., he cracked backs, gave trigger-point injections and put patients through physical therapy. He administered ultrasound and gravity-inversion therapy and devised exercise regimens. And he wrote prescriptions for high doses of opioid drugs like OxyContin.

McIver was a particularly aggressive pain doctor. Pain can be measured only by how patients say they feel: on a scale from 0 to 10, a report of 0 signifies the absence of pain; 10 is unbearable pain. Many pain doctors will try to reduce a patient’s pain to the level of 5. McIver tried for a 2. He prescribed more, and sooner, than most doctors.

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...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: drugabuse; drugs; govwatch; health; healthcare; medicine; pain; paincontrol; painmanagement; pharmaceuticals; physicians; wod
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To: gas_dr
There is no doctor I know that would deny a dying patient adequate pain medicine. The problem in this story is obviously a "doctor" who didn't know what he was doing. Keeping medical records in a manila envelope is just a small hint of what a fly by night practitioner this guy was. Relieving pain is a good goal. Turning your patients in to mind numbed zombies is not.

Having said that, I absolutely hate drug seekers. They will totally remove any joy you will have in being a doctor. Nothing pisses me off more than being lied to by some lowlife who wants you to give him his "supply" that he then sells to his POS druggie pals.

41 posted on 06/20/2007 10:55:54 PM PDT by boop (Now Greg, you know I don't like that WORD!)
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To: Ronin
"but if a person is dying anyhow"

If a patient qualifies for hospice care, they should get whatever legal drugs make them comfortable. I'm not aware that the patients in this doctor's care were dying -- other than those he killed.

"it seems to me the last thing the doctor should be worried about is whether or not the patient is going to get addicted to the meds."

His patients were abusing the drugs and selling them. That is something to worry about.

42 posted on 06/21/2007 4:24:50 AM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: deport

“Chronic Pain Center and Garage Door Company”


43 posted on 06/21/2007 4:28:37 AM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: Ramius
"Sure, the pain was taken care of, but there was ~nothing~ in terms of euphoria or any kind of a “high”."

Oxycontin is a timed released medicine when swallowed whole. You can bypass that by chewing or crushing it to release it all at once.

Purdue Pharmaceuticals is working on a formulation that cancels the effect of the drug if crushed.

44 posted on 06/21/2007 4:51:41 AM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: Ronin; y'all
Color me stupid, but if a person is dying anyhow, it seems to me the last thing the doctor should be worried about is whether or not the patient is going to get addicted to the meds.
Ronin

Somewhere someone is always worrying that others are 'abusing' themselves. -

"- The utterly insufferable arrogance of power, and the need for it, is an absolute fact of the human condition. -- Nothing can be done about it. -
Just as the poor shall always be with us, so shall we have these infinitely shrewd imbeciles who live to lay down their version of 'the law' to others."

45 posted on 06/21/2007 5:44:09 AM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: KoRn
They could have a virtually endless supply of what makes them 'happy' right in their own garden

That is what is so funny....if these people would go to a good library and check out some books on horticulture, they will find whole sections on plants that come with the caution to not ingest them because they will make you stoned, or hallucinate, etc.
46 posted on 06/21/2007 6:20:46 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: gas_dr
Excellent rant, gas.

Hang in there, buddy!

47 posted on 06/21/2007 6:25:48 AM PDT by CholeraJoe (I shot the Sheriff, but I did not shoot the debutante.)
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To: Grammy

Do they know the source of your friend’s pain?


48 posted on 06/21/2007 6:26:55 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: KoRn; Abram; akatel; albertp; AlexandriaDuke; Alexander Rubin; Allosaurs_r_us; amchugh; ...
“....serving 30 years for drug trafficking,”





Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
49 posted on 06/21/2007 6:31:29 AM PDT by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/Ron_Paul_2008.htm)
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To: P-40
There is actually a thriving market on ebay for mimosa hostilis root bark, phalaris grass and any number of sources for tryptamines (DMT). You can do a VERY simple acid base extraction (translated, dump your ground up goo in a solution of sodium hydroxide, then a nonpolar solvent, then put in a little muriatic acid and separate the layers... no chemistry knowledge needed), and allow to evaporate, and you have the makings of an INTENSE hallucinogenic experience. Same goes for morning glory seeds, certain kinds of cacti, and various other plants. Further, you can obtain your own hallucinogenic mushroom spores LEGALLY and grow them (ILLEGALLY) in a substrate you prepare from common materials. Again, all this stuff you can buy right off the internet, legally, including (in some states) salvia divinorum, a legal smokable intense hallucinogen.

You can also do poppy seed extractions for opiates, but you need a little more expertise for that.

These are all from legally obtained sources. NOTE: the preparation of these items is EXTREMELY illegal and will land you in jail if you are caught.

I haven't done any of this kind of stuff in 30 years, but it is amazing to see what I thought was "secret" info for a clandestine number of acid cooks is now available to anyone who can find google.

50 posted on 06/21/2007 7:19:37 AM PDT by DreamsofPolycarp (Americans used to roar like lions for liberty. Now they bleat like sheep for security)
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To: DreamsofPolycarp
salvia divinorum

When I saw that one at a local nursery I just started laughing. Fortunately, the staff was in on the joke. :)
51 posted on 06/21/2007 7:25:41 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: cookiedough

“Now, in my Dad’s case, the doctor’s do have to worry about respiratory failure, because of the large tumor in his lung and his emphysema.”

Why? When you say advanced lung cancer, I assume we’re talking terminal? If the pain medication necessary to keep a terminal patient comfortable also happens to hasten their death, is that such a bad thing?

I am speaking from experience here. My Father died aged 54 from terminal kidney cancer that had metastasized. I don’t think the cancer is what directly killed him, however. His appetite had been minimal for some time and he was on fairly large doses of Dilaudid for pain. In pill form at first, but at the end he was on a pain medication pump with a liquid form. In the end he died from the combined effects of calorie starvation, and depressed respiration from the pain drugs. Keeping him alive, but in pain, for longer wouldn’t have been any benefit to him or anyone else.


52 posted on 06/21/2007 7:37:38 AM PDT by -YYZ- (Strong like bull, smart like ox.)
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To: gas_dr
Thanks for listening to this rant...
Thanks for ranting!
You made it very easy to understand the difference between addiction and tolerance.
.
53 posted on 06/21/2007 8:05:09 AM PDT by radioman
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To: neverdem

Chalk up many pain patients who can’t get the medicine they need as more casualties of the War on Some Drugs.

Meanwhile, the desire for intoxication seems to be innate, as it’s found in every society in history — you have to fight this from the demand side. If they keep attacking this from the supply side, the Constitution will continue to be attacked, people with legitimate needs will be denied, and people, including kids, who just want to get high will find what they need or try substances (paint thinner, etc.) that will kill them faster than many of the outlawed drugs.


54 posted on 06/21/2007 10:19:45 AM PDT by ellery (I don't remember a constitutional amendment that gives you the right not to be identified-R.Giuliani)
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To: Grammy

Just wait until we get socialized govt. run medical care forced down our throats.
Take two asprin and call me in the morning will no longer be a cliche! It’ll be the treatment you get when you come in with a broken arm, unless you’re an undocumented pre-citizen!


55 posted on 06/21/2007 10:47:09 AM PDT by TheKidster (you can only trust government to grow, consolidate power and infringe upon your liberties.)
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To: stinkerpot65

Not getting enough cash from seizing cars and cash from black and hispanic kids on the street anymore with the focus on profiling and they only get so much from the black market narcotics trade they enforce so they’ve branched off and started siezing the money and assets of Physicians. It’s all about the cash and keeping the agency busy. If what they say is true, more or as many are acing themselves out from legal narcotics as illegal meth and coke, well then there you go. What the hell good does regulation do? It keeps the federal government rich, in your business and steadily growing, but it doesn’t give you one bit of security for the liberty you’ve traded.


56 posted on 06/21/2007 11:17:55 AM PDT by TheKidster (you can only trust government to grow, consolidate power and infringe upon your liberties.)
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To: neverdem

Why should a doctor be held responsible for patients who illegally re-sell painkillers on the street, or take them all at once and OD? Doctors aren’t mind readers, or narcotics agents for that matter. This seems like another example of the death of personal responsibility.


57 posted on 06/21/2007 11:22:58 AM PDT by Polonius (It's called logic, it'll help you.)
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To: darkangel82

Me either; he will be 93 when he gets out.


58 posted on 06/21/2007 11:51:13 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: gas_dr

Rant, Hell! That’s the most concisely clear explanation for what really happens in these cases than anything else I’ve read.


59 posted on 06/21/2007 11:54:54 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: P-40

The source of her pain is several fold..
1)Being hit by a dump truck
2)Fibromyalgia
3)Spinal stenosis.

(I can spell dump truck, the others are questionable)


60 posted on 06/21/2007 1:04:18 PM PDT by Grammy ("Ms Pelosi is a very difficult person to embarrass." Fred Thompson, 4/11/07)
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