Pubdate: Fri, 27 Dec 2002 Source: Gaston Gazette, The (NC) Copyright: 2002 The Gaston Gazette Contact: http://www.gastongazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1702 Author: Cassie Tarpley, Special to the Gazette Bookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/intractable+pain (Intractable Pain) http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone) N.C. DOCTOR WAITING TO HEAR WHETHER HE WILL FACE CHARGES In December 2001, one doctor in one obscure little Cleveland County town hit the big time, publicity-wise, when the federal Drug Enforcement Administration focused its "war on drugs" lens on his tiny office in Grover. Dr. Joseph Talley had long been the subject of controversy, the target of inquiries from state medical board members and one of the most sought-after prescribers of pain-killing narcotics not only in the region, but across the country. Talley said his following flocked to him for help they could get nowhere else. Skeptical authorities said they came to get powerful drugs, such as Oxycontin, he dispensed too freely. Scarcely a year later, the 65-year-old self-styled specialist in chronic, intractable pain, had his prescribing rights pulled in January by the DEA. He also lost his medical license, stripped of it in March by N.C. Medical Board members who said he failed to follow established procedures and do proper follow-up care. He has no practice, saying he has spent countless hours begging other doctors to take patients who had come to him saying he was their only hope. And, he says, he has little hope of recovering either the license or the practice. Retreating to his woodworking shop where he hand-carves trains and other moving "toys," he waits. Will federal charges, criminal charges, be filed against him? Will he be tried, found guilty and go to prison? As early as 1998, Talley wrote to the chairman of the N.C. Medical Board complaint committee that this is "a showdown that needs to happen." "What will happen to me is happening all across the country," Talley said recently, "with perversion of justice on a scale that borders on the unbelievable. The result is that all doctors who care about pain are pulling back or getting out." He cites examples, and several of them have been the subjects of national news coverage. One Virginia news editor called the investigations of doctors such as Talley "war crimes against patients." Federal investigators will not comment on their investigation. Talley said he has no idea when any results will be announced. "They'll just show up at the door one day," he said. One of his attorneys, Lyle Yurko, said that doctors, patients and law enforcement are not the only players in the game. "It is impossible to talk about drug policy in a neutral, detached way," Yurko said, "and it's very difficult to have a rational discussion about these issues. There are some things that the feds do that are just crazy. "There has been created an anti-controlled substance industrial complex - whole hosts of industries that are dependent on drugs being hard to get - and it's a juggernaut that's very hard to stop." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake