Pubdate: Mon, 12 May 2003
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Section: Nation
Copyright: 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Roger Alford, Associated Press

APPALACHIAN DOCTORS JAILED FOR ALLEGEDLY SUPPLYING ADDICTS WITH STRONG 
NARCOTICS

PIKEVILLE, Ky. - More than a dozen Appalachian doctors, many of them 
recruited to work in the medically underserved region, have been taken away 
from their patients in handcuffs for allegedly supplying drug addicts with 
powerful narcotics.

In eastern Kentucky, seven small-town doctors are in prison or on their way 
for illegally prescribing drugs such as the painkiller OxyContin. At least 
six other doctors have been arrested in the hills of West Virginia, 
Virginia and southern Ohio.

Advocates for the mountain region say that although the loss of so many 
doctors leaves a void, the departures can only improve medical care.

"As badly as we need more physicians, we certainly don't need the type that 
will violate their oaths and do much more harm than good," said Ewell 
Balltrip, executive director of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission.

Federal and state law enforcement agencies began cracking down on wayward 
physicians in Appalachia in 2000 after OxyContin, a drug intended for 
cancer patients and others suffering from severe pain, began showing up in 
large quantities on the black market.

The first eastern Kentucky physician snared in the crackdown - Dr. Ali 
Sawaf, 61, of Harlan - had turned to illegally prescribing OxyContin and 
other painkillers after he lost his $250,000-a-year job at a regional 
clinic. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West said Sawaf handed out 
prescriptions almost as quickly as he could write them.

The latest physician to plead guilty, Dr. David Procter, 52, of South Shore 
traded painkillers for sex. He admitted to a federal judge that he had 
sexual relations with two female patients after they became hooked on the 
drugs.

Most of the doctors caught in the past two years had been recruited to the 
region to help care for rural residents, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat 
Molloy.

"They may not have stepped over the line before they got here, but clearly 
they were corruptible," Molloy said.

Legitimate doctors have nothing to fear when they appropriately prescribe 
medications, Molloy said. The doctors who have been prosecuted, he said, 
were flagrant violators.

The problem is not confined to Appalachia. A Florida doctor was convicted 
of manslaughter in the OxyContin overdose deaths of four patients. A 
Connecticut physician, nicknamed "Dr. Feelgood" by police for the 
prescriptions he wrote for OxyContin and other pain killers, was convicted 
last year on multiple counts.

Authorities blame the abuse of OxyContin for scores of overdose deaths. If 
taken properly, the drug is released slowly into the body. Abusers 
circumvent the time-release by crushing the pills and inhaling or injecting 
the powder to get the same kind of euphoric high that heroin brings.
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