Pubdate: Mon, 19 Sep 2005
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Author: Laura Crimaldi, Common Disgrace
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

RULES IMPEDE TREATMENT FOR DRUG ABUSERS

Psychiatrist Claude A. Curran just couldn't fathom why the federal 
government would bar him from prescribing opiate-weaning buprenorphine to 
more than 30 of the OxyContin and heroin addicts who flood his Fall River 
practice. So he simply ignored the law.

"I have to present myself to Hippocrates after I am dead and buried," said 
Curran, who once had 600 patients on the opiate pill, which inhibits 
narcotics cravings without getting patients high. "I try to give my 
patients hope."

A little more than two months ago, federal law prevented individual 
practices from treating more than 30 patients with buprenorphine drugs at 
one time. The law was so restrictive, it did not distinguish among 
hospitals, health organizations and single-physician organizations -- 
creating long waiting lists at treatment centers where certified doctors 
practiced.

For a while, Curran was able to administer the drug to hundreds of 
unauthorized patients -- dispensing up to 48,000 pills a month -- because 
he was seeking a license to open a methadone clinic. Then the state Board 
of Registration in Medicine and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration 
intervened.

"When I received a phone call on December 13, 2003, advising me that they 
were aware that I had exceeded the 30-patient cap, the next girl that comes 
in is a 19-year-old heroin addict with a 2-month baby. She says, 'If I 
can't get on buprenorphine I'm going to lose my baby because I'm 
prostituting to get high,' " said Curran.

DEA and Board of Registration in Medicine officials said no disciplinary 
action was taken against Curran, who said he is in compliance with the new 
federal law allowing a single doctor to treat 30 patients at one time after 
passing a certification course.

Regulators sought the 30-patient limit to prevent any one physician from 
prescribing mass quantities of a drug they classify as carrying a 
"potential for abuse."

"It was very disturbing from a professional point of view to have a doctor 
who's putting the community at risk by doing something that puts the whole 
clinical paradigm at risk," said Dr. Daniel Alford, medical director at the 
Boston Public Health Commission's methadone maintenance program.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman