Pubdate: Tue, 27 Mar 2007
Source: Foster's Daily Democrat (NH)
Copyright: 2007 Geo. J. Foster Co.
Contact:  http://www.fosters.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/160
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

METHADONE CLINIC DOCTOR SENTENCED FOR PRESCRIPTION FRAUD

PORTLAND, MAINE  A psychiatrist who founded a methadone clinic in 
Westbrook was sentenced to six months in prison Monday for his 
convictions last year for prescription fraud.

Dr. Marc Shinderman was convicted of writing prescriptions for 
controlled substances using the name and drug registration number of 
another physician. Shinderman, who was not licensed to write the 
prescriptions in Maine, said he thought the arrangement was acceptable.

Shinderman also must serve another six months of home confinement 
during two years of probation. U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby 
also ordered him to pay $35,800 in restitution.

Shinderman was a co-founder of the Center for Addiction Problems in 
Chicago before he came to Maine, where he started CAP Quality Care in 
Westbrook in 2001. It was the second methadone clinic in the Portland area.

Shinderman has a 30-year history of working with methadone, which is 
dispensed to addicts to curb their craving for opiates such as 
heroin. But the charges against him were not related to methadone, 
but rather to other medications that he prescribed to patients.

More than 100 former patients, colleagues, employees and friends 
wrote letters to the court calling Shinderman a dedicated physician 
and groundbreaking researcher who bent the rules to prescribe 
necessary medication to patients in need.

But prosecutors in court documents described him as a reckless drug 
provider who used generous doses of methadone and prescription drugs 
to attract patients to his for-profit clinic.

Shinderman had faced up to 21 months in prison for his conviction on 
58 counts, including 24 counts each of using another physician's Drug 
Enforcement Agency registration number and aiding the acquisition of 
controlled substances by deception.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman