Pubdate: Tue, 27 Mar 2007
Source: Portland Press Herald (ME)
Copyright: 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/744
Author: Gregory D. Kesich, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

ADDICTION DOCTOR GETS 6-MONTH SENTENCE

A doctor described as a giant in the field of addiction treatment 
will spend six months in prison for forging prescription slips and 
medical records, a judge decided Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

As a psychiatrist in Illinois, Marc Shinderman, 64, wrote 
groundbreaking articles on the proper dose for methadone patients and 
simultaneous treatment of psychiatric and addiction disorders.

But in Maine, where he was not licensed to prescribe controlled 
drugs, his practice of forging prescriptions and then falsifying log 
books to make it look as though patients had been seen by doctors 
with valid registrations led to criminal charges. He was convicted in 
July of 58 felony offenses.

In addition to his prison term, Shinderman will serve six months of 
home confinement and will have to pay a $30,000 fine. Shinderman also 
is likely to lose his license to practice medicine, and is still 
facing a lawsuit by the federal government against CAP Quality Care, 
the methadone clinic in Westbrook that his wife owns.

Even though the sentence was less than the 21-month prison term 
requested by the government, the penalty is significant, said 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark.

"That's a serious sentence," Clark said. "It sends a very powerful 
message, it seems to me, whenever a physician goes to jail."

Shinderman was sentenced in a courtroom full of family members, 
friends and colleagues, including 19 who testified on his behalf.

They described Shinderman as a leading figure in addiction medicine 
who risked his freedom and his career by providing medically 
necessary psychiatric drugs to CAP patients, even though he was not 
licensed to do so in this state.

Shinderman's lawyers called the prosecution "vindictive" and 
"personal," and suggested that he would not have been subject to such 
serious consequences if he had not been involved in addiction treatment.

When he imposed the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock 
Hornby made clear that Shinderman was not being punished for his 
controversial medical opinions or his clinic's alleged role in 
methadone overdose deaths in Portland.

At the same time, Hornby said, Shinderman would not be rewarded for 
the good he had done in the past.

Instead, the judge said he focused only on the crimes for which 
Shinderman was convicted at his trial.

"This was not an error in judgment. This was not a mistake," Hornby 
said. "It was intentional, it was a regular practice and it was criminal."

Hornby said he enhanced the sentence based on his finding that 
Shinderman had lied on the witness stand during his trial.

Several witnesses said that any jail sentence for Shinderman would 
scare other doctors away from treating addicts.

"It will have a deterrent effect, not against people breaking the 
law, but against physicians entering this type of practice," said 
David Marsh, an addiction specialist from Vancouver, British 
Columbia. "I think it will be detrimental to the effort to get 
physicians to treat people with addiction in ways that are effective 
and that would dramatically reduce crime."

Marc Riesinger, an addiction specialist from Brussels, Belgium, said 
Shinderman was being singled out because of the stigma surrounding drug abuse.

"What I saw today shows that the treatment of drug addiction in the 
United States is not yet part of normal medicine, because what Dr. 
Shinderman did happens every day in other medical sectors," he said.

Shinderman spoke briefly during his sentencing and apologized for 
what he called "a tragic lapse in judgment."

He thanked his friends and supporters and said he regretted "the loss 
of opportunity to do research and advocacy for my patients who suffer 
from psychiatric and addictive disorders. I fear that punishment will 
follow me for the rest of my life."

Shinderman, who said he has not decided whether to appeal the 
conviction, still faces other legal problems.

His conviction will be reviewed by the Illinois board of medical 
licensure, and if that board takes disciplinary action, the decision 
will be communicated to all of the other state medical boards.

CAP Quality Care is the defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging 
Medicaid fraud and violations of federal regulations covering the 
distribution of take-home doses of methadone. That case could go to 
trial as soon as this summer.

Sharon Pratt, a former client at CAP who triggered the investigation 
by telling the state medical board that Shinderman had overdosed her 
with methadone, attended the sentencing Monday.

"More jail time would have been better, but the fact that he's going 
to jail at all is awesome," Pratt said. "He won't ever take 
responsibility for the human lives he destroyed."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman