DR. TALLEY INVESTIGATION HANGS IN LIMBO

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 painkilling 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 handcarves 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:

"Dr. Ben Moore, whom I knew, completely bankrupted by legal fees and still
facing prison, hung himself in his mother's back yard.

"Dr. Maier, pain specialist in Goldsboro who reviewed my records, is
quitting himself because of the danger and going to work in an Indian
reservation," he said.

Others, too - Dr. William Hurwitz of Virginia, Dr. Robert Weitzel of Utah,
Dr. Frank Fisher of California, Dr. Strachan of Virginia, Dr. Cecil Knox in
Roanoke - are quitting, he said.

One Virginia news editor called the investigations of doctors such as
Talley "war crimes against patients."

A pro-and-con series published in The Star last spring ran the gamut from
testimonies to diatribes.

Some patients pleaded with authorities to leave Talley alone and let him
continue to help them, while others said his liberal prescribing practices
had ruined their lives or killed their loved ones.

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, told The Star 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."