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.