DEA RAIDS DOCTOR'S OFFICE

GROVER - Dr. Joseph Harold Talley was known by chronic pain sufferers as
far away as California as a caring physician willing to medicate away their
misery. But federal drug authorities say at least 23 of his patients have
died in part from drug overdoses.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has raided Talley's clinic in this
small Cleveland County town, yanked his permission to write prescriptions,
and opened a criminal investigation, saying the doctor prescribed
"excessive amounts" of narcotics, sometimes to patients who were drug abusers.

Talley has not been charged with a crime.

Talley was "responsible for the diversion of large quantities of controlled
substances" in violation of federal law and would pose "an imminent danger
to the public health and safety" if allowed to continue writing
prescriptions, the DEA said in an order dated Jan. 28. The order directs
the doctor to show why his prescription authority should not be immediately
suspended.

The action comes against the backdrop of a national debate in the medical
community about the proper way to alleviate the suffering of patients with
incurable diseases and chronic conditions.

Talley prescribed excessive amounts of OxyContin, methadone and other
narcotics, sometimes to patients "associated with drug trafficking and drug
abuse," the order said. Patients routinely received minimal or no medical
examination before receiving a prescription, and patients in as many as 14
other states received medications after telephone consultations, the DEA wrote.

The order only partially identifies the patients who died. It says the
deaths of five patients in Union County, S.C., came to the DEA's attention
in March 2001; four of them died of drug overdoses, and a fifth had a
history of drug abuse and had controlled substances in his blood.

Six other patients, from Gaston, Cleveland and Rutherford counties, died in
2000 and 2001 of causes related to oxycodone ingestion, the order said. One
of them, whom the order identified only as "Roger H.," 50, died in April at
his home, four months after he completed rehabilitation for opiate abuse.
Talley had been notified that the patient had been in drug rehab, the order
said.

The DEA investigation adds to Talley's difficulties with medical
authorities. Next month, he faces a hearing before the N.C. Medical Board
to answer allegations that he acted improperly in prescribing narcotics and
stockpiled the weight-loss drug fenfluramine returned by patients for his
own use.

The board could revoke or suspend his medical license. Talley has denied
the state's allegations.

Talley, 64, could not be reached for comment Friday. But one of his
attorneys, Bob Clay of Raleigh, described him as a qualified, compassionate
physician eager to relieve the suffering of people afflicted with chronic,
intractable pain.

"I've gone to a good deal of trouble to find out what the truth is, or what
I think the truth is," said Clay, who is representing Talley before the
medical board. "I believe he is a very, very good doctor who has the
interests of these poor unfortunates who suffer from chronic pain at heart.
He is willing to risk his own well-being and his own professional life in
order to do this. If he's a bad guy, he's got me completely fooled. I think
he's a very, very good guy."

Clay said Talley's case is similar to a growing number of cases against
doctors across the nation who are willing to "stick their necks out" and
prescribe narcotics in high doses for chronic pain sufferers when other
doctors won't, and then face allegations of improper conduct.

While he said he knows nothing of the 23 patients, Clay said it is not
surprising that some of Talley's patients would die. Talley has 3,000
patients and has seen four or five times that number over his career, many
of them with incurable diseases, Clay said.

When chronic pain sufferers die, the high levels of narcotics in their
bodies might suggest an overdose, masking the true cause of death, said
Skip D. Baker, president of the American Society for Action on Pain, an
advocacy group for chronic pain sufferers based in Williamsburg, Va.

Chronic pain sufferers have an incredibly high suicide rate, Baker said.
Talley "has saved many, many lives of pain patients who were just suicidal
with pain before they got to him," said Baker, who has referred at least 15
patients to Talley in the past few years.

After the DEA raid at Talley's Grover Medical Clinic in December, Baker
said he worries that the doctor's patients may grow desperate, with nowhere
to turn for their medications. Agents seized all the narcotics in the
clinic, along with more than 30 boxes of files and documents.

"I'm sure there will be a number of suicides because of what the DEA did to
Dr. Talley," Baker said.

The DEA is sending doctors mixed messages, encouraging them to medicate for
chronic pain, then sending agents to arrest them, he said.

David L. Gaddis, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's North
Carolina operations, declined to comment on Talley but said the agency
investigates such cases only when there are allegations of abuse.

"The key word being 'abuse,' " Gaddis said. "That's the line that's drawn:
when abuses are alleged or proven. And if that is the case, that's where we
enter the picture."