DRUG TRIAL OF FORMER PAIN DOCTOR OPENS TODAY

A prominent former pain doctor from McLean will go on trial today in
federal court in Alexandria, accused of leading a broad conspiracy to
traffic in prescription narcotics that prosecutors say led to the
deaths of three patients.

The case against William E. Hurwitz has drawn national attention from
advocates for patients with chronic pain, who decry it as a zealous
attempt to criminalize what they consider good medical practice.
Government officials say the prosecutions of Hurwitz and other doctors
has helped stem growing abuse of OxyContin and other potent
prescription painkillers.

Hurwitz, 59, is charged in a 62-count indictment that includes charges
of drug trafficking resulting in death and serious bodily injury,
conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances and health care fraud.
Prosecutors allege that Hurwitz prescribed excessive quantities of
dangerous narcotics to patients who were then selling the drugs on a
lucrative black market. His dosages, they said, led to serious
injuries and the three deaths.

The trial is the culmination of a two-year federal investigation into
doctors, pharmacists and patients suspected of selling potent and
addictive painkillers. About 50 people have been convicted. Law
enforcement sources said the probe is ongoing, though Hurwitz was one
of the ultimate targets.

Before he closed his practice in 2002, Hurwitz was considered a major
figure in the national pain management community and was profiled on
"60 Minutes."

Prosecutors have likened Hurwitz to a "street-corner crack dealer."
Several of his patients have been caught selling their prescriptions
at exorbitant profits in other states, and the network has been blamed
for fueling what authorities have called an epidemic of abuse
throughout Appalachia.

But defense lawyers plan to argue that Hurwitz was only trying to help
people with intractable pain and that prosecutors are
over-reaching.

"This is a trophy case. They wanted a doctor," said Marvin D. Miller,
an attorney for Hurwitz. "Doctors should decide what is appropriate
medical practice, not people in law enforcement."

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks before U.S. District
Judge Leonard D. Wexler. A 12-member jury was selected yesterday. If
convicted of the most serious counts, Hurwitz, who has been free on $2
million bond, faces up to life in prison.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty declined to comment. But after the
September 2003 indictment, McNulty called Hurwitz a "major and deadly
drug dealer" who used the cover of medical pain management to dispense
"misery and sometimes death."

Russell Portenoy, chairman of pain medicine at Beth Israel Medical
Center in New York, said yesterday that pain management doctors are
closely following the case. "I have a very profound concern that the
appropriate way to deal with these issues is not through criminal
prosecution but through an evaluation of medical practice," he said.

Portenoy predicted that a Hurwitz conviction would have a "strong
chilling effect" on the willingness of doctors to prescribe powerful
prescription narcotics, which many in the field think is the only way
to relieve chronic pain. About 30 percent of Americans suffer from
such pain, he said.

An attorney representing one of Hurwitz's alleged victims voiced
support for the prosecution. "I don't see any other way he can be
stopped," said Bryan Slaughter, who represents the family of Linda
Lalmond. "These patients certainly do need treatment, but I don't see
how Dr. Hurwitz's methods necessarily help people."

Lalmond, 51, of North Carolina, died in Fairfax County in June 2000.
In a lawsuit filed against Hurwitz, her family argued that Lalmond
died two days after first meeting Hurwitz and being prescribed an
excessive dose of morphine. The suit was settled last year.

Prosecutors are expected to introduce testimony about former patients
of Hurwitz, in addition to taped conversations between him and his
patients. The defense is expected to also call some former patients as
witnesses, in addition to experts in the field of pain management.