EMBATTLED DOCTOR OPENS RIO DELL CLINIC

RIO DELL -- Some see him as a martyr, a patients' rights advocate who
became a target of the government's unofficial war on drugs.

Others see him as a pusher, a crack dealer and mass murderer -- a
doctor who prescribed pain killers to patients who ultimately died.

Dr. Frank Fisher, who recently opened a clinic in Rio Dell, has no
qualms talking about his past.

More than eight years after the 54-year-old's name and face became
highly publicized following his arrest and charges of murder, fraud
and drug distribution, the Harvard-trained physician has been cleared
of all charges and is practicing medicine on the North Coast.

'He's sort of a hero of this fight between medicine and law
enforcement,' said Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief
Network, a group of pain treatment advocates of which Fisher is a
senior consultant.

Fisher, along with Shasta Pharmacy owners Steven and Madeline Miller,
was arrested Feb. 18, 1999, at his clinic in Anderson, Calif., south
of Redding. The state seized his assets, his bail was set at $15
million, and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer held a press
conference in the Redding area to inform the public.

Lockyer said Fisher and the Millers joined a 'highly sophisticated
drug-dealing operation' that cost Medi-Cal around $2 million, turned
hundreds of people into addicts and caused deaths. 'Investigators
found the physician to be running a patient mill, with patient
examinations typically being cursory at best and lasting no more than
a few minutes,' the 1999 press release read.

Fisher was compared by then-Deputy Attorney General Gary Binkerd, the
case's primary prosecutor, to a common street pusher whose sole
interest was to pump out 'staggering quantities' of pain medicine.

All charges fell away over the following years. A Shasta County judge
threw out all five murder charges in a preliminary hearing,
downgrading three to manslaughter. Another judge dismissed the three
felony manslaughter and fraud charges four years later. And in May
2004, a jury acquitted Fisher on all misdemeanor billing fraud charges.

But Fisher's freedom didn't come cheap. He spent five months in jail,
paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal costs, and at one
point moved back in with his parents in the Bay Area.

But money, time and a bit of independence isn't all Fisher lost.

'Once your reputation's gone, there's no getting it back,' he said,
noting people still judge him for being accused.

And though no one is forcing him, the general practitioner and
advocate of chronic pain treatment is no longer prescribing the
controlled substance at the root of his legal problems -- OxyContin
- -- or any others, for that matter.

'What I've discovered is law enforcement doesn't understand the
science, and they don't want to,' Fisher said from his office that
looks out on Rio Dell's main street, Wildwood Avenue. 'To put it
succinctly, I don't want a death wish. It's way too dangerous for a
doctor to prescribe controlled substances in a regulatory
environment, so I'm not even going to attempt that.'

The white-haired, bearded man -- the first doctor to open a clinic in
the rural town in recent memory -- wants to serve the Eel River area
and eventually pay his three employees, who currently volunteer their time.

Officially opened on July 23, the Eel Valley Rural Health Clinic is
just 700 square feet. The two doctor's offices share the exam rooms.
The one restroom is unisex. Next door is a liquor store.

And though it's not yet the bustling clinic Fisher envisions --
they're seeing an average of three patients daily -- the clinic
provides a service previously unavailable in the town of 3,174 residents.

'People won't have to go out of town now,' said Rio Dell-Scotia
Chamber of Commerce President Susan Davis. 'It makes it much more
convenient for a lot of families without insurance.'

And everyone, regardless of coverage, is welcome at the clinic that
prioritizes communication and timeliness, Fisher said.

'The doctor-patient relationship should be a partnership -- we
actually listen,' Fisher said, adding that the clinic is committed to
seeing patients the same day. 'That means you don't have to have an
appointment to be sick.'

Fisher, who shelled out $50,000 in savings to get the clinic running,
isn't going to stop advocating for chronic pain patients or their
doctors, however.

'I didn't just do this and walk away,' he said, noting he has
developed a national reputation as an expert and witness after
testifying in state and federal court, as well as state medical board hearings.

Most recently he testified on behalf of a doctor in Yakima, Wash.,
who was treating chronic pain with pills.

Fisher also attended a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., on
oversight of the Drug Enforcement Administration's interference with
medical practice. Previously, he spoke at a congressional briefing
organized by the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons.

But Fisher is one of the lucky ones. As he wrote in the winter 2006
Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, 'Each year many doctors lose their
licenses and some receive long prison sentences. William Hurwitz has
drawn a 25-year sentence in federal prison, for example, while James
Graves continues to serve a 63-year sentence in Florida.'

The fact that Fisher escaped a similar fate is unique, said the Pain
Relief Network's Reynolds. 'But also it's been terrific, because he's
become an advocate and has been vocal about the dangers doctors
face,' she said.

But the bigger story, Fisher says, isn't about him. It's about
untreated pain patients' struggle to get the help needed to function.

'This is one of the worst things going on in our society (and) it's
not so much about me, it's about the system,' he said. 'We're all a
car accident away from this disease.'

And he's not the only physician saying something. Dr. Scott Fishman,
past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and chief of
U.C. Davis' pain medicine division, agrees that undertreating chronic
pain is a huge issue.

'We have a dual problem of prescription drug abuse and undertreated
pain,' he said. 'Doctors get confusing messages of what to do, and
they hear about stories like Frank's and they think it will happen to them.

'(But) it's very rare to get prosecuted and very rare to go through
what Frank Fisher went through.'

For the time being, Fisher plans to increase business and enjoy
living along the Eel River.

'I feel comfortable with the people here and I'd like to live here
for the rest of my life,' he said. 'It's clearly a community on the
rise, and people care about the town.'

But ultimately, he'd like to treat pain patients. 'There's nothing
more satisfying than treating chronic pain,' Fisher said. 'We don't
have a functioning medical system in this country, and we don't have
a functioning legal system, either.'

Until both improve, Fisher will do what the government permits,
though he says it's not enough.

'I like my freedom and being able to sleep at night,' he said when
asked about the ethical dilemma he's facing by not treating all
patients. 'I have a complete legal understanding of this situation,
which says don't do it at all.'

He'll give pain patients referrals, do what he can with
non-controlled substances, and remain a voice for change.

'The medical profession is allowing an entire class of people with a
terrible disease to die from it, when help is so close in reach,'
Fisher said. 'It's a terrible thing when the government interferes
with medical practice to the extent that patients have to die.'