SENTENCES APPROPRIATE

Judge Right To Treat Clinic Pushers Harshly

U.S. District Judge Weston Houck did well Tuesday to mete out stiff
sentences for the feel-good physicians at Myrtle Beach's former
Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center. The five doctors in
question, whose sentences ranged from two to 24 years, may be
well-educated people. But because they abetted opioid addictions of
some unsuspecting patients while helping prescription drug abusers to
obtain OxyContin and other addictive painkillers illegally, the five
are no different from pushers of illegal drugs such as crack cocaine
or heroin.

Just as pushers of illegal drugs typically get stiff jail sentences,
so should white-collar pushers who operate prescription mills allowing
abuse of legal drugs receive harsh treatment. They leave just as large
a wake of misery as their street-corner pusher counterparts.