PAINTSVILLE PAIN CLINIC FUELED TIDE OF DRUG ABUSE

LONDON - A former Paintsville doctor convicted of illegally
prescribing hundreds of thousands of pills that fed a tide of drug
abuse in Eastern Kentucky will go to prison for 41 months.

Yakov Drabovskiy has contested his guilt and filed yet another motion
to toss out his conviction yesterday, but U.S. District Judge Karen
Caldwell denied the request.

The judge did not mince words in sentencing Drabovskiy to the maximum
term under the sentencing guidelines for his case.

Before coming to Paintsville, Caldwell told him, "you were an
unemployed physician of questionable medical competency who stumbled
on a gold mine of addiction in Eastern Kentucky."

Caldwell said it puzzled her how Drabovskiy was able to get a license
to practice in the state.

Drabovskiy worked for Dr. Frederick Cohn at a pain clinic Cohn opened
in Paintsville in August 2000. Cohn hired Drabovskiy, a Russian
national, through what was essentially a temporary service for doctors.

The clinic quickly gained a reputation as a "pill mill" where it was
easy to get drugs.

Testimony at Drabovskiy's trial showed that he and Cohn wrote
thousands of prescriptions for a standard "cocktail" -- a painkiller,
a muscle relaxer and an antidepressant -- often with little or no
physical examination. Many times the prescriptions were written before
the patients even arrived.

People flocked to the office -- among them drug addicts and dealers.
There were 10,000 patient files on hand when the state police and FBI
shut down the office Aug. 2, 2001.

Altogether, the two doctors wrote prescriptions for 6.9 million pills
in one year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West said at the trial.

Cohn testified the goal was simple: money. He pleaded guilty and was
sentenced last week to 42 months.

Drabovskiy, however, fought charges of overprescribing drugs,
stubbornly representing himself with the help of interpreters and an
advisory attorney, Steve Milner.

Yesterday, Drabovskiy said he already had been punished by losing his
medical practice.

West argued that Drabovskiy deserved the maximum because he wrote a
large number of prescriptions and kept the office going when Cohn was
away. But Caldwell ruled that Drabovskiy was a minor player relative
to Cohn, saying Cohn set up the operation, wrote far more
prescriptions and made far more money. Caldwell's ruling reduced the
potential maximum sentence for Drabovskiy.

Caldwell ordered Drabovskiy to report to prison Feb. 2. He could be
deported after serving his sentence.

Drabovskiy said he will appeal his conviction.