THREE TIED TO MB PAIN CLINIC TO BE SENTENCED

Oxycontin Is A Potent And Popular Pain Killer.

The former owner and two employees of a defunct Myrtle Beach pain clinic face
sentencing Monday on federal charges related to illegal distribution of the
potent pain killer OxyContin and other drugs.

Federal Judge C. Weston Houck will sentence David Michael Woodward, the owner
of the Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center; Dr. Venkata R.
Pulivarthi; and Windy Suggs, a former employee of the business, at 10 a.m. in
Florence.

The three have pleaded guilty to involvement in illegally distributing
narcotics, including OxyContin, to hundreds of pain center patients between
1997 and 2001.

Woodward, Pulivarthi and Suggs testified earlier this year against three other
doctors in the case, in exchange for consideration for lesser sentences.

They face sentences ranging from about two years to 60 years in prison.
Woodward, who has been in federal custody, faces the longest sentence,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Day said.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents said ramifications of the clinic's
operations continue to be felt statewide, as arrests connected to illegal
OxyContin sales have become more widespread since federal agents closed the
Myrtle Beach clinic.

"The patients who were going to the pain clinic still need to find a source for
OxyContin and they are going to other places in the state, including doctors
and people who are selling the drug or issuing prescriptions," said John
Ozaluk, agent in charge at the DEA office in South Carolina.

During a two-week trial ending in February for former clinic doctors Michael
Jackson, Deborah Bordeaux and Richardo Allerre, patients and former doctors
described practices of doctors who issued narcotic prescriptions with little or
no examinations of pain patients.

Customers from South Carolina and other states were attracted to the clinic
because of the ease with which the drugs could be obtained, according to court
testimony.

Allerre, Bordeaux and Jackson each were found guilty of charges including
conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances and
conspiracy.

They face up to life in prison, Day said, but their sentencings are pending.

Also awaiting sentencing is Dr. Deborah Southerland, who has pleaded guilty.
Another indicted, Dr. Benjamin Moore, committed suicide before trial.

The Comprehensive Care and Pain Management Center case may have helped make
some doctors in the state more aware of the consequences of irresponsible
prescription writing, said Dr. Gene Reeder, professor of pharmacy at the
University of South Carolina.

"But people who are out to make money will do it anyway, with disregard for
what the laws say," he said.