DOCTORS NEED TO WATCH FOR DRUG ABUSE

On April 28, Dr. William Hurwitz was convicted in federal court in
Virginia for drug trafficking, prescribing huge amounts of narcotics
in a manner inconsistent with good medical practice.

On May 11, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to "misbranding" its product
Oxycontin when it asserted that it was less likely to be abused than
traditional narcotics. The years that followed saw a huge rise in the
willingness of physicians to prescribe this drug.

The abuse of opioids, Oxycontin and Methadone in particular, has been
associated with an epidemic of addiction and drug-related deaths. I
work in a narcotic addiction treatment program in Greenville and New
Bern with more than 500 patients in treatment. Most admissions now
are for young people who became addicted to opioid medications,
typically Percocet and Oxycontin; heroin is secondary. There are some
physicians, few in number, who, like Hurwitz, exacerbate the problem
by bad medical practice. More important is the need for all
physicians to recognize the high probability that the narcotics they
prescribe will be abused, to prescribe them only when absolutely
necessary and then to do so in a way that minimizes misuse.

David Ames M.D.

Greenville