PHYSICIAN IN PROBE TO CLOSE CLINIC

N.Va. Pain Practice Touts OxyContin

A Northern Virginia doctor who is facing scrutiny from federal investigators
for prescribing large amounts of OxyContin and other potent painkillers said
he will shut down his practice by the end of the year.

William E. Hurwitz, who runs a pain clinic in McLean, said he is phasing out
treatment of his 300 patients to protect them from being stranded should he
be indicted by a federal grand jury. Hurwitz has been telling his patients
that they need to find other doctors or prepare for difficult withdrawals
from their drugs.

"I don't think it's safely possible to treat these patients with a highly
imminent possibility of the termination of my practice," Hurwitz said. "If
I'm shut down all of a sudden and patients find themselves short of
medicine, they'll face dire circumstances."

Hurwitz has been identified as a focus of a federal investigation into the
illegal distribution of OxyContin, amid allegations that he and other
doctors have been overprescribing the drug and putting it in the hands of
abusers and those who resell it illegally.

Hurwitz said that he has done nothing improper and that investigators are
misguided. Authorities, he said, should work with him and other physicians
to develop better procedures for identifying and preventing abuse.

OxyContin is a time-release painkiller that can be highly addictive. It has
been hailed as a miracle drug for pain patients but has been criticized as
causing an epidemic of abuse. The Drug Enforcement Administration says the
drug was verified as the direct cause or a contributing factor in 146 deaths
nationwide and was a likely factor in an additional 318 deaths.

Hurwitz's decision to close his practice comes four years after he reopened
following a license suspension over prescription concerns.

He said he plans to stop writing prescriptions by the end of the year.

Several of Hurwitz's patients who rely on high doses of medicine to combat
chronic pain said they worry that other doctors will be reluctant to write
such prescriptions for fear of being targeted by investigators. They argue
that the government should go after abusers who dupe doctors into
prescribing the drugs, not target the doctors who get fooled as they try to
treat patients with real pain.

"They're cutting off my arms and legs," said Ellen Morgan, 47, of Lunenburg
County, Va. "If I go to another doctor and mention his name, they won't even
touch me. All I'm concerned about is getting rid of this excruciating pain.
The government should be going after the abusers -- they're the ones who are
torturing us. It's not the doctors."

Lawrence Gallagher, 57, of Highlands Ranch, Colo., said he can't find a
doctor who will treat his lung disease and nerve conditions as Hurwitz does:
"I don't know what I'm going to do. While the criminals who are diverting
the drugs get jailed, the innocent patients get the death penalty."

Hurwitz said that authorities are doing a disservice. "While spokesmen for
the DEA give lip service to the idea of a balanced enforcement policy that
preserves the access of deserving patients to needed medications, these
aggressive and ill-informed prosecutions convey a message of intimidation to
doctors and of indifference to the plight of patients in pain," he wrote in
a letter to patients and colleagues on his Web site.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria said that he could
not comment specifically on Hurwitz but that the investigation into
OxyContin abuse and illegal sales will continue.

"Federal laws prohibit the illegal distribution of controlled substances
such as OxyContin because of the harm caused by this crime," said U.S.
Attorney Paul J. McNulty. "This office will energetically enforce these
laws."

Over the past few months, local, state and federal investigators have been
arresting patients of Hurwitz's who they believe are selling their drugs. A
federal grand jury continues to look into Hurwitz's practice, among others.

Sources close to the investigation said authorities believe inappropriate
OxyContin prescriptions written in Northern Virginia have fueled abuse in
southwest Virginia and throughout Appalachia. The drug has more recently
become popular among suburban youths and has moved into urban centers.