S.C. DOCTOR GRILLED OVER PILL PRESCRIBING

RALEIGH -- An N.C. Medical Board lawyer on Thursday painted Joseph Talley
as a physician who failed to examine his patients and kept prescribing
narcotics to patients he knew were addicts.

Talley defended his practice, saying "I don't know anything more pure than
relieving pain."

The remarks came during the first day of a hearing to decide whether the
Cleveland County doctor can keep his medical license. The federal Drug
Enforcement Administration in February suspended his license to prescribe
narcotics after alleging 23 of his patients died of overdoses.

The medical board alleges Talley didn't follow proper medical procedure
when prescribing narcotics in 24 cases because he failed to examine
patients or follow up to make sure they were taking the drugs properly. The
board also says Talley failed to try non-narcotic therapy for pain patients.

He is also accused of stockpiling the weight-loss drug Fen-Phen and taking
it without a prescription.

"Dr. Talley is going to want this to be a referendum on the treatment of
pain," said William Breeze, a lawyer for the medical board, in his opening
statement. "We're not saying you can't treat pain. We're saying you've got
to follow (proper procedure)."

Talley closed his eyes and appeared to nod off during the opening statements.

He became more animated when he was questioned for about two hours,
explaining his methods and philosophy behind treating pain and how he grew
his 3,000-patient general practice clinic in Grover into a pain center.

He said he doesn't always use diagnostic tests on chronic pain patients
because he finds them useless in many cases and too expensive for the poor.
He said he doesn't always order lab tests to determine whether patients are
sticking with their medication regimen because the results are often
inaccurate.

Talley's lawyer, Robert Clay, said the board brought charges against Talley
without warning. Clay presented evidence that Talley had been corresponding
with the board since 1988, when he went before it to discuss how he was
treating large numbers of patients with a powerful psychiatric drug.

At the request of the medical board in 1990, two medical professors at Duke
University and UNC Chapel Hill reviewed Talley's patient records and found
no problems, Clay said.

Clay said Talley continued to update the board on his growing practice. He
never got a response, Clay said.

"No one suggested Dr. Talley was doing anything wrong before he got slammed
with these allegations," Clay said.

Clay portrayed Talley as a doctor who reaped relatively small financial
gain from his practice, earning $140,000 in his most lucrative year.

As the afternoon wore on, two board members also appeared to doze during
the hearing. But they became alert during the testimony of Fayleen
Huffstetler, an admitted recovering drug addict from Cherryville whose
husband, Roger, died of an Oxycodone overdose last April.

Huffstetler testified Talley prescribed narcotics for both her and her
husband even though he knew they were drug addicts.

She said Talley would mail her prescriptions to Georgia when they lived
there from 1984 to 2000, even though she told him she was addicted.

Clay is expected to present Talley's case today. The hearing could last
until Saturday.