DOCTOR IN DRUG CASE LOSES BID TO RESUME PRACTICE

Authorities Called Paintsville Pain Clinic A 'Pill Factory'

A Russian-born doctor arrested last year on federal drug-trafficking
charges lost a bid yesterday to resume his medical practice in Kentucky.
Lawrence Circuit Judge Stephen N. Frazier dismissed a handwritten motion by
Dr. Yakov Drabovskiy to revoke an emergency order by the Kentucky Board of
Medical Licensure last October to suspend his license.

For a year, Drabovskiy, 52, and Dr. Frederick Cohn, 69, of Albuquerque,
N.M., operated a pain clinic that investigators described as a "pill
factory" churning out prescriptions for 45,000 pills every day.

The clinic was shut down Aug. 3 after both were arrested and indicted on
federal drug charges, all stemming from their practice of dispensing
controlled substances.

Both were released Aug. 8 on $25,000 cash bonds, but each was barred from
private medical practice in Kentucky as a bond condition.

The state board immediately suspended Cohn's medical license and took
Drabovskiy's license in an emergency order on Oct. 12, but left open an
appeal to circuit court.

Cohn has returned to Albuquerque, but Drabovskiy continued to live at
Lowmansville in Lawrence County.

On Dec. 13, Drabovskiy filed a motion in Lawrence Circuit Court, asking the
court to revoke the state board's order because, he said, no emergency
existed when his license was suspended.

No dangers existed to merit an emergency order, Drabovskiy said, which he
also said had caused him "financial difficulties."

In dismissing Drabovskiy's motion, Frazier said the appeal was filed after
a 30-day deadline.

Drabovskiy, a Russian national, entered the United States in 1990. He was
recruited by Cohn to work in Paintsville two weeks after his office opened
on Aug. 7, 2000.

Before Cohn's medical and financial records were seized on Feb. 27 last
year, his office generated a total of $995,000, mostly in cash payments,
witnesses said. At the same time, the two doctors were treating a patient
every 3.5 minutes, they said.