Something has to be done, and this is a start. However, what happens to the honest customer who might be taken hostage? IMHO, controlled substances should be dispensed from tightly controlled environments such as police stations or any place where people are screened for weapons before entering. Pharma companies make enough money from these drugs; let them subsidize setting up a pharmacist in a small area of each police station. I'll bet there would be very few attempts to rob such setups. The inconvenience to the honest customer would be small if it saves just one life.

I had the same thought as Louise, about a customer being taken hostage with a gun or another weapon pointed at the customer demanding drugs from the pharmacist.. What a hard choice that would lay on the pharmacy staff. Even if they did what was demanded, all of the innocent people may end up dead, the pharmacy staff and the customers, like in the Medford case.

We could also put fast food restaurants , banks,gas stations,jewelry stores

Skip, while I agree that all those places you named need protection, there's only so much that can be done to protect the public and employees from criminals. Think about the bad guys who have gone into office buildings, schools, and other places where people lost their lives because there was little or no protection. Right now, the drugstore criminals are steadily increasing in number and we've seen the results right here on LI. It's an epidemic and it's natural to react and take action to the current circumstances. Next year it will be something else. But something has to be done and we need to start now.

Louise, I agree with what you said - the bad guys are everywhere - the most popular now are the pharmacy robberies. I don't have the answer either, but we all have to be willing to accept that certain policies will and must change. Do I like it? No. But as our wonderful society goes, we need to protect ourselves from it.....

I agree with all but the recent pharmacy robberies have become more dangerous to the public and lives! Mostly because of drugs.

This should be a priority for sure

It is crazy how we had bullet proof glass at every bank and the Baka have changed to be more friendly instead they are just putting lives at danger. The same needs to be done at pharmacys. Let the drug companies subsidize the costs for protection

It is crazy how we had bullet proof glass at every bank and the Baka have changed to be more friendly instead they are just putting lives at danger. The same needs to be done at pharmacys. Let the drug companies subsidize the costs for protection

Police should make pharmacies "unattractive" to Criminals, by creating a special unit to educate pharmacists, and employ "stings" on career criminals and the pharmacies/pharmacists who engage facilitating this illegal drug trade.

But you see this won't happen. This program would recognize that these local businesses also engage in illegal behavior. He can't do that.

And since we live in La La Dream Land, police ignore this facet of the problem, and turn away from taking the incentive out of Crime from these local businesses, who are also voters and campaign contributors.

Nice photo and story op for Bellone...the smarmy "mommy angle" was the tip off here...and it will convince The Great Unwashed that he is "doing something".

But he is just grandstanding...that's all he can do you see.

I think they should get metal dectors in pharmicies and have doors open from the inside like how jewelery store do. I would say get rid of the pills but people really do need them; so many people are abusing them and its making the pills look negative all around.

Unfortunately, our liberties are few and fewer these days....but what can we do? It's more than a few sick people - did you see the news on Ch.7 tonight? Long Island is in the midst of an epidemic with prescrp. pill addiction - I can't recall the numbers now, but they are beyond ridiculous. On top of that problem, NUMC is looking to permanently shut down it's detox unit. All in the name of the dollar.

I like the metal detector angle in pharmacies, as long as an armed guard is sitting right there by the door to prevent entry. If hospitals are set up as the only locations for obtaining narcotics, the inconvenience would be substantial for those truly needing the medicine. And, again, some sort of metal detector would be necessary to prevent a robbery. It's very complicated, we'd have to give up some rights, and some robberies would still happen despite all our efforts. But keep the ideas flowing; you never know who's reading/listening.

I think the armed guard is a better bet- although most robberies occur with the criminal carrying a gun (real or not), they could get by that metal detector with another weapon. We're all just letting ideas fly here so let's keep this going!

How about we start where the real problem lies? I heard the head of the pharmacy association on the radio yesterday saying that ten to fifteen years ago, these medicines were only taken by the terminally ill.now DOCTORS are prescribing them for the most modest of pains. he said it is the same thing that has happend with antibiotics. Only about half the antibiotics that worked 20 years ago now work. People build up a tolerance for these painkillers and they need more and more. He said it is not uncommon after a few years for people to need 15 to 20 pills per day to get the same high. I firmly thing narcotics like these, should not be handed out for the least little pain. The pharmacutecial company is now coming out with a pain killer 10 times stronger than Vicodin. Why? Has anyone seen the overdose death stats from prescription drugs?

Cathy, I guess we should just forget about "pain killers" and go back to the Stone Age ?

You Just called people "pill popping crazies" how is that not name calling?
I see a slanted and hypocritical view due to the uneducated nature of this subject, and a general 'bury your head in the sand until it is an issue" attitude we all seem to have here on L.I. We never care until it starts to affect us.
The problem comes from the mega-big business of Pharmaceuticals and there lack of regulations. The reaction is to blame all prescription pain pill patients. The solution as always, will be far from solving the original problem.

Lets think ahead, regulate big business instead of letting them abuse us all, and lets have some compassion for those in real pain, not force cancer patients ( which we have tons of on LI ) into police stations to be treated like prisoners.

How about we just end prohibition? Let consenting adults behave as they wish in the privacy of their own homes. Consider this: had the perpetrators in the Medford and Seaford pharmacy killings simply been able to walk into those establishments and purchase what they wanted, five innocent people would be alive today.

There will always be people who break the law. Most drug users are non violent to begin with, and the average drug user in this country is an occasional recreational user who harms no one. People who are addicted to alcohol get desperate too, but the vast majority of them don't shoot people and steal because they can readily obtain what they need legally and at a reasonable price. Look back at the history of prohibition in America and the havoc and lawlessness it caused. Decriminalizing drug use would instantly solve multiple problems. We would put the drug cartels out of business. Our prison population would be reduced by 50% (there are more people in prison in America than any other country on earth, and half of them are there because of non-violent drug "crimes"). It's expensive to keep people in prison. Add to those costs the cost of judges, lawyers, police. Most importantly, we would go a long way to restoring what America is supposed to be about to begin with: personal liberty,

The livelihoods of too many people depend on prohibition. Judges, lawyers, the police and politicians all make a lucrative living from it. It breeds corruption as well. Look at the recent news - government agents allegedly laundering cartel money, the scandal involving providing arms to drug runners ... some of the many billions spent on prohibition, and some of tax tax revenue, could be spent on giving help to addicts who truly want to kick the habit. Drug companies, motivated by potential profit, would instantly begin producing safer recreational drugs. And we'd go a long way toward restoring personal liberty which is becoming a thing of the past in America.

The libs love to regulate, regulate, regulate. As Cass Sunstein says "we need to nudge the people". Wake up sheeple!

Every law that prohibits consensual acts creates a criminal profit center. Prohibition created nationwide organized crime. Narcotic prohibition has enriched psychopaths in France, Italy, Columbia, Mexico and right here. Take away the prohibition of narcotics; let recreational users buy what they want at a markup similar to booze, and there will be no armed assaults of pharmacies.

If you like the effect of prohibition, remember that should you ever be in agonizing (but not terminal) pain and your timorous doctor prescribes a feeble NSAID.

to BillLongisland:

Rubbish. The misery caused by Prohibition was vastly more profound and enduring than the problems legal alcohol causes. European nations such as The Netherlands have wisely opted for CONTROL of recreational drugs rather than prohibition because of their understanding of the damage to society that prohibition brings (with OUR history as an example.)

The obsession with and demonization of narcotic drugs has created a centibillion dollar police and incarceration complex whose survival depends on the continued enforcement of narcotics laws, rational or not. Civil liberties have shriveled before the onslaught of ubiquitous "SWAT" teams who smash down the doors of innocent citizens regularly, guns drawn (in what they see as the perfectly reasonable response to a drug "tip".) Doctors palm off impotent analgesics on their patients rather than prescribing effective drugs because of their fear of the DEA. The illegal drug trade funds psychopathic drug lords both here and in Mexico who kill anyone who stands between them and the billions that illegal drugs bring. And lastly, of course, desperate addicts assault pharmacies to get drugs that they could otherwise buy for pennies.

ALL of these phenomena will cease if recreational drugs are legalized. The fear that this outcome raises in people like yourself is a chimera. Legalization of drugs will no more make the population addicted than did (re)legalization of booze make them drunks.

10,000 deaths from DWI's
440,000 deaths from smoking
15,000 deaths from OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone

Yeah, let's just make narcs legal so we can add on to these statistics. But hey, as long as you can get stoned who cares who dies right?

Legalization of drugs isn't going to make anyone use drugs who wouldn't have done so when they were illegal. Smoking and alcohol kill a heck of a lot more people than illegal drugs do. Nicotine and alcohol are addictive. Doesn't it make sense to outlaw those substances? Aside from those arguments, remember that neither you nor I nor the government nor "society" have the right to tell consenting adults what they may or may not do with their bodies.

@ thomas, you're right. No one has the right to tell you what to do with your bodies. But unfortunately the government sticks us with your rehab bill along with the bill for your prison sentence after you run a child down in the street cause you were shooting up while driving.

I would love to outlaw smoking but once again our corrupt government needs the billions of dollars coming from the taxes. Do you really think they'll nix their own cash cow?

James Marshall thanks for showing that Innuendo and personal attacks is no substitute for presenting a point of view in a discussion.

@ James, sugar kills is your best comeback? C'mon really? And you gun deaths is just flat out wrong. Look it up.

Personally I don't care. You want to get stoned out of your mind in the privacy of your own home, fine. Kill yourself with legal products, etc, fine. It's when you come outside your own home and wreck havok on others or when others have to pay for your self abusive indulgences.

I'm with robkoz. Let's throw the abusive self-indulg[ers] in jail. The havoc they play with American society and productivity AND their drain on the public purse is intolerable. I refer, of course, to the over-eaters whose obesity costs us hundreds of billions of dollars annually in medical costs and hundreds of billions in other GDP losses attributable to the fact that they are FAT. Let's make obesity illegal and send the offenders to the pen to be starved back to productive citizenship!

(Not to mention the purgatory to which they condemn airline passengers in adjoining seats.)

just as off the actual subject al the above - think of this - birth control no co pay, self choosing drug illness' are medically covered better than mentally chalanged now theres something to bitch about

to address the subject - have all "pain" meds dispensed at hospitals they already have security and have security office next to pharm......

Can;t believe that after reading all of these posts no one has touched on the real problem. Irresponsible "Candy Man" pill prescribing doctors who are afraid to use the new curse word in todays society: NO!! Stop help hook these people and that will help solve the problem! Get a back bone and stop writing the prescriptions no matter how much someone "doctor shops"!

to Captain Howard Hawrey:

If you know of a "Candy Man" doctor you are in luck. If you ever suffer agonizing pain, you will know to whom to go. Others must rely on the general run of M.D.s who are far more likely to refuse categorically to prescribe "pain pills" for fear of the police.

So much for those "touchy feeling" solutions the Pharmacy Association has in mind !

Druggists’ cure for anxiety: a pistol
By KIERAN CROWLEY, PHILIP MESSING and BOB FREDERICKS
Last Updated: 10:12 AM, January 17, 2012
Posted: 12:40 AM, January 17, 2012

Your friendly neighborhood pharmacist will soon be locked and loaded.
Rattled druggists from Long Island to the city are increasingly applying for gun permits following a spate of fatal robberies by armed thugs desperate to score highly addictive painkillers.
“I’m applying for a pistol permit because of this,’’ said Todd Svec, 48, a pharmacist and owner of the Arlo Drug store in Massapequa Park, LI. “I will feel safer if I have one.’’

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/pharms_in_arms_FoYMwbgDeGux3f8z6lCH1M#ixzz1jo6N1fga

@ Captain, totally agree with you on this one. The docs are handing it out like it's candy. Especially to pregnant women.

Yes, the pharmacists could arm. Or, we could legalize drugs and solve the problem without anyone being shot.

As for pregnant women, they've got to man up! Oh, for the good old days when women would drop a whelp between the furrows and go right back to harvesting.

My opinion is that customers and pharmacy owners should be armed and have guns, and that a cash bounty be placed on how many Criminals, by the Town, so Tax Payers can be compensated through property tax reduction, for how many Criminals they can "wing" or dispatch with Extreme Prejudice.

This way, Customers and business owners can have "an even chance" doing their business.

I do too, James...and they are playing your song.

Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.

Seems as though this discussion has taken some ugly turns. I was wondering when someone would post something about the Netherlands - and it was -- it's another thought. As for all the statistics thrown around - as well as nonsensical posts, they are what they are or are not. We need to step back as a society and really look at the problems - I have to wonder about the legalization of drugs....I just am not ready to decide - however; I do agree with the fact that as a country we are wasting far too much money in every aspect on this issue. True, Prohibition didn't work - making smoking illegal would be repeating history. We go round and round on these subjects, and yet, when it comes down to it, for the MOST part - it's personal responsibility - own up.

Didn't realize there were so many burnouts in Smithtown. Guess that explains the drug problem with the kids. The nut doesn't fall too far from the tree...

@ James, I don't see being able to buy herion or crystal meth at your local drug store "legally" has anything to do with common sense or logic. What's the point of teaching children to say no to drugs if by the time they're of legal age they can get them any time they want to? Sounds like a massive dose of hypocrisy.

You know I didn't know what pot was until a police officer came to my school and told me about it. We teach kids how to treat alcohol properly. IT's the same thing different drug. See the problem is you see alcohol as safe. IT's as safe as any drug used responsibly.

to robkoz:

Quote:

"What's the point of teaching children to say no to drugs if by the time they're of legal age they can get them any time they want to?"

- - -

It's the difference between teaching children to behave virtuously for the sake of honor instead of compelling behavior. One approach promotes democracy, the other totalitarianism.

A huge part of this issue is personal responsibility and accountability. Not just with drug use - but with anything in this society. The majority of people in this country can and will find an excuse for their behavior. "It's not my fault" is the scream they cry. From our children finding excuses for their bad behavior - to the adults who condone such nonsense. Violent video games make people violent. Really? Watching sexual situations on tv makes people promiscuous. I could go on and on, but what's the point, it falls on deaf ears. Own up people. What's really funny is that we've all done something "bad" and yet, we could all find an excuse out of it......it comes down to personal ownership of our actions.

AGAIN MORE PSYCO BABBLE - SUGGEST FIX - IF YOU DONT LIKE HOSP'S DISPENSING DRUGS...

@BillLongIsland - thanks. It seems to be such a simple concept, however; people just don't want to take that long hard look in the mirror. No, I'm not perfect and I know that - I make mistakes, I try to learn from them. If I do something wrong, I apologize, I accept blame. Humble is a word sorely not used in our vernacular.

On a side note, re: the OWS - I was in the city back in November and was unfortunate enough to walk past a mini protest. One young lady was complaining how much in debt she was because she was attending NYU and couldn't pay her bills on minimum wage - against my better judgement - I spoke directly to her and said that no one forced you to go to NYU and accumulate $100,000 in debt. You chose. You are also lucky that you have A JOB PERIOD. Listen, I'm all for change in govt, and yes, it needs to be fixed, but don't whine to Ms. General Public about YOUR problems. We've all got problems. What did she want? A bailout? Again, know what you are getting into before you get into it. There are no guarantees in life and definitely not a guaranteed job if you go to college. Somewhat off topic, but it does relate......

to forward thinking:
Quote:
"H - Own Up To Solutions Not Intellectualizing Problem - Make Medicinal Drugs Only Available At Hospitals 24/7 Since They Are Open, In Need Of Income, Have Security All The Time Etc…"
- - -
I offered a pragmatic solution - legalize recreational drugs and addicts will have no need to rob pharmacies since their "fix" will be inexpensive and easily available.
- - -
to robkoz:
Quote:
"The problem with your argument is once that person is addicted they could care less about democracy, they're just looking to get their next fix."
- - -
First, criminal control of drugs is not worth endangering democratic freedoms as it currently IS. Secondly, the addict will be able to BUY his drugs for a small price if they are legalized; no need to assault a pharmacy. Thirdly, if legalized, treatment will be available that will be attractive to addicts because the addict will not have to go through any demeaning criminal hoops to qualify.
- - -
Even though everyone agrees that attempts at control via criminal sanctions have been worse than useless, you still argue that we should do more of the same. Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

You ought to review your own mental competence before you suggest solutions for others' problems.

@highhatsize - love it - NC is completely insane. Sure hope that defense doesn't get them off the hook!

LEGALIZE AS INSANE IS AT LEAST A SOLUTION . IT WILL NEVER PASS THE LEGAL COMMUNITY... ? WHY IS SOME MUCH SYMPATHY GIVEN TO MENTALLY WEAK HABIT NEEDING A FIX-- AND NOT THE NO-CHOICE ALZ. MENTALLY IMPARED.. ARE WE THAT MAMBY PAMBY THAT WE CAN NOT JAIL / HOSP. THE ADDICTS ... AW THE POOR ADDICT ... IT IS EASIER TO GET A NICKEL BAG THAN OXY ...

to forward thinking:

Not sure that I completely understand your post. However, as far as the possibility of legalization occurring TODAY, you are quite right, it won't happen. However as the statistics of lower overall recreational drug use, dramatically lower police/prison costs, and increased enrollment in treatment programs rolls in from countries that HAVE adopted legalization, that attitude will change. It will be strongly opposed by the police and corrections officers unions, and by right wingers who are partisans of coercion as opposed to reason, but the enormous improvements in security and decreased enforcement costs that occur in those countries will eventually win over US voters.

As for the rest of your post. It appears to be a scarcely coherent tirade against substance abusers and those who care about their welfare. It is, unfortunately, impossible to instill empathy or compassion in an individual to whom these are alien sentiments, but it is enough to say that we shouldn't abuse drug users, addicted or not, merely to satisfy the irrational need of some to disparage and inflict punishment on others.

Recreational drug use is a sign of personal weakness, and individual Moral decay.

@ James, crime and corruption is rampant. Our prisons are filled and we currently have more people incarcerated than China who happens to have triple the population. It's a fact. Look it up.

And, if you look at the research, the ones that are addicted to hard core drugs started out with a recreational drug that you know so well named, marijuana.

to BillLongisland:
Quote:
"Recreational drug use is a sign of personal weakness, and individual Moral decay."
- - -
Even if we accept your extremely dubious proposal, so what? As Americans, we are entitled to enjoy our personal weakness and moral decay as long as we don't interfere with YOUR rights. You, on the other hand, wish to impose your notion of moral behavior on us by force. That has never worked. It created organized crime. It is counterproductive to your purpose. Be reasonable.

to BillLongisland:

Actually, it's a Constitutional right, the right to Privacy, or, as Justice Brandeis characterized it, "The right to be let alone", which only may be supervened by a more potent (in the circumstances) right. A criminal law policy that has not only completely failed but achieved the opposite of its intent is NOT in that category.

In a dictatorship, NONE of my rights would be honored. I would be subject to the dictator's irrational whim. THAT fits right in with your attitude towards criminalizing drugs.

the legalization of drugs of any sort will not stop pharm . "stick-ups". those who "stick-up" have no $$$ anyway otherwise they would not stick up... leaglizing drugs of anysort only centralizes the drugs in one place -easier to stick up and get those "exotic /no-no drugs". lucy,mary,and 5centers are readily avail for far less than a pharm would charge if legal.... it will give rise to the profiteers as in gas ....

i have a q for all the closet smokers (escapers) would you openly go to the "store" with your kid and buy it ???? Portrayal is 9/10 of the social morays

highhatsize, what is missing in your protracted dialogues, is Any Concern of Responsibility of what you do, vis. and as regards Other People.

People such as this can't disguise their moral deficiency and moral degeneracy, nor their extremely voracious. Animal-like need for Self-Gratification.

This is why dictatorships view this behavior as deviant, and justly punish it and dispatch it before it infects the body politic.

bli - you know your position would correct the ills - which it will never be "accepted" out in the open - but - at home all think that way - but we have become too complacent (let others fix it) to address what should be done..

to Craig:
Quote:
"There is no 'right to privacy' in the Constitution."
- - -
Well, "I" (and Justice Brandeis) think there is and The Supreme Court continues to recognize a general right of privacy. (Although Rick Santorum does not.)

Following are links to a discussion of the question on two websites (with relevant case law) the first by the U of Missouri law school and the second by a prominent libertarian.
- - -
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/rightofprivacy.html
http://harrybrowne.org/articles/PrivacyRight.htm

to robkoz & BillLongisland:

It is "I" who argue for teaching people to have personal responsibility for their actions and YOU who propose the alternative of hitting them over the head when they misbehave.

Why would addicts continue to attack pharmacies if drugs were legalized? Wouldn't it make more sense to sell recreational drugs at liquor stores where booze and cigarettes are already sold? That will take the heat off pharmacies. Moreover, liquor store owners are aware of the danger from thieves and already take precautions to protect themselves.

Let me reiterate, criminalization does not and has never worked. It has achieved the direct opposite of its intended goal. Why one earth would you advocate intensifying a destructive policy that only gets worse as more resources are devoted to it?

Consequently therefore – legalize carry all the time hand guns – ETC…..again Robberies are by the ones who do not have the money to by legally or illegally. Legalization only makes it easier for the people who have $$$ and are borderline weak of mind to hop to the liq (etc) and get a fix…. I would rather see them have a severe hangover… legalize only furthers weak-minded to increase traffic accidents… too bad this tread is not about the (cant help it) mentally afflicted i.e. alz. Who supported society and in latter life cant have the same quality of care we give weak minded…..sic/ stick that in your pipe and smoke it

to Craig:

As the distinguished jurist, former Chief Justice Warren Burger once opined, "The Constitution is what we say it is." The Supreme Court has construed the Constitution to include a right to privacy as worthy of protection of any other right written thereon in ink. This may change; strict constructionist Justices may see no right therein but, as of today, their opinion is in a minority.

Your are correct in stating that there is no right to privacy "clause" but I never said there was. If you consider how the Justices have expanded the reach of the Constitution since the Revolution, it is apparent that more rights found in construction are protected than those written by the Founding Fathers.

This plea is interesting, in that the good Ole Doc here wants to close this matter as quickly as possible and move on...hoping to keep his license...and close the books on any other previous or present "clients" of his...if the door closes, this is another case of Justice letting us down.

I guess it comes down to how egregious the Doc's drug selling was, and or if he can be implicated in any other crimes that are in the purview of the investigators here...Heaven help another "client" be found out to being supplied by this guy and someone finds out investigators let the Doc off on it !

Probably the socalled investigation will end here and the Doc can keep his license to do whatever...the Public has a short memory on these things.

Doc who prescribed pain meds to killer David Laffer accused of running drug mill
Queens doc admits to over-prescribing deadly pain meds

BY MELISSA GRACE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, November 21 2011, 7:06 PM

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/doc-prescribed-pain-meds-killer-david-laffer-accused-running-drug-mill-article-1.980957#ixzz1kIctQ2U7

What the incredibly tendentious article you cite reveals, in amongst the verbiage that implies the doctor is junkie-fostering, Medicare defrauding practitioner, is that the clinic he ran was entitled "Medical Pain Management". In case you are unaware, pain management clinics prescribe enormous amounts of narcotic analgesics because virtually all their patients have been turfed out to them by other doctors who don't want to run the risk of attracting the attention of the drug police. Note also that the narcotic analgesic that the doctor is accused of prescribing for Laffer is hydrocodone, a Schedule II narcotic of lesser potency than, for instance, Fentanyl which the article also mentions in connection with an OD and which the doctor is NOT alleged to have prescribed.

The article could have been written by Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridge Brennan. It is a transparent career move.

Doctor Li has admitted to nothing. The allegations that the article treats as fact are unsubstantiated. However, every doctor who reads this article will have another reason to let his patients suffer rather than risk his livelilhood. If the drug police are even busting pain management clinics, whose business it IS to dispense analgesics, what chance has a g.p. or a specialist in another field.

Finally, were drugs legalized NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.

JM – ALZ…. its simple - we spend more time, money and copious quantities of mindless drivel over drugs and their use by people who have choices—“no-choice” mentally afflicted are second class citizens … most alz. Have fought and supported the society we enjoy but we choose to be the “what can you do for me now generation”

to BillLongisland:

Virtually all that Pain Management doctors DO is prescribe narcotic analgesics. If he wasn't prescribing powerful painkillers he was practicing the wrong specialty.

If the doctor weren't legit, he would NOT have called his practice a "pain management clinic". Rather than ATTRACT the attention of the drug police, he would choose to be as anonymous as possible.

Assuming that his office was open for 250 days over a two-and-a-half year period, he was writing 68 prescriptions per day, not an unusual number when you consider that patients only go to pain medicine doctors to obtain analgesics for illnesses that have already been diagnosed by other doctors and that more than one prescription is written for each patient.

I don't know where you live, but where "I" do, $150 is not an unusual fee for a g.p., much less a specialist.

When you have patients on extremely high doses of narcotics, which pain medicine management frequently requires, it is an unfortunate fact of life that some will overdose, sometimes deliberately. Note the wording of the article, "Several patients overdosed - and 10 died." (Of overdoses? The sentence indicates otherwise. "10" is more than "several".)

This is a shameful hatchet job for which Ms. Grace and the Daily News should be ashamed. If we want to read fawning reportage of the police and of "Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridge Brennan" we can read PR handouts from city hall.

to forward thinking:

Legalization of recreational drugs would free up hundreds of billions of dollars in public funds nationwide. That would be a pool from which research and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease and other worthy endeavors could be funded.

YEAH - HATSZ - YOU GOT MY POINT THANK S

to Vito:

The allegation that the doctor was fraudulently billing Medicaid or Medicare is nothing more than that, an allegation, unsubstantiated at this time. It is, no doubt, based on the allegation that he was providing narcotics to addicts for recreational use rather than as therapy for pain, another unsubstantiated allegation. If the latter allegation is false, the prior one is as well. Thus, if the doctor can show that the prescriptions that he wrote were for the treatment of medical conditions, all the charges fail, including the subordinate Medicare/Medicaid fraud charges.

Considering the lure of the deluxe lifestyle that a medical license guarantees, there aren't many saints who take vows of poverty before entering med school. But the fact that Dr. Li was making a lot of money from his pain medicine practice doesn't mean that he was not behaving with perfect propriety.

To the contrary, the fact that he would put himself in the sights of the drug police by establishing a pain medicine practice might indicate an unusual degree of compassion for a doctor.

It would be interesting to find out how this case unfolds. I would bet that "Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridge Brennan" offers a deal for a guilty plea to a misdemeanor that includes no consequences for the doctor but reporter Melissa Grace WON'T report that. "No Truth to Drug Mill Charges" doesn't have the right éclat for the Daily News.

to Vito:

Sorry, I misunderstood your post. The doctor isn't being charged with "double-billing" but fraudulent billing. It is perfectly OK for a doctor to bill Medicare as well as the patient. It WOULD be fraudulent for him to bill the patient as well as MedicAID but the article is so sloppily written that it isn't clear if that, specifically, is an allegation.