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February 19th, 2016
For the first time in United States’ history, a California doctor, Hsiu-Ying Tseng, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for committing second-degree murder for prescribing exorbitant amounts of painkillers that left three (3) young male patients dead. Although prosecutors were only able to bring three (3) murder charges against the Los Angeles-based physician due to factors including drugs prescribed by other doctors and potential suicides, they estimate that her reckless prescription writing led to around a dozen deaths. Tseng, who had no records for the three male victims when she was contacted by the California Medical Board, was accused of forging medical records to justify the prescriptions; ignoring the pleas of family members who begged her to stop writing prescriptions for loved ones; and, ignoring more than a dozen “Your patient has died” notices from coroner’s and law enforcement officials. Despite these warnings, Tseng’s prescribing habits remained unchanged.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tseng wrote more than 27,000 prescriptions over a three-year period – an average of 25 per day. The prosecution said the busy practice was highly lucrative, with the doctor handing out prescriptions after appointments that sometimes lasted just three minutes. It is estimated that Tseng earned $5 million in a three-year period during the time that her patients died. "You can't hide behind a white lab coat and commit crimes," Deputy District Attorney John Niedermann told The Associated Press. "Writing a prescription to someone knowing that they're going to abuse it and potentially die was the theory of second-degree murder that we had. Something is wrong with what you're doing if your patients are dying."
Tseng’s conviction is part of a nationwide initiative to crack down on so-called "pill-mills" — doctors, clinics or pharmacies that knowingly distribute prescription narcotics to patients who do not need them for medical reasons. Closer to home, Dr. Tressie Montene Duffy, 45, a doctor in Martinsburg, W. Va., was convicted in federal court in December 2015 for facilitating the unlawful distribution of narcotic painkillers through her medical practice. Duffy pled guilty to seven counts of “Aiding and Abetting the Distribution of Oxycodone.” Duffy signed blank prescription orders and allowed unlicensed members of her staff to issue prescriptions for narcotic medications to patients who had not been seen by a physician. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on each of the seven counts.
Sadly, what is unknown to many people is that prescription narcotics can often lead to heroin use. Just last week, Gateway Rehabilitation Medical Director Dr. Neil Capretto said, “[Heroin] is in every community from middle to upper-middle class, richest to poorest, and it does not discriminate.” In 1985, Allegheny County had 22 drug overdose deaths and that number has increased to 349. Dr. Capretto said most new cases of heroin use start with a prescription drug addiction. “[It] often even [starts] as early as middle school with use of prescription [drugs],” he said. Dr. Capretto’s comments came in conjunction with U.S. Attorney David Hickton’s press conference to alert the tri-state area that nearly two dozen non-fatal heroin overdoses have been reported in the area in the past couple of days. “We’re in an epidemic of unprecedented proportions. We’re losing greater than 120 people a day to drug poisoning, which has passed traffic accidents as the leading cause of death in this country as of 2009,” Hickton said. At least a dozen non-fatal heroin overdoses have been reported in Washington County since the weekend. At least 15 similar drug overdoses were reported in Cambria County.
Stay vigilant – if you suspect that a physician is inappropriately prescribing narcotic medication, you are free to lodge a concern with either the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency at https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/rxaor/spring/main?execution=e1s1; or, the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine.
