Pill Mill Monitor : Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Kay Van Wey Law Firm : Prescription Drug Overdoses & Pharmaceutical Abuse

Since November 2011, at least 260 deaths worldwide have been linked to new blood thinner Pradaxa.  An estimated 1.1 million prescriptions have already been written for Pradaxa, and 371,000 patients are currently taking the drug.

Serious Bleeding Events

Pradaxa was approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2010 to reduce the risk of blood clots and strokes in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.  Just over a year after being approved, the FDA issued a safety communication for Pradaxa, warning consumers that patients taking the drug have reported experiencing serious bleeding events.

Symptoms of these adverse events include the following:

• Persistent nose bleeding
• Unusual gum bleeding
• Vomiting or coughing up blood
• Bruising
• Heavier than normal menstrual bleeding
• Red or black stool
• Pink or brown urine
• Severe or uncontrollable bleeding

The FDA recommends that if you or a loved one experiences any of these symptoms, you seek the help of a health care provider immediately.

Can We Trust the FDA?

Although the FDA is currently investigating claims that Pradaxa has caused serious bleeding, the agency maintains that "[a]t this time, FDA continues to believe that Pradaxa provides an important health benefit when used as directed and recommends that healthcare professionals who prescribe Pradaxa follow the recommendations in the approved drug label.”

The FDA has made statements like this before for drugs that were later proven to indeed be very dangerous.  Patients taking Avandia, for example, reported adverse events like heart attacks.  The FDA had approved Avandia in 1999 simply because it helped diabetics to control blood sugar levels.  But after nearly 47,000 people taking Avandia suffered a heart attack, stroke, or even death, the FDA finally restricted the use of the drug in 2010.

More recently, the FDA has received criticism for allowing experts with conflicts of interest to sit on a panel to determine whether the popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin should be taken off the market.  At least four of the experts on the panel had received compensation from Yaz and Yasmin’s manufacturer Bayer.  All of them voted in favor of keeping the pills on the market.

And it seems as though the FDA may be behind the curve on Pradaxa. Both Japan and Australia have issued safety warnings, linking Pradaxa to serous bleeding events.

To learn more about the pharmaceutical industry and why the FDA approves these dangerous drugs, download my FREE e-book Prescription Drug Safety: 7 Secrets the Pharmaceutical Industry Does NOT Want You to Know at www.vanweylaw.com today.

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Southern chef Paula Deen recently announced that she has type-2 diabetes, which did not surprise many Americans, who for years have watched the chef make dishes loaded with calories, fat, and sugar.  With her health announcement, Deen also announced that she was endorsing diabetes drug Victoza, made by drug company Novo Nordisk.

Big Pharma Influences How People View Diabetes

Deen’s partnership with big pharma drew criticism not only from her critics, but also from her fans.  Chef Anthony Bourdain has criticized Deen’s cooking for years, and upon learning of her announcement, took to Twitter writing “Thinking of getting into the leg-breaking business, so I can profitably sell crutches later.”

While Deen has said she has changed her eating habits and has cut out the sweet tea, many question whether she really has changed the way she eats or whether she’s simply using Victoza to counteract eating poorly.  Either way, her recent partnership sends the message that people can eat what they want, and if they happen to develop diabetes, there’s a drug for that.

Diet & Exercise May Reverse Type-2 Diabetes

Health experts say people with type-2 diabetes don’t necessarily need to take diabetes drugs, many of which have been found to cause bladder cancer, thyroid cancer, and pancreatitis.  For many patients, eating better and exercising can reverse a type-2 diabetes diagnosis. Pastry chef Michael Mignano is proof of this.

Mignano spent years sampling his own sugar-filled creations and picking up fast food after a long day at work.  By the time he turned 36 years-old, he weighed 500 pounds and had been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.  Realizing the risks he was taking by eating unhealthy, Mignano agreed to go on “Fat Chef,” a new show on Food Network in which chefs like Mignano learn how to eat healthy and exercise.

Since filming, Mignano has lost over 100 pounds and has reversed his type-2 diabetes diagnosis, all without taking pills.  “Medicine is great, but it gives you this false sense of healing, but it’s not really doing what it’s supposed to do,” he said in a recent interview with ABC News.

Mignano is the first to admit that working with the food that contributed to his obesity is not easy, and neither is getting into a regular exercise routine.  But he says “It just makes me a happier chef, a happier person, which the result, you have happier food.”

Although “Fat Chef” is done filming, Mignano says he plans to stick with his diet and exercise regimen.  He hopes to drop his weight down to 250 and stay diabetes free.

Big Pharma’s Influence

For years, major pharmaceutical companies have pushed diabetes drugs on Americans with ever-growing waistlines, sending the message that you can eat whatever bad food you want because a pill will nullify the food’s bad effects.  But drugs like Avandia, Actos, and even Paula Deen’s Victoza may be more dangerous than helpful.  Avandia was pulled from the U.S. market completely after studies showed it caused heart attacks and death.  Actos is still on the market, but has been shown to cause bladder cancer.  And Victoza may cause thyroid cancer and acute pancreatitis.

To learn more about how big pharma influences consumers and their doctors, download my free e-book Prescription Drug Safety today at www.vanweylaw.com.

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Looks like the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) will face pressure to take another vote on the popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin as reports surface that at least four of the experts had ties with manufacturer Bayer.

FDA experts met on December 8, 2011, to determine whether Yaz and Yasmin are safe for women to take.  The panel voted 15 to 11 to keep the pills on the market, citing that the benefits of the pills outweighed the risk of blood clots. 

Experts Received Money from Bayer

Dr. Julia Johnson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was one of the experts who served on the Yaz panel and had ties with Bayer.  Before 2009, Dr. Johnson was paid by Bayer for work she did for the company. 

Additionally, she conducted clinical trials for Berlex, a pharmaceutical company acquired by Bayer, studying the effects of Drospirenone.  Drospirenone is the synthetic hormone found in Yaz and Yasmin that health experts believe may be contributing to the increased risk of blood clots in women taking the drugs.  That clinical trial involved a hormone replacement therapy, not birth control, and Dr. Johnson has denied any bias for Bayer or its products.

Another expert on the panel who received funding from Bayer was Dr. Anne Burke.  On a Bayer internal document, Dr. Burke is listed as a Bayer contraception expert.  She received research funding from Bayer, but stated that this occurred several years ago.

Two other experts admitted to having either past financial ties or research ties with Bayer.

All four of the experts voted in favor of Yaz and Yasmin, noting that they believe the risk of blood clots associated with the birth control pills is outweighed by the benefits of the drugs.

One expert who was not allowed on the panel because of an “intellectual conflict of interest” was Dr. Sidney Wolfe of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.  Because he has criticized Yaz as being an unsafe drug in the past, the FDA determined that Dr. Wolfe was too biased to serve on the panel.

This recent development raises the question: To whom is the FDA really catering--consumers or big pharmaceutical companies?  Based on the background of the Yaz  panel, it would seem that consumers are taking a backseat to pharmaceutical companies with money to hand out.

To learn more about how big pharma influences the FDA, download my free e-book Prescription Drug Safety at www.vanweylaw.com.

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New York Senator Charles Schumer has seen the effects of prescription drug addiction in his state and has vowed to fight it.  He warns that a new painkiller promising to be 10 times stronger than Vicodin could lead to more violent and deadly drug store robberies.

In June 2011, New York resident David Laffer was charged with robbing a Long Island drug store of more than 10,000 highly addictive prescription painkillers and killing four people in the pharmacy.  He and his wife had been doctor shopping before the robbery in an effort to get prescription pain pills like hydrocodone, which is highly addictive.

Nationwide, more than 1,800 pharmacies have been robbed in the past three years alone.  Long Island alone has experienced a 125 percent increase drug store robberies.

“It’s tremendously concerning that at the same time policymakers and law enforcement professionals are waging a war on the growing prescription drug crisis, new super-drugs could well be on their way, flooding the market.  The FDA needs to grab the reins and slow down the stampede to introduce these powerful narcotics” Senator Schumer said.

The new painkillers, which contain pure hydrocodone, could come onto the market as early as 2013, with big pharmaceutical companies looking to cash in on the $10 billion prescription painkiller market.  At present, hydrocodone is classified as a strictly controlled Schedule II drug under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. 

Products that contain hydrocodone and another painkiller like acetaminophen fall into Schedule III, which is less strictly controlled.  Some experts argue that because of this, highly addictive hydrocodone has been given to more patients, which has increased abuse of the drug and overdose rates in the United States.

A prescription painkiller that contains pure hydrocodone could lead to more accidental overdoses, leading to more emergency room visits.  Experts say that already thin hospital emergency room resources could become even more strained if this new drug is allowed on the market.  In 2008 alone, emergency room visits related to hydrocodone abuse totaled more than 86,000, up more than 400 percent from 2000 when an estimated 19,000 visits were recorded.

To learn more about prescription drug addiction, read my article “America’s Growing Addiction” at www.vanweylaw.com. 

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Far too many families have been devastated by a loved one’s addiction to prescription drugs. Unlike the images we conjure up when we think of a typical drug addict, the faces of prescription drug addiction are the faces of ordinary Americans. One of the casualties of prescription drug addiction was Christopher Scarborough, the 25 year-old son of Ken and Esther Scarborough of Kountze, Texas.

I came to know the Scarboroughs when I represented them in a legal case, which sought to hold the negligent parties accountable for Christopher’s death and to raise awareness about these pill mills, which often masquerade as pain management clinics. In the lawsuit, we alleged that the healthcare providers and clinic owners were nothing more than “drug dealers” who were trying to pass off their “pill mill” as a legitimate pain management clinic.

When Christopher went to this walk-in “pain management clinic,” he was prescribed a cocktail of more than 300 highly addictive narcotic pills, without even receiving an exam or seeing a doctor. Shortly thereafter, Christopher tragically died of an accidental overdose.

Rather than dwell on their son’s heartbreaking death, the Scarboroughs have chosen to help other families who have lost loved ones to prescription drug addiction and accidental overdose.

Since their son’s death, the Scarboroughs have worked every day to fight against the prescription drug epidemic in their son’s name. In 2009, they founded Parents Against Prescription Drug Abuse (PAPDA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. They have also testified before the Texas Senate, worked to pass legislation to regulate the so-called pain clinics, given countless talks, and comforted other parents who have also lost their children to prescription drug overdoses.

The Scarboroughs need your help to continue their fight. You can help by making a tax deductible contribution to PAPDA at www.papda.net. Your contribution, no matter how slight, will help Ken and Esther keep fighting every day to prevent the reckless prescribing of narcotics from claiming another innocent life.

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Pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and three other companies have announced a new prescription drug that will contain pure hydrocodone, a highly addictive narcotic painkiller.  The pill is expected to be 10 times stronger than Vicodin, one of the strongest painkillers available on the market.

Hydrocodone is an opiate much like heroin, oxycodone, codeine, and morphine.  The United States is the largest consumer of hydrocodone prescription pills, using 99 percent of what is on the world market.  Much of the hydrocodone available today is combined with other painkillers like acetaminophen.

Over the years, these pain pills have been criticized for being too addictive.  For example, OxyContin, produced by Purdue Pharma, is the most abused pain pill in the United States. When OxyContin was first introduced onto the market in 1995, abusers quickly learned that they could get a stronger high from the time-release caplets by crushing them.

Today, prescriptions that contain hydrocodone are a quick second to oxycodone in terms of abuse.  A stronger painkiller that contains pure hydrocodone could be disastrous for a nation already suffering with substance abuse and addiction.

The market for pain pills is $10 billion, and pharmaceutical companies are coming up with new drugs to get into the lucrative market. But big pharmaceutical companies are marketing the new drugs as safer, arguing that fewer patients will experience liver problems like they do with drugs that contain acetaminophen.

A form of pure hydrocodone could be on the market as early as 2013, but with an even more addictive prescription on the market, more patients may become addicted to the drugs, leading to numerous overdoses that will strain hospitals resources.  Abuse of hydrocodone alone has led to an uptick in the number of emergency room visits related to hydrocodone abuse.  In 2000, more than 19,000 visits to the emergency room were related to hydrocodone abuse, but in 2008 that number grew more than four times to more than 86,000 visits.

Prescription drug addiction is a brain disease that can be fatal if undetected or untreated. To learn more about America’s prescription drug addiction epidemic, visit www.vanweylaw.com.

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(Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a new report detailing that as many as 40 Americans die each day from overdosing on prescription painkillers.  That amounts to nearly 15,000 deaths each year.

Deaths due to prescription overdose are now more common than deaths caused by heroin and cocaine combined.  And the problem does not look like it will be ending anytime soon.  Prescription painkiller overdose deaths have increased three times over within the past decade.

80% of the World’s Painkillers are Taken in the U.S.

Director of the CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden, blames irresponsible doctors for the uptick in prescription painkiller abuse.  He and other CDC experts have estimated that in 2010 enough painkillers were prescribed to supply every American adult with a one-month supply.

More than 600,000 doctors are licensed to prescribe opiate-based painkillers.  Vicodin is one of the most popular prescription painkillers, because it is not as strictly regulated as its counterparts, making it easier for doctors to prescribe.  In fact, 99 percent of the entire world’s supply of Vicodin is used by patients in the United States.

Accidental Overdoses from Prescription Painkillers Now Kill More People than Car Accidents in 17 States

The overprescribing of prescription painkillers is not only causing death, it is also costing an estimated $72.5 billion.  And, three of the hardest hit states are Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Florida.

The federal government has proposed expanding statewide prescription drug monitoring programs to monitor electronically the number of painkillers prescribed in each state.  But critics say these programs will not work alone.  Patients need to be educated about the dangers of abusing and overdosing on prescription painkillers.

National Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske says doctors need to be retrained on writing prescriptions for narcotic pain relievers.  He adds that people with moderate pain, such as back pain, should not be prescribed these highly addictive painkillers.

To learn more about America’s epidemic of prescription drug addiction, read my article “America’s Growing Addiction” at www.vanweylaw.com.

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(Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Last week, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) released the findings of two federally-funded studies and found that anti-smoking drug Chantix did not increase psychiatric problems in patients taking the drug.

The studies relied upon by the FDA followed more than 26,000 patients taking Chantix.

Volatile History

Chantix, which is manufactured by major pharmaceutical company Pfizer, was first approved for use in 2006. Beginning in 2007, experts began raising safety concerns about Chantix, citing cases of cardiovascular problems and changes in vision.

As more people began to take Chantix, more reports of depression and suicidal thoughts were reported by patients taking the drug.  This prompted the FDA to place a black box warning label on Chantix in 2009 to caution doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of causing depression, suicidal thoughts, and hostility.

FDA’s Studies Miss the Mark

The two studies cited by the FDA did not produce definitive findings.  The studies, conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, were not large enough to determine rare side effects.  Additionally, the studies reported psychiatric problems that led to hospitalizations only, which completely disregarded any unreported issues.

New Study Urges FDA to Update Chantix Warning Label

A study published in PLoS One Journal found that Chantix makes psychological symptoms far worse than any other nicotine replacement drug.  Although this study was much smaller than the federally-funded studies, it focused specifically on adverse event reports of depression and suicidal behaviors in people taking Chantix, its competitor Zyban, or other nicotine replacement drugs.  The adverse events were reported through the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS).

The findings of the study are alarming. A staggering 90 percent of the 3,000 reports of suicidal thoughts and depression were linked back to Chantix.  Of those completed suicides, 92 percent were linked to Chantix.

Despite these findings, the FDA continues to report that Chantix is a safe and effective way for smokers to kick the habit.  Pfizer released a statement regarding this most recent study, saying “often these reports lack sufficient medical information to enable meaningful assessment.”

Know Your Risk

Nearly 22 million prescriptions have been written for Chantix since it was first approved in 2006. Since then, commercial pilots have been banned and truck drivers have been restricted from taking the drug, due to black-outs and vision problems.

The Veterans Administration recommends its patients undergo a mental health evaluation before being prescribed Chantix.  Experts behind the most recent study agree, saying that the risks associated with Chantix outweigh the benefits.

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Prescription drug abuse is on the rise in seniors and the disabled who rely on Medicare Part D to get their prescriptions. A report issued by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carpenter, along with senior Republican Scott Brown, found that nearly 170,000 people enrolled in the program went “doctor shopping” for powerful pain killers like oxycodone and hydrocodone.

In terms of prescription drug abuse, “doctor shopping” is where patients go to different doctors to get multiple prescriptions. The report found that some patients had gone to at least five doctors for prescriptions of drugs that are often abused. In all, these patients accounted for 1.8 percent of the total number of patients enrolled in the program.

Senator Scott Brown called the program “taxpayer-funded drug dealing,” and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) called for more strict control of the program to prevent Medicare fraud.

Why Older Patients are more at Risk

Today, older patients are being prescribed more long-term prescriptions and as many as 30 pills a day, which can lead to unintentional misuse of prescription drugs. For many seniors, the difficulty lies in simply being able to keep track of the pills and dosages they are taking.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Americans ages 65 and older account for 13 percent of the population, but are prescribed one-third of all medicines prescribed in the United States. Combine their multiple prescriptions with over-the-counter medicines and dietary supplements, and the risk that they will have negative drug interactions soars.

Additionally, some seniors take medications that are not medically necessary or use medications for conditions that the medications were not originally prescribed. Seniors also tend to self-medicate for depression.

Benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax are especially dangerous for seniors because they are more likely to feel stronger effects from the drugs than are younger people. These drugs can lead to falls and motor vehicle accidents for seniors, which can cause dangerous hip and thigh fractures.

Despite the risks these medicines pose, the government is expected to expand Medicare’s $62 billion drug program to cover benzodiazepines and other sedatives, both of which are commonly abused drugs.

To learn more about prescription drug abuse in the United States, read my article entitled “America’s Growing Addiction,” available at www.vanweylaw.com.

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Prescription drug prices in the United States are through the roof.  In 2005, we spent an estimated $251.8 billion on prescription drugs alone.  This year, prescription drug sales are expected to reach $310 billion.

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Each year, millions of Americans turn to prescription painkillers to help ease their pain.  But these painkillers may be doing some patients more harm than good.

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Known as the “Pill Mill Capital of the United States,” Florida has seen its fair share of problems associated with prescription drug abuse.  

But legislators are hoping to change the state’s bad reputation by implementing the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which keeps track of when, where, to whom, and by whom a prescription containing a controlled substance is prescribed.

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It is no secret that the highest court in our country, the United States Supreme Court, is sharply divided along political lines. Currently, the Court is comprised of two Reagan appointees, one George H.W. Bush appointee, two George W. Bush appointees, two Clinton appointees, and two Obama appointees. Sadly, the decisions of the Court often come down to legal interpretations, which are heavily influenced by political ideology.

On June 23, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an opinion in Pliva, Inc. v. Mensing, which arguably has far reaching consequences for drug safety.  In that case, the Court considered the issue of “whether federal drug regulations applicable to generic drug manufacturers directly conflict with, and thus pre-empt, these state law claims.”  Justice Clarence Thomas for the plurality wrote an opinion holding that the state law claims are pre-empted by federal drug regulations.

The holding of the case came as a surprise to many who thought that the Supreme Court would uphold the rulings of the 5th and 8th Circuit Courts.  Both of those courts rejected the manufacturers’ argument that federal law pre-empted any state tort claims and held that the plaintiffs’ claims were not pre-empted.

Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote a dissenting opinion in which Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan also took part.  In her opinion, she noted that "...the majority's pre-emption analysis strips generic-drug consumers of compensation when they are injured by inadequate warnings."  She also sharply criticized the plurality opinion for its contorted reading of pre-emption, arguing that Pliva “effectively rewrites our decision in Wyeth v. Levine.”

Because Justice Thomas’ decision was a plurality opinion, there was no clear majority of the Court that adopted Justice Thomas' reasoning.  Anyone who is interested in consumer issues, drug safety issues, or in how the Court works should read Justice Sotomayor’s blistering dissenting opinion.  As they say, “you don't really want to see how the sausage is made.”

So what does all of this legalese mean for consumers?  The gist of the Court's opinion is this: if a consumer is injured by a drug’s inadequate safety warnings, his/her right to sue now depends on whether the pharmacist fills the prescription with a name brand drug or a generic drug.  Under the plurality’s holding, the consumer injured by a name brand drug will be able to bring suit, but the consumer injured by a generic equivalent of a brand name drug will be left with no remedy for his injuries.

Unfortunately for consumers, generic drugs now comprise 75 percent of all prescription drugs dispensed in this country. The consumer usually has little control over whether the name brand or generic is provided.  Oftentimes, large insurance companies control the decision about which drug a consumer receives.  This decision is made in the board rooms of large insurance companies who negotiate with drug manufacturers for the cheapest prices.

According to Justice Sotomayor, "Today's decision eliminates the traditional state-law incentives for generic manufacturers to monitor and disclose safety risks.  When a generic drug has a brand-name equivalent on the market, the brand-name manufacturer will remain incentivized to uncover safety risks.  But brand-name manufacturers often leave the market once generic versions are available, meaning that there will be no manufacturer subject to failure-to-warn liability.  As to those generic drugs, there will be no additional layer of consumer protection."

Look for more about this landmark case and how it affects consumers on www.vanweylaw.com.

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Last year, Americans spent $307.4 billion on prescription drugs (IMS Institute), the most of any other country.  And with the price of many prescription drugs so high, 36 million people have turned to online pharmacies to purchase their prescriptions.  But these online pharmacies aren’t as trustworthy as they may seem.

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We hear the reports on the news all the time about military service personnel who have survived bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan, but who have also lost limbs or have been seriously injured. They remind us of the great sacrifice they are making to protect our freedom. But the news media do not tell us about the stories of service personnel who were injured and have subsequently become addicted to prescription pain killers.

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In a recent study out of the United Kingdom, researchers from St. George’s University, the University of London, and the University of Glasgow, found that high dose statin drugs increased the risk of patients contracting type-two diabetes.  But when the study compared Lipitor to Zocor and its generics, researchers found that Lipitor was more effective in decreasing the patient’s risk of a heart attack.

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Rural adolescents are 26% more likely than urban adolescents to have used prescription drugs nonmedically, concludes a groundbreaking study that Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine published online this month. The article, Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use in a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescents, highlights factors thought to influence nonmedical prescription drug use ("NMPDU") and related intervention points:

• School enrollment correlates with lower likelihood of NMPDU. Increase school retention and prevent initiation of NMPDU.

• Residing in a two-parent household correlates with lower likelihood of NMPDU. Develop interventions aimed at family involvement.

• A history of at least one major depressive episode and lower health status correlates with a higher likelihood of NMPDU. Increase access to health care among rural adolescents.

• Use of other illicit drugs and alcohol strongly correlates with higher likelihood of NMPDU. Aim interventions at adolescents who have already initiated substance use.

At a time when teens are abusing prescription drugs at rates higher than any other drugs except marijuana, with NMPDU increasing 212% from 1992 to 2003 alone, this study prods us as a society to wake up, to take notice, and to intervene to curb the problem. If we do not, today’s teenagers who abuse prescription drugs in lieu of less accessible, more stigmatized street drugs become tomorrow’s prescription drug addict who leave broken lives, broken families, and broken communities in their wake.

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On its seventh day of deliberations, a federal jury on Thursday, June 24 found Kansas  doctor Stephen Schneider and his nurse wife Linda Schneider guilty of conspiring to profit from illegally prescribing painkillers to patients, many of whom later died. The jury also found the Schneiders guilty on five counts of unlawfully writing prescriptions and on 11 health care fraud counts. The jury found Linda Schneider guilty of 15 money laundering charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway prosecuted the case, which consumed eight weeks of trial. In a 34-count indictment, the Schneiders were charged with conspiring to illegally distribute prescription drugs that contributed to 21 deaths, fraud, and money laundering. The prosecution put on evidence of 176 overdoses and 68 deaths related to the pill mill.

This was a case of “money before medicine,” Tanya Treadway said. According to the prosecution, about half of the 10,000 patients treated at the Schneider Medical Clinic received pain medication. The clinic was open 11 hours a day every day, had 14 exam rooms and  scheduled patients 10 minutes apart.  Prosecutors allege the clinic made $7 million in a little over four years through health care fraud. The Schneiders pocketed about $1.5 million. The prosecution put on evidence of 176 overdoses and 68 deaths related to the pill mill.

Dr. Schneider’s attorney, reportedly supported by the advocacy group Pain Relief Network that advocates for the right to pain treatment, argued that Dr. Schneider acted “with a pure heart.” He said that “what [Dr. Schneider] did with his patients, he did so innocently, he did so honestly, and he did so courageously.”

Curiously, Dr. Schneider chose to drive a bright yellow hummer emblazoned with skull and crossbones to and from the pill mill on a daily basis. I wonder what kind of message he was trying to send? Was he  in a state of deep denial or did he have  so little fear of ever being prosecuted for his pill peddling that he felt bulletproof? We will probably never know, but I am sure the vehicle represents to the victims everything that was wrong with the Schneiders and their so called medical practice.

Sentencing has not yet been set. The Schneiders could face up to a life sentence.  The Schneiders also will stand trial in several civil wrongful death lawsuits which have been filed against them.
 

 We applaud the courage of Tanya Treadway in stepping up to the plate to prosecute this case.  It takes hard work and effort to bring persons such as these to justice.  Prosecutions such as these must continue to happen. Pill mill operators need to go to jail  just like persons who peddle street drugs go to jail. Pill mill operators must also be held liable for monetary damages for the devastation that they are causing while lining their pockets with blood money.Hopefully, the combination of vigorous criminal and civil prosecution will stem the tide of prescription drug overdose deaths.
 

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