Were These Doctors Treating Pain or Dealing Drugs?

March 1, 2022

(New York Times) – The cases confront an uneasy relationship between law and medicine. In an era when overdose deaths are soaring, how should the law balance letting physicians exercise their best judgment with stopping egregious outliers? At issue is the reading of the language of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The act permits doctors and pharmacists to dispense certain drugs such as opioids and amphetamines, categorized by their potential for abuse and medical value, even as it prohibits everyone else from doing so. It says that a prescription for one of these medications “must be issued for a legitimate medical purpose by an individual practitioner acting in the usual course of his professional practice.” (Read More)