Pubdate: Tue, 02 Aug 2005
Source: Savannah Morning News (GA)
Copyright: 2005 Savannah Morning News
Contact:  http://www.savannahnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/401
Author: Tom Barton
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

DOC MUST TAKE HIS MEDICINE

Dr. Jack Heneisen believed he had the interests of his patients at heart 
when he signed hundreds of blank prescriptions

There's no question he saved them money on office visits and time in his 
waiting room.

But no man -even a nice-guy, small-town physician - is above the law. 
Especially when patients hooked on OxyContin, the much-abused pain-killer 
known as "Hillbilly Heroin," are beating a path to a doc's door.

Heneisen is sitting in a lock-up in Jesup for violating a federal law 
regarding prescription refills for Schedule II controlled substances. He 
pleaded guilty. He also voluntarily surrendered his state medical license, 
and he has to wait two years before reapplying to get it back.

For any physician, that's as close to economic suicide as you can get.

The doctor and some of his supporters in Effingham County, where Heneisen 
has practiced for about two decades, argue that he wound up on the wrong 
side of the law because he was trying to help needy patients and was 
swamped with an overwhelming caseload. That's true.

Up to a point.

That's because those weren't just any needy patients. Some were patients 
who needed refills of Oxy, according to the feds. No exams necessary.

Lisa Godbey Wood, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, 
said Heneisen used pre-signed blank prescription forms to illegally refill 
prescriptions for OxyContin. His patients "obtained refills for OxyContin 
without being seen in the office by Heneisen or by other medical 
professionals in his practice," according to a statement issued May 17. 
That's the day U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield gave the doctor eight 
months in the clink.

Agents who raided the office reported finding "hundreds" of blank 
prescription forms Heneisen had pre-signed and were in the possession of 
several employees. That's not counting the number destroyed after lawmen left.

If Heneisen had used all these pre-signed scrips to make it easier for 
patients to get high-blood pressure pills or ear-infection medication, the 
feds probably would have left him alone.

But OxyContin, as Rush Limbaugh and many, many others can confirm, isn't 
glorified Tylenol or Advil.

When Oxy was first marketed in 1996 by Purdue Pharma, it was hailed as a 
wonder drug. Finally, physicians had something they could prescribe to help 
patients cope with long-lasting pain, particularly those suffering from 
cancer or rheumatoid arthritis. Instead of popping a Percocet or Percodan 
several times a day, a person could swallow one Oxy and enjoy 12 hours of 
blessed relief.

This pill worked. Perhaps too well.

Oxy can cause serious dependency, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration. Without proper oversight and use, people can get hooked on 
the euphoric high it produces. Chronic abuse has sent people to emergency 
rooms. And morgues.

"I loved him," one of Heneisen's former patients told me this week. "He was 
a great doctor with a wonderful bedside manner."

Good for him. Too many docs these days have the soul of an accountant.

That may be why Judge Edenfield, who's no bleeding heart, gave Heneisen 
eight months, instead of a maximum six years.

Some of Heneisen's supporters have tried to paint him as the victim of 
overzealous prosecutors. But that argument doesn't add up - unless the U.S. 
attorney is lying (doubtful) and Judge Edenfield is easily conned (Are you 
hallucinating?).

Pulling a fast shuffle on Edenfield is like sneaking "expired" past a 
Savannah metermaid. It's against nature.

If anyone was duped here, it was Heneisen. He fooled himself.

He apparently thought he was helping needy patients; the feds saw patients 
who needed a ready supply of prescriptions to a seriously abused drug 
that's ruining lives.

Diagnosis: Heneisen must swallow his medicine.

If he gets his Georgia licence back in a few years, Heneisen should 
remember the oath. No, not the Hippocratic one that says "do no harm." The 
one that goes "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

Tom Barton is the editorial page editor of the Morning News.
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