Doctor accused of prescribing painkillers for cash

[alp227]

Source: Los Angeles Times

A physician with offices in Los Angeles and Downey was arrested Wednesday for allegedly prescribing powerful painkillers for cash to people who had no medical need for them, federal officials said.

Dr. Nazar Al Bussam, 71, of Newport Coast was arrested after several pharmacies notified authorities that customers were coming in with prescriptions from him for large amounts of highly addictive and widely abused narcotics, including Norco, OxyContin and Vicodin, officials said.

Bussam's practice first came to the attention of federal drug enforcement officials in 2007 when a review of government databases indicated that he was among the top 10 prescribers of such drugs in the Los Angeles area, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-doctor-arrest-20101021,0,1877550.story

[DonCoquixote]

1. If he was in Florida

He would be doing well, as we are known nationwide for our "pain clinics."

[Akoto]

2. I'm on pain management, in Florida ...

Unfortunately, my parents have to drive me six hours round-trip to the University of Miami. I have a rare chronic pain condition, and that's where the closest qualified PM doc is. That's beside the point, though ...

Doctors who do this - and the patients who abuse their medications - do harm to more people than themselves. The government gets involved, oversight tightens, there is outcry against pain medication, and the honest providers are frightened. Credible pain management becomes even less accessible to trustworthy patients with a legitimate need. Really ticks me off.

[COLGATE4]

9. You're absolutely right. I have had to be on PM for a chronic spinal

compression-fracture. Was with a teaching hospital Pain Ctr. in Michigan for years, but when we moved to Florida it was incredibly difficult to get set up with a pain center. Everybody's gun-shy now. Really sucks.

[iamthebandfanman]

3. i was geting ready to say,

this happens everyday all day in florida... nobody seems to care..

[iamthebandfanman]

4. that is what happened in kentucky

and the opiate problem here is worse than ever (it mostly comes from florida)...

clearly making Drs scared to prescribe it isnt a useful tactic for anyone involved...

[Donnachaidh]

11. Current TV has been running a piece on the Oxy Express

People from Ohio and Kentucky traveling to Florida for meds. Florida needs to step up and put these drug pushers out of business. It makes it that much harder for people with legitimate pain issues to get treated everywhere else.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. People like this are causing other people who need this type of

medication to suffer all over the country.

Greed and ignorance infects every facet of American life. Doctors are afraid to help people who could really use the help.

[cutlassmama]

6. Yes, it's a quality of life issue for many. So sad that there are those

that abuse the system and make it hard for those in true need.

[dotymed]

7. Yes it is.

I recently moved from Indiana, where I have been on (needed) pain meds for years. When I moved to TN. it was unbelievable. There are so many restrictions imposed on Dr.'s that they are afraid to prescribe needed pain meds. They are "tracked" by the TBI and DEA. I recently caught a short glimpse of a teevee news story. It was something about a national database being set up to track all narcotic pain prescriptions and to "red flag" people who get (what they consider) excessive amounts of pain meds.
The greed of a few really impacts the people who need the relief from pain in order to function. Yes, function. After you take the prescribed meds for a while, the "high" does not happen, just the pain relief.

[No Elephants]

8. What of the other 9?

[NBachers]

10. I used to visit an old croaker who did that in Florida