At Least 20 Years Await Convicted Doctor
In a federal courtroom in suburban Washington today, a Stanford University-educated pain doctor assailed by prosecutors as a common drug pusher is expected to receive at least 20 years in prison for his December conviction on drug trafficking.
The prosecution of Dr. William E. Hurwitz, 59, was surrounded by controversy and the prospective long sentence is reverberating among doctors who treat pain. Though he was charged with diverting potent opioid drugs to two dozen dealers and addicts from his office in McLean, Va., Hurwitz is also regarded as a pioneer in pain treatment.
Along with tougher federal regulation of pain pills, the Hurwitz case has roiled the medical and legal establishments, creating fear of prosecution among some doctors who treat debilitating pain.
"We have a real legitimate worry that there is going to be greater reluctance to prescribe pain medication and as a consequence more under-treatment of chronic pain," said Dr. Russell K. Portenoy, chairman of the pain medicine department at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.
Since the Hurwitz case began, 30 state attorneys general have assailed the Bush administration's Justice Department for its pain-pill policies, saying in a joint letter in January that state and federal policies were increasingly at odds on how to balance legitimate pain treatment with drug enforcement.
And during the Hurwitz trial, a group of eminent medical authorities, all past presidents of the American Pain Society, lambasted one of the Justice Department's expert witnesses for "misrepresentations" that have damaged the ability of doctors to treat pain without fear of prosecution.
But Justice Department officials insisted that the Hurwitz prosecution should have no effect on legitimate doctors, saying Hurwitz knowingly dispensed pills to patients reselling their Oxycontin and Dilaudid on the streets. In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors Gene Rossi and Mark Lytle say that the only chilling effect on other doctors from the Hurwitz trial results from his misrepresentations that he was duped by his patients.
During the trial, Hurwitz was described by some of his patients as a hero who had successfully treated debilitating pain. The Pain Relief Network, a patient group, said in a letter to President Bush this week that Hurwitz's conviction was the result of deceptions by federal prosecutors.
