Dear Friends in Pain,

Yes this sounds awful, but you have to remember this is
Louisiana, for those of us who advocate for those in CIP one of
the worst states in the United States for pain management.

Why you ask? The state medical board personally removes
M.D. licenses just for farting in the wrong direction. So it goes.
Many in this state must also suffer other medical atrocities,
preferring to go to Florida, Texas and other states for cancer
care, orthopedic surgery and the like.

Louisiana has a piss poor economy. You wonder truly if this
were allowed as a "set up" for the amount of money garnished
with the DEA intervening will be kept in the "fund" to bust other
good physicians. This in itself is incredible that it was allowed
on such a wide scale in this of all state.

For the record by the end of this year (2005) Hydrocodone will
be a Class 2 in all states but only IS SO in California. So this
"Trinity" cocktail has nothing heavy duty in it, again, is it so
pathetic a state that we must hear over publicized hype on some
of the lesser medications but in a very paranoid, high risk state?

I see media hype, I see a huge financial bonus for the DEA.
Suggestion why not take some of these agents and send them
to medical school? Hell they spot "doctor shopping" but what
about misrepresenting one's self to a physician to obtain this
Class 3 "Trinity" cocktail?

We are not talking Class 2 medication this all goes hand in
hand with the DEA's media drive to have all states put
Hydrocodone into Class 2 by the end of 2005. Sad is it not?

Peace my friends,

Karen G.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-3/111337380823370.
xml

Agents raid pain clinics, arrest owner, 3 doctors
They're accused of running 'pill mill'
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
By Michael Perlstein
Staff writer

Doctor's visits as brief as 11 seconds. Preprinted prescriptions
doled out
in assembly-line fashion to hundreds of patients in a day, many of
them with
no medical problems. Pharmacies in which up to 88 percent of first-
time
customers in a single day presented identical prescriptions written
by the
same physician.

Those are some of the allegations made by federal authorities against
a
nurse and three local doctors who were arrested Tuesday in a sweeping
investigation that accuses them of running a highly lucrative "pill
mill,"
dispensing dangerous and addictive narcotics to just about anybody who
complained of aches and pains, some real, some made up.

At dawn, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested the
owner
and operator of the clinics, Cherlyn "Cookie" Armstrong, at her
Eastover
home. Armstrong, 45, runs three clinics operating as Scherer's Medical
Center, an outgrowth of a string of weight loss clinics that she
started in
the 1990s. She is a registered nurse who is still facing state
narcotics
charges in Slidell for allegedly dispensing drugs in 2000 without a
doctor's
oversight, authorities said.

Agents also arrested three of Armstrong's staff doctors, sending a
seismic
wave through the local medical community, especially those involved
in pain
management, a controversial new specialty that has mushroomed in the
past
few years to include more than 60 pain clinics in the metro area. The
unchecked proliferation of pain management clinics, along with
allegations
of shady practices geared at maximizing profits, recently sparked
moratoriums against such clinics in Orleans, St. Bernard and St.
Tammany
parishes.

The doctors who were arrested Tuesday -- Betty De Loach, 66, of
Kenner;
Suzette Cullins, 43, of New Orleans; and Joseph Guenther, 71, of
Metairie --
were ordered along with Armstrong to remain in jail overnight until
detention hearings can be held today. The government has asked that
the
defendants be held without bail indefinitely because they might be
flight
risks. Federal authorities immediately sought suspension of the
licenses of
the doctors, clinics and pharmacies involved in the case, local DEA
chief
William Renton said.

Millions in cash

The DEA, aided by the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and local police
agencies, also confiscated more than $10 million in assets. Of that
total,
$4 million was frozen in 17 of Armstrong's bank accounts, acting U.S.
Attorney Jim Letten said. Another $1.6 million was found in
Armstrong's
home, much of it in stacks of hundred-dollar bills stashed in safes,
cans
and garbage bags.

In the criminal complaint, supported by a 65-page affidavit outlining
the
details of the yearlong probe, each defendant faces a charge of
conspiracy
to illegally distribute controlled substances. Armstrong and Cullins
face an
additional charge of distributing controlled substances to people
younger
than 21. Both drug charges carry a five-year maximum prison sentence.
Armstrong also faces a money-laundering charge, which carries up to 10
years.

Letten noted that 16 others, including doctors and pharmacists, are
listed
by their initials in the affidavit as employees or participants in
Armstrong's operation. Several of the people listed are members of
Armstrong's family, including her husband, Steven Prejean, a lawyer
who is
co-owner of the clinics.

"This investigation is by no means over," Letten said. "In fact, this
is
really very much the beginning of a second, much more active
phase. . . . I
can tell you we're looking at everyone involved with these clinics."

After the arrests, agents raided Scherer's clinics in Metairie,
Gretna and
Slidell, loading U-Haul trucks with boxes of records. In Metairie and
Slidell, steady streams of cars crept past the clinics, some circling
the
block amid the commotion, others speeding away. Agents questioned the
persistent drivers who pulled into the parking lots of the clinics and
arrested more than two dozen of them on unrelated charges such as
possession
of marijuana, possession of illegal pharmaceuticals and outstanding
warrants.

In addition, agents raided four pharmacies, two of them owned by
Armstrong
and located next to her Metairie and Slidell clinics. The other two
pharmacies that were raided and shuttered are The Medicine Shoppe in
Slidell
and Michael's Discount Pharmacy in Kenner. Armstrong's pharmacies,
which
operate under the name "Mia's," sport the storefront sign "Medicine
in a
Snap."

That logo is the perfect description of what took place inside the
clinics,
Renton said.

"This operation was a sham to make money by dispensing narcotics
regardless
of whether there was any medical necessity," he said.

A tight schedule

The affidavit is full of allegations that support Renton's
characterization:

-- The clinics accepted only cash, $220 for an initial visit and $80
for
each follow-up visit. The associated pharmacies also operated on a
cash-only
basis, charging $40 for the most commonly prescribed pill regimen:
hydrocodone (most commonly sold under the brand name Lorcet),
alprazolam
(Xanax) and carisoprodol (Soma). The combination is known on the
street as
the "holy trinity" or "cocktail."

-- The clinics are run "with the express goal that each full-time
doctor
will see 700 patients per 35-hour work week, i.e. one patient every
3.3
minutes," the affidavit states.

-- While patients were usually prescribed a two-week supply of pills,
many
patients amassed much more than that by visiting different clinic
locations
on different days of the week. This practice is referred to in the
affidavit
as "doctor shopping."

-- The DEA used informants as well as undercover agents to make
dozens of
doctor's visits and high-volume purchases. Most of the visits lasted
less
than 60 seconds and involved little or no medical examination. In one
instance, Cullins expresses concern that an informant visited her
twice in
four days. In the affidavit, Cullins is quoted as saying, "You need
to back
off from me or you need to go see Dr. Guenther when he's available.
Do we
have an understanding?" The visit lasted 25 seconds.

-- On a subsequent visit to Guenther a month later, the same informant
brought in a clean MRI. Guenther looked at the MRI and said, "There's
really
nothing wrong with you. . . . I told you to see an orthopedist a long
time
ago. I can't do much for you." Guenther then signed a prewritten
prescription for "the trinity," the affidavit alleges. The visit
lasted 85
seconds.

"They're street peddlers with an M.D. after their names," said Dr.
John
Bobear, executive director of the state Board of Medical Examiners.

Bobear and others said unscrupulous clinics pose a dangerous double
whammy:
They illegally provide narcotics to addicts with no underlying medical
basis, and they tarnish the work of legitimate pain management
clinics that
offer a range of therapies from massage to exercise to graduated
doses of
medicine if needed.

"Prescription drug abuse is the No. 2 class of abuse after marijuana
in the
United States right now," Renton said. "This is a serious, serious
problem."

The defendants, handcuffed and shackled in prison-issued jumpsuits,
made a
Tuesday afternoon appearance before U.S. Magistrate Louis Moore Jr.

Moore ordered them to return to Orleans Parish Prison pending a
hearing
today at 2 p.m. to determine their bail amounts or, as requested by
prosecutors, whether they will be detained until trial. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Tony Sanders, the lead prosecutor on the case, said he will
ask for
detention for all four defendants on grounds that they are flight
risks or a
danger to the community. Sanders also asked Moore to order all four
defendants to undergo drug tests.

Begging for bail

Armstrong's attorney, Sal Panzeca, pleaded to Moore that his 45-year-
old
client is the mother of a 12-year-old girl and has never been
convicted of
anything. He added that similar allegations were made against her a
few
years ago, but no charges were filed.

"No way she is a flight risk or a threat," Panzeca said.

Then Armstrong spoke up: "I'm not a flight risk. I would really like
to go
home to my little girl, and I'll be back tomorrow."

Neither Panzeca nor Armstrong mentioned the pending charges in
Slidell,
allegations that in November forced Armstrong to enter into a consent
agreement with the state nursing board, according to the DEA
affidavit.

. . . . . . .








Karen Hallenbeck~Sikorsky~George BS,RN,UM,QC
Interqual Certified
Published Psychiatric Researcher
Advocate for those in CIP, HIV, Psychologic Pain
http://hometown.aol.com/anewplanforyou
http://hometown.aol.com/anewplanforyou/sb.html



Owner-Moderator
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ADayWithoutPain/
"ADayWithoutPain"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnAnGeLInPain
"AnAnGeLInPain"

Ya'll are special you truly are, and to be the
catalyst for this group is a miracle for I know
in my heart that God's will created this group(s)
and each of you are very very special to me, always
no matter what I AM SO PROUD to a "part of" what
this family has become..AND WILL BE!!!!

"God will do for you what you cannot do for yourself...""


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