Attorney & Policy Advisor
January 7, 2022
The not-for-profit Center for U.S. Policy (CUSP), together with Lynn R. Webster, M.D.; Stephen J. Ziegler, Ph.D., J.D.; and Michael C. Barnes, Esq., has filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the drug trafficking conviction of a physician who did not intend to prescribe unlawfully.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) warns doctors, pharmacists, and the public about criminals posing as DEA agents and attempting to extort money from them. Michael C. Barnes cautions that the scammers have enough knowledge of the tactics DEA is employing against controlled-medication prescribers to be able to replicate them in other situations.
Policymakers have been calling for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reduce the number of opioids produced each year. Policy Manager Christopher Piemonte writes that experts in policy, pain, and law enforcement are all aligned in their belief that this strategy will be ineffective and that to continue to suggest it indicates a lack of education on the part of the policymakers.
Michael C. Barnes discusses DOJ’s treatment of controlled-medication prescribers in the current climate. “Detailed medical records are the only affordable way for a provider to prove his innocence — or at least make the prosecutor think twice about proceeding with criminal charges.”