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Aug-14-2011 16:18
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State of Ohio Leads Nation in Fighting 'Pill Mill Doctors'
Marianne Skolek Salem-News.com"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." Albert Einstein
 Courtesy: saintpetersblog.com |
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - Effective immediately, the Ohio State Medical Board permanently revoked the medical license of Portsmouth, Ohio obstetrician/gynecologist John Temponeras.
The Board’s action was the result of a June 8 citation issued by the Board related to the immediate suspension of Temponeras’ Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration in May.
The DEA order claimed that between February 24, 2009 and January 31, 2011, Temponeras was responsible for more than 3,300 prescriptions for controlled substances, aware that the prescriptions would be filled by an unregistered dispensary -- coincidentally owned by his daughter, Dr. Margy Temponeras.
The DEA stated that John Temponeras repeatedly prescribed combinations of Oxycontin and Xanax to a large amount of patients without any individualized treatment plan for the patients. Additionally, the DEA said, Temponeras or his staff ordered 27,500 dosage units of hydrocodone products in 2009 and 2010 -- but failed to produce any inventory or records of receipt to the DEA.
Dr. Margy Temponeras, daughter of John Temponeras, is awaiting an October 20 hearing on her own medical license. After a raid earlier this year, Margy Temponeras, considered by federal and local officials as one of the top dispensers of Oxycontin in the country, was one of four doctors, including her father, and a pharmacy that were informed May 17 of immediate suspensions of their DEA Certificate of Registration.
Joan Wehrle of the State Medical Board said Margy Temponeras’ license is currently active, but a decision on her license will be made at the October 20 hearing.
Another Wheelersburg, Ohio pain clinic operator Dr. Douglas B. Karel, who operated Tri-State Primary Care, had his medical license permanently revoked by the Medical Board on July 13.
In addition, the State Medical Board of Ohio passed a resolution this past week authorizing Medical Board investigators to carry firearms.
Portsmouth Police Chief Charles Horner is in favor of arming the investigators when they conduct an investigation at a pain clinic. In fact, he takes it a step further, “I support them being armed,” Horner said. “I think they need to be sworn law enforcement officers.”
Horner said anyone with reservations about arming investigators should talk with officers who have gone into pain clinics to serve search warrants.
“We know from experience the individuals have the guns in the pill mills or so-called pain clinics — not the legitimate pain clinics who are treating pain patients for legitimate reasons, which is a necessary part of medical practice — but we have experienced it first hand,” Horner said. “And with the state Carrying a Concealed Weapons statute, and the fact that police officers carry guns into physicians’ offices, emergency rooms and hospitals every day, on-duty and off-duty, it should not be of any concern.”
“I’ve had personal experience with armed security at the pain clinics,” Horner said. “Obviously, Dr. John Lilly exchanged prescriptions for automatic weapons when we did him, keeping in mind also that the individuals who are engaging in this prescription drug abuse aren’t necessarily the highest caliber of person. Quite frequently they are convicted criminals.”
One of the most notorious owners of a pill mill was Dr. John Lilly. Dr. Lilly was an orthopedic surgeon in Portsmouth, Ohio. He was arrested in March of 2000 for operating one of the largest narcotics operations in the Midwest. About the time that Dr. Lilly started his pain clinic, local police noticed that drug-related crimes in Portsmouth started to trend upward. Burglaries increased 20 percent compared to the previous year and, for a period of about three months, police records showed homes and pharmacies were being broken into and robbed of prescription drugs almost daily. After his arrest, police found an x-ray machine that did not work and beer cans on the waiting room floor. According to the Portsmouth Chief of Police, Dr. Lilly would perform little or no physical examination after collecting $200 cash. He would merely elicit a complaint from a patient, note the complaint as “intractable pain”, and give the patient a prescription. He charged $10 for each narcotic pill and an additional $10 for each OxyContin. Over a six-month period, Dr. Lilly wrote more than 4,000 prescriptions, most of which were for pain medications. An investigation revealed that people came from as far as Texas to obtain prescriptions. Police also found almost half a million dollars in cash in his basement and almost an additional $100,000 in a separate apartment he kept next to his practice.
Horner said, when recently convicted Portsmouth doctor Paul Volkman, set up his junkie pain clinic, Delbert Evans, was the security guard, and when police entered the facility, Evans was armed.
Horner said people need to know, even though the population might be down in the area, crime is up, and prescription drug abuse is at the center of most of the crimes committed in the area.
“We experienced it 10 years ago with Dr. Lilly, and here it is 10 years later and it’s more dangerous than it has ever been,” Horner said.
Every state in the country should be following the lead of the Marshall Matt Dillon of Portsmouth -- Chief Horner -- and take back their communities from unscrupulous doctors funneling narcotics to addict and destroy individuals and their families. It may be time for the other 49 states and the FDA to stop being "Miss Kitty" and demand answers -- one question would be why is so much OxyContin being manufactured to hit the streets and pill mills throughout the country?
LP - A year already -- seems like yesterday in some ways and a lifetime in other ways -- our connection in friendship, love, faith, peace, laughter and - my latest favorite - "that didn't require an answer" is treasured every minute of every day -- More than yesterday, less than tomorrow!
Salem-News.com Reporter Marianne Skolek, is an Activist exposing Purdue Pharma for their criminal activity in the promotion, marketing and over manufacturing of OxyContin throughout the United States and Canada. She began her work nine years ago after losing her daughter, Jill to prescribed OxyContin.
In July 2007, she testified against Purdue Pharma in Federal Court in Virginia at the sentencing of their three CEO's - Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Paul Goldenheim - who pleaded guilty to charges of marketing OxyContin as less likely to be addictive or abused to physicians and patients. That same month she also testified against Purdue Pharma at a Judiciary Hearing of the U.S. Senate.
In working with the Department of Justice and Attorney Generals, Marianne has been instrumental in charges being lodged against Purdue Pharma. She also has been retained as a consultant with private attorneys working on behalf of victims and their families against Purdue Phama.
Marianne is a leading authority on the marketing tactics used by Purdue Pharma through their funded pain societies such as the American Pain Foundation in pushing OxyContin for the "under-treatment of pain" in the United States and Canada. The under-treatment of pain is a marketing fallacy contrived by Purdue Pharma and allowed by the FDA. She continues to hold the FDA accountable for this epidemic of OxyContin and lobbies them to reclassify this narcotic to be prescribed for severe pain only - never moderate pain. To date, the FDA has turned a blind eye to the epidemic of death, addiction and abuse of this powerful narcotic. Marianne is a nurse having graduated in 1991 as president of her graduating class. She also has a Paralegal certification. She served on a Community Service Board for the Courier News, a Gannet newspaper in NJ writing articles predominantly regarding AIDS patients and their emotional issues. She was awarded a Community Service Award by the Hunterdon County, NJ HIV/AIDS Task Force in recognition of and appreciation for the donated time, energy and love in facilitating a Support Group for persons with HIV/AIDS.
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Luke Easter August 15, 2011 6:48 pm (Pacific time)
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him but because he loves what is behind him.” G.K. Chesterton
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