Life is full of these entities… be it the school yard bully… in a political race, in the world of manufacturing and sale, the animal kingdom..
The predator typically only picks on the prey that they believe that they can defeat because the prey has something the predator wants… be it money, a possession they covet or they want to EAT THE PREY.
The kid that the bully keeps picking on learns a martial arts and one day kicks the ass of the bully … the bully will find a easier prey in the future
The political fight is over exposure, hand-shaking, baby kissing and unfortunately how much ” political mud” you can sling at your opponent.
In the market place… entities like Walmart and Amazon have changed how/where we shop and get things we need.
In the animal kingdom prey learn how to run/swim/fly faster, improve their senses to be more aware when a predator is close, or learn how to hide and or camouflage themselves better.
In the “real world” some predators use the laws and our legal system to go after their prey and that forces the prey to engage an attorney to fight back and/or create obstacles or camouflage.
whatever the predator is after.
Right now we have cities, counties and states being the predator after drug manufacturers and wholesalers… the “prey” is being blamed for creating the “opiate crisis” and the predator wants the prey’s money to compensate them for the cost providing treatment to those who have been ensnared in the opiate crisis. Apparently the individuals have no personal responsibility for the place they find themselves in !
We have the DEA who seems much like the human eating plant in the “Little Shop of Horrors ” always demanding “feed me Seymour”. Their original charge/mandate back in 1973, was to PREVENT DIVERSION. Most/many /all of the sources of diversion in our country is from cartel outside of our country and the DEA does not have the authority nor the cooperation of foreign governments to interfere/stop these cartels production and exporting illegal drugs into our country.
What illegal drugs the DEA has seized has no monetary value to them… it is more a liability… to search/seize, inventory, warehouse and destroy. The assets of these cartels are outside of our borders and untouchable.
Besides, these cartels and their street dealers distribution system seem to have little concern about protecting their turf and willing to shoot/kill anyone who tries to interfere with their business plan.
The DEA is a PREDATOR ! they have shown that they are going after the weakest prey that will provide them the largest financial gain. That is the prescribers.
Historically, doctors/prescribers have been poor business people. Their focus is to treat/heal pts. So they have become the primary prey of the DEA Predator. The typical process of the DEA is to raid a prescriber’s office… convince them to surrender their license, close their practice and confiscate all the pt’s medical records and then confiscate/seize all the prescriber’s assets.
Their PROBABLE CAUSE is more like an opinion based on some raw number of prescriptions or doses that the prescriber has prescribed over some period of time… sometimes as far back as TEN YEARS.
If you notice the vast majority of prescribers that the DEA goes after are at the end of their career 50-55+… Those that have assets to seize…they are a not going to go after younger prescribers who have six figure student loans and probably floating in debt for a house and a couple of cars… The DEA can’t seize and liquidate a asset that has a large loan balance against it.
Then there has been numerous times that the DEA has closed multi location practices and TOSSED tens of thousands of chronic pain pts out into the streets and everyone knew that the local medical community did not have the capacity to even begin to absorb and treat these chronic pain pts. There has been information shared that more chronic pain pts committed SUICIDE within weeks of the practice being closed…. often more “bodies” than the practice was accused of having OD’d
I have been told that the DEA puts up “road blocks” to the pts of a practice they raided in getting copies of their medical records, which makes it nearly impossible to find a new prescriber to accept them as a pt. Increase the risk that a chronic pain pt will commit suicide.
I am concerned that the prescribers have not started protecting themselves from this PREDATOR… It seem quite obvious that the DEA is after the prescriber’s assets .. even the most casual observer should be able to come to that conclusion. If this is the case, the prescribers can divest themselves of their assets in a irrevocable trust… in fact they would have to make two.. because the grantor of a trust cannot be the beneficiary of a trust… so one created by the husband for the wife and the wife creates one for the husband.
Personally, they basically becomes financial paupers … if it is done before the vultures start circling… the trust can be set up to pay their day to day expenses, even legal expenses, but prohibit the trustee of the trust to allow the monies/assets to be confiscated.
The DEA PREDATOR is just like a robber/burglar… they look for easy targets and – IMO – they have little concern about the “dead bodies” attached to a particular practice/prescriber from the perceived OD of a person.
These, so called, OD’s from a particular practice that the DEA claims to be a result of the prescriber’s prescribing habits. where are the lawsuits from the surviving families toward these prescribers ?
Where is the actions against these prescribers by the state Medical licensing boards for improper prescribing before the DEA shows up on the prescriber’s doorstep ? No media coverage of all the complaints from pts from the Medical Boards’ records about a particular prescriber for unprofessional conduct, malpractice. Could it be that their file is basically “empty”. Does it boil down that only the DEA believes that the prescriber is a “bad prescriber” ?
I often wonder what some law firm has not set up and promoted creating such irrevocable trusts for presribers. Is it because it may be frowned upon by fellow attorneys that they are working AGAINST the judicial system? Prescribers doing this in mass could have a chilling effect on the business/revenue of prosecuting/defense attorneys and the the DOJ/DEA would have fewer – if any – prescriber that they could “go after”.
Just think about it, when is the last time that you have heard of an attorney suing another attorney ? So, is there a unwritten rule within the legal profession that you don’t sue another part of the judicial system ? and the DEA is part of that same system.
One would think that if doctors are concerned about their chronic pain pts and the care that they get and hopefully will continue to get.. that docs would be looking for ways to put obstacles between them and the DEA, instead of just ignoring the warning signs of what is happening or just stop caring for chronic pain pts or just walking away from the practice of medicine.
Filed under: General Problems
Chapman Law Group in Michigan and Florida.
Steve, I love your opinion pieces! You write brilliantly about things that would never occur to my mind!
I wish there was some way that this could be put where every doctor could read it!! Of course, there are always the arrogant doctors who become physicians for the money only, NOT out of compassion and mercy who want to help the plight of the sick. And in today’s society, these are the majority.
It’s easier for them to just walk away from us than try to help because they never cared to begin with! If the doctors had all banded together to FIGHT for their Patients in the very beginning instead of rolling over like the cowards they are, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Good points, all of them. Doctors have to care enough about their profession not to be so easily put off of it, especially at the expense of the sickest of the sick – those with incurable diseases that cause severe pain. It’s about loyalty, it’s about integrity, and a lot of other important things that have real consequences.
Nail it,,,100% agree,,,maryw