Douglas Cline, MD

Are you an elderly family practice physician treating pain or a patient of one?  Then you better learn what I teach and help get the CSA repealed. If you don’t, here is what can happen to you.

Douglas Cline, MD, 67 y/o of Queensbury, NY is a family practice physician with 40 years’ experience. He and his nurse practitioner, 64 y/o Laurie McKenna, were accused of “doling out controlled substances without adequate examinations, monitoring, or treatment planning”. Every doctor in this country could be charged and convicted for this exact reason.  Why?  Because the people in this country believe that opioids cause addiction and every doctor who prescribes them is causing addiction or feeding an addict for his own wealth.

So let’s look at Dr. Cline’s situation. After 4 years of trying to fight the charges, he finally succumbed to the government—as everyone would eventually have to because your assets are frozen—and accepted a plea. As a result of the plea, he will pay the government half a million dollars.  His career and reputation destroyed, neither he nor Ms. McKenna will ever practice medicine again. As a result of the attacks on him, Dr. Cline retired from the practice of medicine. He surrendered his DEA registration and allowed his medical license to lapse last August. FNP McKenna also retired from practicing medicine. Under the settlement they both agreed that for 20 years they would “not seek to renew, reinstate, or apply for a new controlled substance registration from the DEA.”

One of the cases that the government used against them was treating the pain of a couple who had been a patient at his clinic, but had moved to Alabama.  There, they could not find a doctor willing to treat them, so they continued to be treated by Dr. Cline for 3 years.  This was okay by the government because they had extended digital service due to the Covid pandemic. In their complaint against this treatment, the government said

“Defendants continued to provide these prescriptions to the out-of-state couple for over three years, despite knowing — or being reckless in not knowing — that the couple had an opioid addiction. And that the prescriptions issued were for “non-legitimate medical purposes.”

The prosecutors said that “In Alabama, it was not possible for them to be subjected to effective drug testing which is a standard for patients receiving opioids and benzodiazepines.” Then the prosecutors said that when they were occasionally drug tested, the results showed the couple tested positive for unprescribed drugs or the absence of their prescribed drugs. Naturally they don’t look at the reasons given.  Then, they also claim that in March 2017, one of them went to a hospital and “was treated as a drug seeker.” But that is standard now with anyone who goes to the ER with a pain problem. They are automatically, because of the propaganda and prejudice, called a “drug seeker”.

The prosecution, playing doctor, even contradicts the doctor’s assessment of the woman having some psychological issues and his continuing to prescribe pain medicine with the note in the record that the woman’s addiction/diversion risk was minimal.  Obviously the woman had a legitimate pain problem and needed the medication being prescribed. This is the doctor’s decision, not the government’s. But the government has taken over the medical decision-making in the realm of controlled substances.  You will be damned if you do, or damned if you don’t, whichever gets the government the win.

Another medical decision attacked by the prosecution was the prescribing of opioids, benzodiazepines and muscle relaxants together.  Naturally, as an experienced pain management physician, Dr. Cline had years of experience with these three medications prescribed together.  They work, and the only reason they are now attacked by the government is the propaganda spread about them in order to convict doctors.

And here is the crux of the government’s argument that Dr. Cline and FNP McKenna had prescribed “outside the usual course of professional practice, in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.” And this still flies, in spite of the Ruan Supreme Court decision. As I said it would.

So finally, after their attempts to escape prosecution, Dr. Cline agreed to pay ½ million and Ms. McKenna agreed to pay $50,000. Because of the legal costs, Ms. McKenna had to represent herself in the legal cases. Her reply to the charges was:

“We felt like we did good care for patients and treating their pain,” she said. “Every patient was sent to us … by physicians and specialists to be treated, you know, for their pain. … We fought for four years, but you run out of money, and you can’t afford to fight the government.”

Ms. McKenna said they required patients they treated to submit to urine tests and other screening methods to help make sure they were not drug addicts or individuals with criminal backgrounds.

In spite of getting behind what we do here on DoC and ending these attacks, FNP McKenna finally realizes what I’ve said for 10+ years:

“All providers who write pain medications are under scrutiny,” McKenna added. “They want to make us all into villains. … They (the government) want to pretend that (the patients) don’t need the pain medications, that they’re all just a bunch of junkies looking for their fix. And these are people that we were able to get up and functioning again, like people who hadn’t been able to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the last five years because they couldn’t get off the couch. You treat their pain and they’re able to function and be human beings again.”

When you reference this case through the news media you will see that the primary effort on the part of the government is to chase and locate the money that they can confiscate. That’s what this is all about—MONEY!  It’s not about true problems with the prescribing of controlled substances.  Get behind what will end this and restore medical management to those trained—the doctors.

The real guilty law-breakers in this case are DEA Special Agent in Charge Farhana Islam, USA John A. Sarcone III, AUSA Christopher R. Moran and Adam J. Katz, the DEA Diversion SPEAR team,  DHHS Agent Naomi D. Gruchacz, DCIS agent Christopher M. Silvestro, the DEA Albany District Office SPEAR Group, the DCIS Syracuse Resident Agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the Defense Health Agency, the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the New York State Police, and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. They, and any LE officials involved in this case should be held liable and responsible for remuneration in the costs of this illegal attack on these two innocent medical providers.

It’s interesting that the US Attorney made this statement:
“Medical professionals are entrusted with protecting patients’ lives, not placing profits above their health and safety. I commend the work of our DEA Diversion SPEAR team for pursuing those who endanger public health and profit from the ongoing opioid crisis.”

When it is actually the Justice Department and all the above mentioned government agencies that are the ones putting profits over public health and safety.  It was the government that created the War on Drugs as a white supremist attack on minorities when drugs are not the cause of addiction.  I have been explaining the real cause now for 10 years and yet people still won’t accept it and help get these attacks stopped and those of us whose lives have been ruined compensated.