“They were looking at patient records – I don’t know why,” said Gitlow. “I have no idea what the underlying reasoning would be.”

But finally, with this attack, we are getting some reaction from people of influence who are finally realizing that federal encroachment into medical practice is action going too far. Michael Barnes, managing partner at DCBA Law & Policy in Washington, DC, states that these raids were unwarranted. He is also concerned that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are out of control. Mr. Barnes is concerned that two recently targeted physicians are, in his assessment, clearly reputable providers—Dr. Gitlow from Rhode Island in March, and Ralph Thomas Reach, MD from Tennessee and Virginia in May.

“These are not criminal cases,” Barnes says. “These are cases where the Department of Justice is going after some of America’s best addiction physicians.” “There is excessive enthusiasm on the part of Jeff Sessions to raid doctors.”

As a result of the attacks on Drs. Gitlow and Reach, DCBA Law & Policy LLP sent a letter to President Trump on May 16, 2018 in support of doctors providing addiction treatment calling for the dismissal of Sessions, the suspension of DOJ criminal investigations against physicians prescribing MAT, and the development of a process to ensure criminal investigations are conducted only with referrals from state licensing boards. It states:

“Under the direction of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is indiscriminately targeting for enforcement some of the nation’s most respected addiction treatment providers. These chilling DOJ raids, investigations, and prosecutions put patients’ lives and communities’ safety at risk.” 

 Our clients respectfully request that you take the following actions to enable health care providers to perform their duties, save lives, and make communities safer: 

1. Dismiss Attorney General Jeff Sessions immediately; 
2. Direct the DOJ to suspend all federal criminal investigations and prosecutions of federally registered prescribers of FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder; and
3. Order the DOJ to issue regulations under which the DOJ and its agencies shall obtain a referral from a state professional licensing board before resuming, instituting, or aiding in a criminal investigation or prosecution of a federally registered prescriber of FDA approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder.                                                       

Mr. Barnes has hit the nail on the head about the improper and illegal overreach into medicine by the federal government. In the case of controlled substance prescribing, doctors are being charged with questionable medical conduct, such as suspected diversion or overprescribing. But as Mr. Barnes states, this is not criminal conduct. At best it might be a case for state medical boards to examine. Physicians violating accepted standards would be investigated by a board of professionals to distinguish whether the offense warrants suspension of the license to practice or action from law enforcement.

“When there is any medical question about a prescriber’s conduct, that question should be referred to the state professional licensing board, which can then conduct an investigation and refer criminal conduct to law enforcement,” Barnes says. “That’s what should be happening. Period.”

Because of limited resources at the state board level, Barnes believes some of the federal opioid-related funds should be funneled to medical boards for that purpose. Supposedly his firm is working pro-bono to advance a policy for a medical-board-referral requirement before federal investigation or prosecution of physicians. That should refer to ALL physicians, not just those prescribing MAT or involved in the treatment of addiction. In 2009, The Federation of State Medical Boards prepared a brief that had the support of attorneys general, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and others in law enforcement. The federation’s template calls for medical expertise to evaluate a physician’s conduct.

But why has this attention been so long in coming to people with the ability to effect legislation and regulation when all of our efforts fall on deaf ears?  What kind of a doctor is Stuart Gitlow? He is a general, forensic, and addiction psychiatrist, Executive Director of the Annenberg Physician Training Program in Addictive Diseases at the Frank Foundation, and Past President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. His degrees, beside Medical Doctor, include Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration. He has held a number of prominent professional positions in the medicine and public health communities. He is medical expert to the Social Security Department’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, ASAM delegate to the American Medical Association, and past chair of the AMA Council on Science and Public Health. He is a faculty member at the University of Florida and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Addictive Diseases. Dr. Gitlow is a regular columnist for Counselor, frequent contributor to textbooks about addiction medicine, and in 2001 published the book Practical Guides in Psychiatry: Substance Use Disorders. Since March 2017, Dr. Gitlow has served as the chief medical officer for The Recovery Research Network, an adult-only, outpatient treatment program headquartered in Atlantis, Fla. There are just as prominent physicians sitting today in prison cells, or like Dr. Salerian, exiled to Greece. But as long as someone is finally realizing this out-of-control government conduct, we might get some government response, and THAT is what matters.  Thank you, Dr. Gitlow and Mr. Barnes. 

Dr. Gitlow and Dr. Reach are now victims of the illegal attacks on doctors by the federal government. Hopefully for all of the innocent physicians in the country that have had their lives ruined by similar attacks, we will now receive some national recognition of our innocence.