Dr. Lamartiniere, 60 years old, was a successful Internal Medicine physician with 30 years experience. He started seeing pain patients in 2014 after they were abandoned by their previous physician.   He continued their usual pain management regimen after informing them of the fact that he was not a pain management physician and planned to refer some of the patients to pain management specialists but had limited success. So he did what any GOOD doctor would do—he took conferences and got his CMEs on safe opioid prescribing. He followed these principles. He systematically tried tapering the patients’ doses, but when the taper was shown to be harmful to the patient’s pain control or quality of life, he adjusted the dose back up. This is all in accordance with the CDC guidelines and the CDC’s recent statement in response to the letter from HP3:

“ the Guideline includes recommendations for clinicians to work with patients to taper or reduce dosage only when patient harm outweighs patient benefit of opioid therapy.”

Dr. Lamartiniere did everything by the book, as we all do. He monitored their care with drug screens and conducted reevaluations every three months for his very reasonable standard medical fee without any added charges for pain management. He became so busy that he eventually had to refuse new pain patients because he wanted his clinic to remain Internal Medicine.

But then the dam broke. He received a letter from the state board requesting copies of records of several patients, and then a couple months later his office was raided by local, state law enforcement led by the DEA with a “search warrant”. I can guarantee that the search warrant was based on lies. At the time of the raid, the DEA agent demanded that he voluntarily sign away his DEA license, accusing him of “facilitating diversion of narcotics”. As any doctor should, he refused to do that. It is important for doctors to understand that once you have relinquished your DEA certificate, you will never get it back. They lie and tell you otherwise, but they are in the lying business.

On January 12, 2016, he was arrested. The state never charged him with anything, and turned it over to the Board of Medicine. However, any of us that have been through this process know that the state boards of medicine have become simple arms of the Department of Justice. They leave a paper trail which the state or federal prosecutors then use against you later in court. Doctors are tricked into signing “consent orders” which state “I neither agree with or deny the charges”, but when push comes to shove, the prosecutors state the charges as if they were fact. So the message to doctors out there is Don’t Sign Consent Orders pertaining to Controlled Substance prescriptions.

So Dr. Lamartiniere, in his naivety, signed a consent order and did all of the requirements of the board. But in June, 2018, he was arrested for federal prosecution. He was indicted on 24 counts of distribution of Schedule II narcotics, two counts of distribution of Schedule III narcotics and five counts of distribution of Schedule IV narcotics. His trial will be later this year.

But in reality, people who know him say:
“Dr. Lamartiniere is a fine doctor and a man who chose the welfare of his patients”

The Elephant in the Room

The recent response of the CDC to the HP3 group of medical professionals was heralded by pain patients as a “success”. But now 1 week later, the biggest list of medical professionals thus far was served indictments for prescribing. There will be no safety in treating pain patients until we get the legislators to understand how the CSA is being used illegally, and they stop the rogue activity of the DOJ, make those acting illegally be accountable, and exonerate all professionals who have been attacked through this rogue process.

This has really become a lucrative market for government agencies. The important part of the indictment was the forfeiture. Even though Dr. Lamartiniere’s main practice was Internal Medicine—from diabetes to heart disease and everything in between, the government confiscated all he had, leaving him basically destitute. Enough to have to break down and run a Go Fund Me page to live.

And what about the state medical boards now? They are using this avenue of income as well. They set up these bogus investigations against doctors, work with the DOJ to prosecute the targeted physicians, and then fine the doctor hundreds of thousands of dollars for their trouble. Someone needs to do a FOIA investigation to see where this money goes, and into whose pockets.

Addendum:

Dr. Lamartiniere was convicted by jury in Dec, 2022 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.  If you are a victim of this illegal government overreach, or simply want to get government overreach out of your doctor’s office, please join us in the fight. Join our membership group as a supporter or professional. Let’s get this done!!

To end these attacks, restore pain management, and provide compensation to all the families that have been destroyed by government overreach, we must get the Controlled Substance Act repealed.  Join Doctorsofcourage to get that done. Learn what we teach and spread the word.  NO DRUG CAUSES ADDICTION!! Let’s end the War on Drugs, Doctors and Pain Patients, end the black market, solve the southern border crisis, and restore proper pain management.  It CAN be done! 

Addendum:

I have failed in my mission to end these attacks on doctors and pain patients. Through John Bevere’s book The Bait of Satan, I have figured out why—my lack of forgiveness to those who attacked me. As in Mark 11: 24-26:

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

And when you do not do the will of the Father, you are estranged from him and he will ignore you.  So we all must forgive the agents who attacked us in order for things to be made right through any of our works.

Jesus said

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

But we cannot lay down our lives for God unless we know Him well enough to trust Him. We must have the assurance that He would never do anything to harm us. He always looks out for what He knows is in our best interest. As a nation, those of us suffering from these attacks must understand that we are serving as God’s messengers of love.  We must forgive those who persecute us and love them instead, following God’s will for us. Then and only then will we see fruits from our labor.

So I hope that everyone who has suffered from what happened to Dr Lamartiniere can trust the Lord, forgive those who have hurt you, and help bring this country back to the God-fearing country that our forefathers founded. Then, and only then, can you be a part of the effort to stop these attacks. I look forward to that day.

VICTORY CAN BE OURS!!!