Albert Diaz, MD

Should this happen to any caring doctor, especially when the laws being used were designed for Jim Crow minority disenfranchisement and are now being used to confiscate doctors’ assets and provide jobs to government agents without a real cause? 

No doctor should be treated this way. This is criminal and it needs to be stopped. Imagine that this was your doctor? After 45 years of practice, bringing new babies into the world, helping women live good, reproductive lives, suddenly he decides to turn criminal while making no money at it?  We really need to reevaluate where this country is heading, and the purpose behind these archaic laws without basis.

This is Albert Diaz, MD, 79, an obstetrics & gynecology specialist in Biloxi, MS. He graduated from medical school in 1971, just as the Controlled Substance Act took effect. A compassionate, caring physician by all reports on his Support Dr. Dias, MD page on FaceBook, it doesn’t surprise me that he did what he is alleged to have done, but it shouldn’t make him a criminal to spend the next 3 ½ years in prison.

Back in March, 2018, a jury found Dr. Diaz guilty of 16 counts in connection to an alleged compound pharmacy scheme which he was not even a part of. The trial only lasted 5 days, so I would say he was inadequately represented. He was taken into custody immediately.

What was Dr. Diaz’s “crime”? Doing what many doctors do today, especially those under the protected hospital umbrella. I know it happened in the hospital involved in the attack against me, Columbia HCA, because I saw it being done, and doctors approached me to write them scripts for controlled drugs, but I refused. The crime was that he wrote a prescription for a controlled substance without a doctor/patient relationship. He admitted this on the witness stand. The prescriptions were for ketamine, scar creams, and accompanying vitamins.

He believed the story pharmaceutical sales rep Gerald “Jay” Schaar, 46, told him that several VA patients were denied the pain creams by their doctors and would have to start taking oral opioids instead. Dr. Diaz was concerned about the patients becoming addicted on the oral, so he signed the prescriptions and told Schaar he needed to see the patients for followup. The patients never appeared, yet Diaz kept signing prescriptions.  That was his mistake. I believe emergency prescriptions for controlled substances can be written, but the patient needs to be seen within 72 hours. Eventually he did see the patients, and set up files after the fact to respond to a TRICARE audit.

But prosecutor Kate Payerle claimed Diaz was a willing participant instead of the victim he actually was. He simply provided needed care. He made no money and had no interest in the compounding pharmacy scheme, while the sales rep and others raked in millions. Prosecutors even admitted Schaar solicited physicians to write these prescriptions, some of which were paid a kickback per prescription.  But the prosecutors did not find any money received by Dr. Diaz.

Now the government is crying “fraud” because of prescribing medically unnecessary compounds. But in many cases, compounding creams are more scientifically based than pills. They go straight into the affected tissues without the spread throughout the body. Essentially, therefore, there should be less risk of dependence or addiction. Doctors need to be able to prescribe what is best, not just what is cheapest from the insurance perspective.

Note that Jason May, 40, pharmacist in charge and co-owner of Advantage Pharmacy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and money laundering. Jay Schaar, the drug rep, pleaded guilty to one count of attempt and conspiracy. These two, along with others in the conspiracy, benefited from the operation, while there was no benefit for Dr. Diaz, and to this day he denies knowing anything about it. Schaar, testified that he was paid around $1.8 million in the 18 months he worked selling compounded medicines. Diaz never received any money for writing the prescriptions, which Schaar confirmed in his testimony.

What makes me even more angry is that a nurse practitioner practicing in Biloxi at another clinic, Susan Perry, did knowingly participate in the conspiracy because she received $250 per prescription she wrote. And yet she received the same prison time as Dr. Diaz.

I think everything is summed up by the comment on the Support Albert Diaz, MD by Tony Lawrence:

They say the punishment should fit the crime. His only crime was being compassionate and kind to all people! And being one of the kindest physicians and surgeons I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

People, we have a responsibility. We have to get the Controlled Substance Act repealed. It is totally worthless as drugs are not the cause of addiction. And it is ruining lives. Please learn the truth about drugs and these horrendous attacks on doctors. Spread the knowledge to combat the propaganda. And JOIN DoctorsofCourage.

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. Diaz 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.

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