Cindy Louise Hyche Dunn, 53, owner of Cindy Dunn & Dr. Buckingham Weight Loss Clinic and Pain Management (CDPM) in Moody, AL, her husband Thomas Mason Dunn, 56, and the 85 y/o family practice doctor working for them, were indicted last week on 20 counts for prescribing controlled substances. This is an illegal application of the Controlled Substance Act being performed by U.S. Attorney Jay Town, Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent in Charge Bret Hamilton and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Holloman.

The charges are based on a period of 4 years, from 2012 to 2015 and, as usual, use the phrase in the Controlled Substance Act that was actually written with the intention of exempting doctors from the act—that if the prescriptions were written in the usual course of professional practice and for a legitimate medical purpose, doctors are exempt from the law. However, it is now routine for the DOJ to create crime where there is none, by reconstructing statutes to use against innocent citizens. This is one of those routine creations. The American people need to wake up and realize that our Department of Justice is no longer interested in justice, but in job security and bonuses.  As Town said, more of a personal reflection than that of pointing the finger at these innocent health care providers: “Personal greed motivates the people…”  He said it right when he said “Follow the money”. But he is talking about himself and his law enforcement buddies.

And to state his comments in a more realistic sense, the Department of Justice is determined to stamp out pain clinics by all illegal means that they can, and the Northern District of Alabama is fully committed to it. As one of 12 districts across the county participating in Sessions’ Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, they take advantage of data collection (Prescription Monitoring Programs) to investigate and shut down any pain management clinic they target. The government hopes that indictments will serve as a reminder to anyone who writes a controlled prescription that they could be the next target. 

In the indictment, they specifically mention three patients who got prescriptions for methadone and oxycodone, spouting numbers. But first, they even state the prescriptions were for PATIENTS. That fact alone prevents them from using the CSA (Controlled Substance Act) legally, as per the statutes of the act, and all of the Supreme Court decisions that have specifically spoken to the fact that the law was designed for those selling pills on the street, as a standard drug-pusher, not a doctor prescribing to his patients. But due to the standard government propaganda, such as what was written in the indictment, 16 of the counts are attacking these medical professionals for doing what they have the legal authority to do. And the doctor, per the CSA, is the ONLY person with the authority to determine what is legitimate, not the AG or DEA.  THEY—government agents—are practicing medicine without a license by doing what they are doing.

The second point about their prescriptions is that, because methadone only comes in 10 mg tablets, and standard doses can run over 100 mg/day, the number of pills prescribed is meaningless. Most of the time when you actually calibrate the doses, they are under the maximum allowable. But the DOJ likes to spout numbers because naïve Americans don’t know the facts, and the numbers appear large.

So why have they chosen this clinic and these three people to attack?  Well, they attacked Mr. and Ms. Dunn because they are the owners, and they can confiscate all their assets from their work. They attacked an 85 y/o physician because he probably has substantial property or retirement that they can confiscate, or burn up in the defense process.  Like Town said in the indictment, follow the money.

The indictment also charges Cindy Dunn and Dr. Buckingham with maintaining a drug-involved premises, and charges all three defendants with participating in a money-laundering conspiracy. These are terms designed to be used against off-shore drug cartels, not legitimate doctors’ offices. But the Controlled Substance Act is never explained or read in the court, so the jurors don’t know the truth. They buy into the government propaganda. We have to educate Americans to the truth, and stop these illegal attacks on compassionate, caring people.

And then the final count of the indictment charges Cindy Dunn with engaging in a monetary transaction involving criminally derived property valued at more than $10,000. This charge is based on the transfer of funds from the Pain management clinic bank account to another bank account.  This was more than likely a legitimate transaction by the legitimate business. But by turning doctors’ offices into drug cartel headquarters, the Justice Department can then make all of the legitimate proceeds from taking care of patients be turned into “criminally derived property” simply for the purpose of forfeiture.  This is how the DOJ and DEA now support their agencies’ salaries. $4 billion has been confiscated from legitimate medical practices over the last 10 years.  That is where the REAL crime lies.

Another sad part of this story is that this was a reasonable pain management clinic as to costs, unlike the government-protected and conspiring hospital clinics that charge so much more but don’t get targeted (yet). CDPM typically charged a $25 patient application fee, a $200-$300 clinic visit fee for new patients, then a $90-$125 monthly fee for follow-up visits. These charges are very reasonable.  More than likely they took care of the expendable populations—the uninsured, disabled, and elderly.

We hope that the three defendants stand up to this illegal government overreach in court, and not cave in to the usual plea agreement which just allows the DOJ to move on to another target. If we don’t stand up to this insanity, soon there won’t be any pain management.

Addendum

Sorry to say, Cindy and her husband Thomas Dunn pleaded guilty in March, 2019. Cindy was sentenced to 10 years in prison based on 2 charges, and Thomas was sentenced to 30 months based on one charge.

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 from the author:

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 Mrs. Dunn 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.