Earlier this month, a physician was sentenced to 30 years to life for the murder of three people after prescribing patients painkillers including Percocet and Vicodin. The sentencing was the first of its kind in which a judge sentenced a physician for murdering patients by overprescibing pain medication, leading many in the medical community to wonder whether the justice system should penalize physicians for patient overdoses.
Many argue such prosecutions could lead to many under-treated chronic pain patients, according to The New York Times. Further, many patients can overdose from an array of drugs or extenuating circumstances. Although a handful of physicians are justly prosecuted for intentionally overprescribing painkillers for financial gains, the vast majority legitimately use opioids to treat chronic pain patients.
With nearly 100 million Americans suffering from chronic pain, patients may suffer as the fear of lawsuits stops physician from prescribing painkillers. On the other end of the spectrum, some physicians have faced malpractice lawsuits for under-treating a patient's pain, leaving the medical community at a loss for the best way to address chronic pain. The effect of prosecutions has a "chilling effect" on physicians, and the medical community may need to find another way to combat the opioid epidemic.
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