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DEA Motivation for Targeting Small Rural Medical Practices and Older Physicians

Ed S.; Family member of an American physician; Pain & Social Policy listServ; Pain Relief Network; 5/8/2005
Posted 5/11/2005: [http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/DeaAsPredatoryPack05.htm]
[See also: "The Plan"]
 

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1. Patients in Rural Areas have Often Performed Heavy and Dangerous Work
all their lives, resulting in more trauma and debilitation, translating to more medication. Until just a few years ago, agriculture held the number one spot as the most hazardous occupation.

2. Fatter Forfeitures for DEA

Older doctors are probably seen as having had the opportunity to pay off their student loans, and acquire more assets - which translates to fatter forfeitures to the DEA.

3. Fooling Most of the People…

Many primary care doctors in small-town America are used to treating unsophisticated, simple people who sometimes have sophisticated, often complex problems. They must believe their patients in order to try to help them. The relationship is based on truth, and trust.  The DEA may consider these doctors gullible. Certainly, an unwarned physician would be unwary of a well-rehearsed undercover agent with fake medical records and borrowed x-rays. The DEA deals in deception. They deceive doctors, patients, judges, and juries. They deceive reporters, the American public, senators, and Presidents.

Fool a doctor? Child’s play; it is easier for the DEA because they are practiced in the art of deception; it's what they do for a living, all of them. They also have tools that other people have no access to, such as fake IDs made by the DMV and fake Medicaid cards, and letters of referral from unethical, cooperating (paid) physicians. 

Fool a jury? That's even easier. Juries always know the doctors are guilty, before the trial ever starts. They read all about it in the newspaper. The prosecutors call the doctors "pushers" and "drug dealers in white coats" repeatedly, from the day of  the arrest through the closing arguments in court. It must be true, or else somebody would have said something, like, "Stop saying that or I'll sue you" or "Your Honor, I object." 

4. DEA Target Selection – an Example of Predatory Pack Behavior

It is probably not coincidental that the DEA usually selects isolated physicians or small practices with no university affiliations. The DEA acts with a ‘pack mentality’ which is a well-known phenomenon. The potential for violence, or a successful kill, increases with increasing pack number.

Consider the possibility of the DEA as a predatory pack launching a coordinated assault on their target, wounding him and effectively separating him from the herd of his peers (which retreats to a safe distance to watch). The well-fed pack then takes its leisurely time to finish the kill.

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5. Poor People with Pain Don't Have Much Political Clout  

Poor people, suffering with unrelieved pain, cannot really do much to help their doctors or themselves.  The DEA holds the keys to suffering and relief. They have power without moral obligation. That's why it's not hard for them to bully suffering people into submission. It makes their job easier.

DEA likes a rigged game. They start by conducting a well-publicized seizure of  all the medical records generating a media blitz labeling the clinic as a haven for lazy junkies and criminals. Besides polluting the jury pool, this makes people ashamed to say they went to that clinic, and makes them reluctant to testify for the vilified doctor. The DEA issues an emergency suspension of the doctor’s DEA registration certificate to make sure all his patients panic, and the real suffering begins. Other doctors will not see the patients without their medical records, and the DEA will not release the records. Local pharmacists report any doctor writing prescriptions for the out-of-luck patients, and DEA agents only need one visit to the foolish doctor to convince him to stop that.

DEA agents and prosecutors, along with other task force members, have been known to make house calls to individual patients or clinic employees to tell them that 'they, too, are being investigated, and there may be a lot more prosecutions'.  Most patients will shrink away, totally disheartened, but the few who get ‘You will go to jail right now and stay there for years’ threats, will slither to the witness stand, after days of intense 'testimony preparation' by the DEA, to perjure themselves for a plea bargain. Occasionally a righteous person will stand up against the DEA, for himself or his doctor. The DEA is not worried. The cry of One is drowned by the chorus of the Pack. Courtroom casualties are soon forgotten.

6. Predatory Pack Behavior
DEA entices state and local police forces to join in the kill for a share of the spoils. They all cooperate to bring down the prey, then the DEA takes everything, every single penny, every single asset before the trial even begins, courtesy of drug war asset-forfeiture laws. After absconding with all the goods, the DEA then returns a portion to the rest of the task force. A parallel could be drawn to a hyena eating the entire kill (while her babies watched) and later vomiting back a portion to the pups. Envisioning the DEA as a bloated, vomiting hyena, somehow does my heart good.

Maybe National Geographic would be interested in our story?

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