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U.S. Attorney, Heal Thyself -
a Response to 'First Do No Harm' by John Brownlee

 
Alexander DeLuca, M.D., MPH; Addiction, Pain and Public Health website; 2006-02-04.
[Identifier: http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/WPS5-Knox/BrownleeHealThyself.htm]
 
Related resources:
Knox / Boone collection  ;  War on Doctors/Pain Crisis Journalism and Advocacy archives 
See also:
 The War on Drugs, War on Doctors, and the Pain Crisis in America - DeLuca; 2002
 
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[Full Text of this Article in Adobe PDF format]

John Brownlee is the United States attorney for the Western District of Virginia who prosecuted Dr. Cecil Knox and Beverly Boone. 
[Full text: "First Do No Harm" by John Brownlee, The Roanoke Times, 2006-01-30]

In "First Do No Harm" Brownlee luridly presents a medical anecdote suggesting that the continuance of opioid medications in pregnancy is inappropriate medical practice. He is factually wrong.

The safest medical course in a pregnant patient on chronic opioid therapy is to continue the medication. Medical treatment of the newborn is easily accomplished, and any suffering that occurs is a failure to adequately treat. I am not surprised the child has developed entirely normally; overwhelmingly this is the rule, not the exception.

I can't blame Brownlee for trying to spin the farce that the "racketeering" trials of Dr. Knox and Beverly Boone became.

Over 300 charges were brought in a long federal prosecution that ultimately cost Dr. Knox his license. This end could have been accomplished by simple administrative action of the state medical board.

Brownlee took advantage of federal laws and powers designed to fight organized crime to distort the medical practice of pain management. In the process he usurped the states' right to license and regulate medical practice. This contributes to the well documented public health crisis of untreated and undertreated pain.

Is this what we want and deserve from federal law enforcement?

[Full Text of this Article in Adobe PDF format]

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