Doctors, Patients, Latest Drug War Casualties

A little more than five years ago, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer initiated a high-profile campaign against pain doctors who prescribe high doses of opioids ? drugs such as Oxycontin, Vicodin and codeine.

Lockyer made Frank Fisher his example. Lockyer and other California prosecutors likened Fisher to a crack dealer. Then, to a mass murderer. Fisher was charged with multiple counts of drug distribution, fraud, and most sensationally, 15 counts of murder. The state seized his assets. His bail was set at $15 million and he faced a possible life sentence.

Over the next five years, all of the charges against Fisher flitted away. A judge immediately threw out the murder charges in a preliminary hearing. Four years later, another judge threw out the other felony charges ? manslaughter and fraud. In May of this year, a jury considered the remaining misdemeanor charges against Fisher and acquitted him on every one of them. One juror said Fisher had been the victim of a ?witch hunt.?

Many conservatives are fond of countering drug-legalization arguments by citing the increased cost to society of widespread drug use. There will be addicts in the streets and preschoolers dying of overdoses... there will be people who choose to remain in a drug-filled haze on welfare. There's some truth to those charges, of course. Some people will always misuse freedom if given the opportunity.

But there is a very high social cost to continuing the drug war as well, and it is exemplified by efforts like this. This is a doctor trying to treat patients, and he has been selected by the government as an "example" to bring the rest of the doctors in line. We're not supposed to have a government that does that. We're not supposed to set examples; we're supposed to have equal justice for all.

Just one more casualty of the drug war.