Report on Psychotropic Drug Crimes Launched on Online Tracking Database
United States of America (Press Release) February 21, 2008 --
Two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigations into doctors who prescribed cocktails of drugs, including tranquilizers and painkillers, leading to patient deaths, have prompted a new report released today online. The report, “When Prescribing Psychotropic Drugs Becomes Criminal Negligence: Cases and Convictions” (link), published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), shows legal precedents where psychiatrists or doctors prescribing psychiatric drugs have been convicted of manslaughter when patients have died as a result of those prescriptions.
Published on the website, psychcrime.org, (link) which features the world’s only searchable database of criminally convicted psychiatrists and mental health practitioners, the report calls for referral for criminal investigation of all deaths or injury due to poly-pharmacy or negligent prescribing—rather than to medical boards who can only suspend the license of those found culpable.
The unique psychcrime.org database is searchable by first and last name, type of crime and location. In its nearly 40 years of investigating criminal abuse in the mental health system, CCHR has found that criminal convictions do not always stop practitioners from moving to another state or country and continuing to practice on unsuspecting patients. CCHR has tracked such cases and reported them to local authorities that have been able to locate them and prevent further patient abuse. The database provides a list of almost 1,000 convicted mental health workers. Recent cases include:
On February 1, 2008, Pennsylvania psychiatrist Harold Pascal pleaded no contest to charges of issuing illegal medical prescriptions and Medicaid fraud. He was sentenced to 6-18 months in jail. Narcotics Agent Troy Serfass, who posed undercover as one of Pascal’s patients said, “He was motivated by greed. He prescribed illegal medications even after being told patients were selling those medications on the streets.”
On October 24, 2007, psychiatrist Michael Mavroidis of Massachusetts was sentenced to a year in prison, 10 years probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for illegally prescribing drugs, including the sedatives Klonopin, Ativan and Xanax and the painkiller Oxycontin. He came under investigation following patient overdose deaths and accusations that he extorted oral sex from at least one patient in exchange for prescription drugs.
“CCHR is dedicated to exposing these crimes for the protection of consumers and invites authorities and the public to make use of this unique database,” Ms. Eastgate stated.
CCHR is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR's Media Department at 800-869-2247 or email humanrights@cchr.org.
Websites: http://www.psychcrime.org or http://www.cchr.org
Published on the website, psychcrime.org, (link) which features the world’s only searchable database of criminally convicted psychiatrists and mental health practitioners, the report calls for referral for criminal investigation of all deaths or injury due to poly-pharmacy or negligent prescribing—rather than to medical boards who can only suspend the license of those found culpable.
The unique psychcrime.org database is searchable by first and last name, type of crime and location. In its nearly 40 years of investigating criminal abuse in the mental health system, CCHR has found that criminal convictions do not always stop practitioners from moving to another state or country and continuing to practice on unsuspecting patients. CCHR has tracked such cases and reported them to local authorities that have been able to locate them and prevent further patient abuse. The database provides a list of almost 1,000 convicted mental health workers. Recent cases include:
On February 1, 2008, Pennsylvania psychiatrist Harold Pascal pleaded no contest to charges of issuing illegal medical prescriptions and Medicaid fraud. He was sentenced to 6-18 months in jail. Narcotics Agent Troy Serfass, who posed undercover as one of Pascal’s patients said, “He was motivated by greed. He prescribed illegal medications even after being told patients were selling those medications on the streets.”
On October 24, 2007, psychiatrist Michael Mavroidis of Massachusetts was sentenced to a year in prison, 10 years probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for illegally prescribing drugs, including the sedatives Klonopin, Ativan and Xanax and the painkiller Oxycontin. He came under investigation following patient overdose deaths and accusations that he extorted oral sex from at least one patient in exchange for prescription drugs.
“CCHR is dedicated to exposing these crimes for the protection of consumers and invites authorities and the public to make use of this unique database,” Ms. Eastgate stated.
CCHR is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR's Media Department at 800-869-2247 or email humanrights@cchr.org.
Websites: http://www.psychcrime.org or http://www.cchr.org
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