California Lawmaker Seeks More Oversight of Prescription Drug Deaths

A California state Senator has been working diligently to introduce a bill requiring coroners to report prescription drug deaths to the Medical Board of California. Senator Curren D. Price Jr., who is also Chairman of the Medical Board of California, hopes the new bill will help to identify medical professionals whose prescribing methods may contribute to prescription drug addiction and overdose.

The proposed legislation is a response to  an LA Times investigation into coroner reports. The investigation revealed that numerous deaths caused by the overuse of prescription pain medication can be linked to a handful of physicians. The Times examined 3,733 prescription drug related deaths that took place between 2006 and 2011 in the counties of Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles and Ventura. It was revealed that 1,762 cases resulted from overdosing on medications that had been prescribed by doctors. …

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Dr. Feelgood Charged with Murder in Patient Overdose Deaths

A Southern California doctor who had earned the nickname “Dr. Feelgood” for prescribing large quantities of prescription drugs has been charged with murder for the overdose deaths of three patients.  Lisa (Hsiu-Ying) Tseng was taken into custody at her office located in a Rowland Heights strip mall and led away in handcuffs.  She will be arraigned in Los Angeles County Superior Court and is being held on $3 million bail.  If convicted, Dr. Tseng could be sentenced to a state prison term of 45 years to life.

According to authorities, Tseng wrote prescriptions for narcotic painkillers including OxyContin and Vicodin and other potent drugs like Xanax and Adderall at a rate of about 25 per day for the past three years.  This amounted to more than 27,000 prescriptions.  Her patients were asked a minimum number of questions and were not …

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California Doctor known as “Candy Man” Arrested for Drug Trafficking

It appears that yet another doctor has placed the desire to make money by trafficking in prescription painkillers like OxyContin above the welfare of his patients.  Dr. Julio Diaz, a Santa Barbara physician who has been linked to at least a dozen drug overdose deaths in recent years, was recently taken into custody at his home by local police and federal authorities from the DEA.  The charges against him include felony drug trafficking. The 63-year-old doctor had been the subject of an ongoing investigation for allegedly prescribing addictive prescription medication to patients who had no medical need for the drugs.  He was known on the street as “Candy Man” because he had a reputation for freely dispensing prescription drugs.  His reputation was so widespread that people drove hundreds of miles to his Family Medical Clinic to obtain drugs.  An…
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