Published: Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Board investigates doctor's prescriptions
The doctor considers it
unethical to allow a patient to remain in pain.
CINCINNATI (AP) — A doctor whose murder conviction was overturned on appeal a decade ago is being investigated for prescribing large quantities of OxyContin and other painkillers, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy began investigating Dr. L. Stan Naramore in May 2006, when it first received complaints from suspicious pharmacists, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported, citing a review of search warrants and affidavits. Some of his patients told investigators they sold the pills on the street for a profit, the records said.
Dr. Naramore, 62, was found guilty in 1996 of second-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder in Kansas. The attorney general's office there had accused him of killing a man with a drug that made it impossible for him to breathe and trying to kill a woman in the final stages of terminal cancer with a drug overdose. She was removed from Dr. Naramore's care and died a few days later.
The Kansas Court of Appeals overturned his convictions in 1998, citing a lack of evidence. The Kansas Legislature later voted to pay Dr. Naramore $250,000 to settle a wrongful prosecution claim.
Dr. Naramore, who runs a medical practice in the Cincinnati suburb of Mount Healthy, told The Enquirer that he is cooperating with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy investigation and said he considers it unethical for a doctor to allow a patient to remain in pain.
"The undertreatment of pain is a serious problem in America," he said. "Physicians are afraid of persecution and prosecution for adequately treating pain. No American should suffer pain."
Records show that Dr. Naramore's patients come from as far away as Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina, and pay cash only, The Enquirer said.
Dr. Naramore said he required cash payments to avoid hiring extra staff just to handle insurance paperwork.
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy investigates five to 10 doctors each year, said Timothy Benedict, the state agency's assistant executive director. Cases usually come to the board's attention through tips from pharmacists or from local police who find the pills peddled on the street.
At least four of Dr. Naramore's Cincinnati patients are either under indictment or have been charged with drug possession, according to arrest reports, The Enquirer reported.
Dr. Naramore said the pattern is not unusual.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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