Prescriptions for Cash

A family doctor turned her clinic into a cash business serving young men who wanted painkillers and anxiety pills. Visits lasted minutes, with little or no examination. She prescribed high doses of opioids and sedatives together. Big pharmacy chains refused to fill her prescriptions, so she sent patients to smaller ones. Coroner's investigators told her that patients had died, but her prescribing did not change. Three young patients died of drug toxicity within days of seeing her. Murder requires proof she consciously disregarded a known risk to life; mere carelessness would only be manslaughter.