1 00:00:10,969 --> 00:00:14,055 Man, damn, I don't... I don't believe this. 2 00:00:14,139 --> 00:00:15,348 I'm losing it. 3 00:00:15,432 --> 00:00:17,475 I'm losing it big time, okay? 4 00:00:17,851 --> 00:00:20,979 Maybe I dreamed this up, you know? Uh, you know, so... 5 00:00:21,396 --> 00:00:23,565 I'm... I'm not trusting myself at this point in time. 6 00:00:25,442 --> 00:00:28,028 It's Thursday. This is important because, uh... 7 00:00:28,653 --> 00:00:29,904 I'm gonna blow up, 8 00:00:30,447 --> 00:00:32,407 because my mind went into paranoia. 9 00:00:32,490 --> 00:00:34,451 I really do believe I crossed the edge. 10 00:00:34,951 --> 00:00:37,287 When I start discussing that I have a purpose, 11 00:00:37,871 --> 00:00:39,247 I do rise up to a certain level. 12 00:00:39,914 --> 00:00:45,295 It's when I go beyond that level that I start not functioning totally perfectly. 13 00:00:46,212 --> 00:00:48,631 So help me, God, to think at a good level. 14 00:00:49,132 --> 00:00:52,093 But not go into the paranoia level because I'm losing it. 15 00:00:53,053 --> 00:00:55,805 How couldn't everybody see what was going on? 16 00:00:56,473 --> 00:00:58,391 That's what we couldn't understand. 17 00:00:59,642 --> 00:01:02,937 I mean, you know, some people had labeled Danny as crazy, 18 00:01:03,021 --> 00:01:04,439 but he went to the FBI, 19 00:01:04,522 --> 00:01:07,776 the DEA, you know, local law enforcement, all this, 20 00:01:08,610 --> 00:01:11,446 and nothing was happening, so who's crazy here? 21 00:01:14,115 --> 00:01:18,286 I was constantly thinking the DEA and FBI was either incompetent 22 00:01:18,953 --> 00:01:20,747 or in cahoots with this doctor. 23 00:01:22,916 --> 00:01:25,919 One of the reasons the investigation took so long 24 00:01:26,002 --> 00:01:29,214 was because we had to go from pharmacy to pharmacy 25 00:01:29,297 --> 00:01:32,300 to find the prescriptions written by Dr. Cleggett. 26 00:01:33,426 --> 00:01:36,554 There was no prescription monitoring program. 27 00:01:36,638 --> 00:01:41,893 So you'd have to hunt and peck all around the city and the suburbs 28 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,313 to find where all of these patients 29 00:01:45,396 --> 00:01:47,982 were going to fill these prescriptions. 30 00:01:49,526 --> 00:01:53,071 You can spend an entire day, uh, or two, 31 00:01:53,154 --> 00:01:57,700 at a pharmacy, picking prescriptions that Dr. Cleggett wrote. 32 00:01:59,619 --> 00:02:02,831 We found that Dr. Cleggett prescribed 33 00:02:02,914 --> 00:02:06,334 180,000 OxyContin pills 34 00:02:06,417 --> 00:02:07,627 within one year. 35 00:02:08,086 --> 00:02:10,588 And that was only ten pharmacies. 36 00:02:11,798 --> 00:02:13,341 We suddenly realized 37 00:02:13,424 --> 00:02:16,469 that it's very likely she was writing millions of pills. 38 00:02:17,095 --> 00:02:20,473 We were experiencing an overdose rate that was just out of control. 39 00:02:22,058 --> 00:02:25,311 During that time, I saw young people 40 00:02:25,395 --> 00:02:26,646 dead from overdose. 41 00:02:27,647 --> 00:02:29,065 Really troubling to me. 42 00:02:29,149 --> 00:02:30,900 I have a son myself. 43 00:02:31,484 --> 00:02:34,237 And I would not wish that on anybody. 44 00:02:36,823 --> 00:02:38,491 When it spiked, it spiked. 45 00:02:38,575 --> 00:02:40,618 It wasn't like it was a gradual sort of thing. 46 00:02:41,286 --> 00:02:43,580 It just seemed like it just started happening 47 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:44,914 right away. 48 00:02:48,710 --> 00:02:51,880 Dr. Cleggett was making St. Bernard Parish 49 00:02:51,963 --> 00:02:53,756 ground zero for overdoses. 50 00:03:42,013 --> 00:03:45,683 Just last week, a man walked into the pharmacy and demanded OxyContin. 51 00:03:45,767 --> 00:03:47,101 He even said he had a gun. 52 00:03:47,769 --> 00:03:51,231 Detectives were able to arrest him as he came out the front doors. 53 00:03:52,273 --> 00:03:53,673 Drugstores were being robbed. 54 00:03:53,733 --> 00:03:55,109 Crazy things were happening. 55 00:03:55,193 --> 00:03:58,196 They were even walking in, in daylight, and doing these types of things. 56 00:04:00,365 --> 00:04:02,867 I see the different crimes going on 57 00:04:02,951 --> 00:04:04,577 and I know it's because of addiction. 58 00:04:04,661 --> 00:04:06,120 These are not bad people. 59 00:04:06,204 --> 00:04:08,539 These are people that are in the most desperate state. 60 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:12,085 It's like starving to death. You're going to do... 61 00:04:12,877 --> 00:04:17,048 whatever you have to do to feed yourself, because you have to survive. 62 00:04:18,258 --> 00:04:21,010 I felt like this mayhem that was going on... 63 00:04:21,511 --> 00:04:23,304 all was tied to Dr. Cleggett. 64 00:04:23,388 --> 00:04:26,099 And I tried to justify my actions 65 00:04:26,182 --> 00:04:29,060 with curtailing OxyContin at the drugstore, 66 00:04:29,143 --> 00:04:31,646 because I thought, if some of those people 67 00:04:31,729 --> 00:04:34,649 didn't come around our store, okay... 68 00:04:35,191 --> 00:04:37,402 that we might be less likely to get robbed. 69 00:04:38,820 --> 00:04:45,159 But my boss at my drugstore, Mr. Claude, thought that I was overreacting 70 00:04:45,243 --> 00:04:46,703 and making judgments. 71 00:04:47,328 --> 00:04:49,372 Mr. Claude is concerned about me. 72 00:04:49,455 --> 00:04:53,418 He knows that I've been talking about this doctor and this drug. 73 00:04:53,501 --> 00:04:55,712 This is maybe what gets me in trouble. 74 00:04:56,296 --> 00:04:59,132 I believe he's filling a lot of OxyContin prescriptions 75 00:04:59,215 --> 00:05:01,217 for people that he shouldn't be filling them for. 76 00:05:01,926 --> 00:05:06,681 Danny and Mr. Claude got into, like, a tension over the prescriptions 77 00:05:06,764 --> 00:05:10,768 'cause OxyContin does make the pharmacy a lot of money. 78 00:05:11,352 --> 00:05:14,022 He couldn't see filling all these prescriptions every day 79 00:05:14,105 --> 00:05:15,105 and not... 80 00:05:15,732 --> 00:05:17,025 not do anything about it. 81 00:05:18,776 --> 00:05:20,016 Mr. Claude would tell me, 82 00:05:20,069 --> 00:05:23,573 you know, "Don't feel complicit. It's a legal prescription 83 00:05:23,656 --> 00:05:24,656 from a doctor." 84 00:05:25,658 --> 00:05:27,285 It was always about the doctors. 85 00:05:27,368 --> 00:05:28,368 They knew best. 86 00:05:28,911 --> 00:05:30,788 You start running into prescriptions 87 00:05:30,872 --> 00:05:32,415 that are very questionable, 88 00:05:32,498 --> 00:05:34,625 but it's not up to you 89 00:05:34,709 --> 00:05:37,587 to make the decision that this is the wrong thing to do. 90 00:05:38,796 --> 00:05:40,173 I didn't see it that way. 91 00:05:41,674 --> 00:05:44,761 As a pharmacist, I felt like it was my mission 92 00:05:44,844 --> 00:05:45,928 to make a difference. 93 00:05:47,138 --> 00:05:49,932 Pharmacists are in a position to know 94 00:05:50,016 --> 00:05:53,436 which physicians are prescribing appropriately 95 00:05:53,519 --> 00:05:56,564 and which physicians are prescribing inappropriately. 96 00:05:57,065 --> 00:06:01,027 Dr. Cleggett surely must have stood out as one 97 00:06:01,110 --> 00:06:03,196 who was not prescribing appropriately. 98 00:06:06,574 --> 00:06:09,786 I was appointed Director of Health in 1983. 99 00:06:11,621 --> 00:06:15,291 We were involved at that time in some drug abuse programs, 100 00:06:15,375 --> 00:06:19,796 because the abuse of prescription opioids became a problem. 101 00:06:21,089 --> 00:06:27,553 There was a tremendous amount of attention given to pain in the late 1990s. 102 00:06:28,721 --> 00:06:30,473 Most doctors in this country... 103 00:06:31,349 --> 00:06:32,683 don't treat pain. 104 00:06:33,184 --> 00:06:35,954 If you're in pain, a lot of 'em accuse you of being a drug addict 105 00:06:35,978 --> 00:06:37,980 or... or there to get high. 106 00:06:38,564 --> 00:06:40,566 They started treating me 107 00:06:40,650 --> 00:06:44,570 as if I was really just coming to them because I wanted pain medication, 108 00:06:44,654 --> 00:06:47,448 I was a drug addict, and that's how they started treating me. 109 00:06:47,573 --> 00:06:49,093 Don't accept it if they say, 110 00:06:49,158 --> 00:06:51,494 "You have to learn to live with the pain." Don't take that. 111 00:06:51,577 --> 00:06:52,745 Find another doctor. 112 00:06:55,873 --> 00:06:58,334 These drug companies came in 113 00:06:58,418 --> 00:07:01,921 and were much less interested in people establishing diagnoses. 114 00:07:02,338 --> 00:07:06,050 Just doling out the prescriptions for their pain medications. 115 00:07:06,676 --> 00:07:07,756 There's no need 116 00:07:07,802 --> 00:07:09,554 for anyone to suffer, 117 00:07:09,637 --> 00:07:12,890 because there are medications that work effectively on pain. 118 00:07:14,892 --> 00:07:18,187 I started thinking this was bigger than just this doctor in New Orleans East. 119 00:07:19,272 --> 00:07:21,149 How in the hell did doctors around the country 120 00:07:21,232 --> 00:07:23,568 think this was a wonder drug and not addictive? 121 00:07:24,902 --> 00:07:27,989 What, what I saw... It looked like over-the-counter heroin. 122 00:07:29,282 --> 00:07:31,409 Sadly, we've known for years in medicine 123 00:07:31,492 --> 00:07:34,829 that we in medicine are doing a very poor job of treating pain. 124 00:07:36,164 --> 00:07:40,543 There's no question that our best, strongest pain medicines are the opioids. 125 00:07:40,626 --> 00:07:42,712 But these are the same drugs that have a reputation 126 00:07:42,795 --> 00:07:45,214 for causing addiction and other terrible things. 127 00:07:47,133 --> 00:07:48,217 Prior to 1980, 128 00:07:48,301 --> 00:07:50,845 doctors were very reluctant to prescribe opioids 129 00:07:50,928 --> 00:07:55,099 because they were afraid their patients would get addicted, and for good reason. 130 00:07:55,183 --> 00:07:59,187 This country had seen at least two prior opioid epidemics. 131 00:07:59,270 --> 00:08:01,481 One that dated back to the Civil War... 132 00:08:02,064 --> 00:08:06,527 when heroin was sold next to Bayer Aspirin as a pain reliever for infants. 133 00:08:08,738 --> 00:08:12,366 Then we saw another opioid epidemic when our soldiers 134 00:08:12,450 --> 00:08:14,327 were coming back from the Vietnam War. 135 00:08:15,620 --> 00:08:17,747 Many of them had gotten addicted to opium 136 00:08:17,830 --> 00:08:19,207 while they were in Vietnam. 137 00:08:21,834 --> 00:08:23,044 Then, in the 1990s, 138 00:08:24,003 --> 00:08:27,840 prescribing more opioids became acquainted with being compassionate. 139 00:08:28,424 --> 00:08:30,885 If you were really a compassionate doctor, 140 00:08:31,135 --> 00:08:33,262 you would prescribe opioids. 141 00:08:35,181 --> 00:08:36,821 These drugs which, I repeat, 142 00:08:36,849 --> 00:08:38,976 are our best, strongest pain medications, 143 00:08:39,060 --> 00:08:40,728 should be used much more than they are 144 00:08:40,811 --> 00:08:42,271 for patients in pain. 145 00:08:44,941 --> 00:08:47,401 Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers 146 00:08:47,485 --> 00:08:50,488 very heavily advocated to doctors 147 00:08:50,571 --> 00:08:52,281 that opioid prescribing was safe 148 00:08:52,365 --> 00:08:54,784 as long as they were treating patients with pain. 149 00:08:54,867 --> 00:08:58,996 That somehow, the prescription pad conferred this sort of magic halo effect 150 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:00,665 and patients couldn't get addicted. 151 00:09:03,751 --> 00:09:06,963 The rate of addiction amongst pain patients 152 00:09:07,046 --> 00:09:08,506 who are treated by doctors 153 00:09:08,589 --> 00:09:10,258 is much less than 1%. 154 00:09:11,092 --> 00:09:14,637 They said patients who are demonstrating all of the signs and symptoms 155 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:18,766 of having become addicted to the opioid that the doctor is prescribing 156 00:09:18,849 --> 00:09:19,934 are not in fact addicted. 157 00:09:20,017 --> 00:09:21,519 They're pseudo-addicted. 158 00:09:22,103 --> 00:09:23,854 Pseudo-addiction is... 159 00:09:24,730 --> 00:09:28,901 when a patient is looking like a drug addict, 160 00:09:28,985 --> 00:09:31,696 because they're pursuing pain relief. 161 00:09:32,196 --> 00:09:34,356 If your patient looked like they were getting addicted, 162 00:09:34,407 --> 00:09:36,659 they weren't really addicted. They were in pain. 163 00:09:36,742 --> 00:09:38,828 You needed to give them more opioids. 164 00:09:39,704 --> 00:09:44,250 Addiction is an uncontrolled, compulsive use of a drug, 165 00:09:44,333 --> 00:09:46,460 despite the fact that it's doing you harm. 166 00:09:47,336 --> 00:09:50,506 Now that's different from physical dependence. 167 00:09:50,590 --> 00:09:53,759 Physical dependence sounds bad, but all it means 168 00:09:53,843 --> 00:09:56,762 is that, if you stop using the drug, then... 169 00:09:57,471 --> 00:09:59,098 you'll get a withdrawal symptom. 170 00:09:59,599 --> 00:10:01,601 But it's clearly got nothing to do with addiction, 171 00:10:01,684 --> 00:10:03,853 because it doesn't have a psychological component. 172 00:10:04,353 --> 00:10:06,522 That's what doctors across the country 173 00:10:06,606 --> 00:10:08,246 were taught in the 1990s and early aughts. 174 00:10:11,485 --> 00:10:13,279 From best practices of sales... 175 00:10:13,362 --> 00:10:17,116 Purdue Pharma actually trained their sales reps 176 00:10:17,199 --> 00:10:18,951 to actually go out and spread that message 177 00:10:19,035 --> 00:10:23,039 that we can alleviate these minor aches and pains that people have 178 00:10:23,122 --> 00:10:24,498 without any fear of addiction. 179 00:10:25,833 --> 00:10:28,336 And that this drug was virtually non-addictive. 180 00:10:31,339 --> 00:10:33,799 I didn't know shit about shit with... 181 00:10:34,550 --> 00:10:35,676 pain medication. 182 00:10:36,302 --> 00:10:38,679 I had no idea what the marketplace looked like. 183 00:10:38,763 --> 00:10:41,140 I just knew that people were making money 184 00:10:41,599 --> 00:10:43,225 and I wanted to make money. 185 00:10:43,934 --> 00:10:45,728 Who doesn't? Right? 186 00:10:49,732 --> 00:10:52,068 I started working with Purdue Pharma 187 00:10:52,151 --> 00:10:53,986 in 1998. 188 00:10:58,157 --> 00:10:59,408 After I was hired, 189 00:10:59,492 --> 00:11:03,579 we had an extensive training period at Purdue's corporate headquarters 190 00:11:03,663 --> 00:11:05,289 in Stamford, Connecticut. 191 00:11:06,457 --> 00:11:07,917 Man, it was a lot of rah-rah. 192 00:11:11,837 --> 00:11:14,799 The way it was pitched to us is that 193 00:11:15,383 --> 00:11:17,760 the physicians, the medical fraternity, 194 00:11:17,843 --> 00:11:21,097 they need to know about what this medication 195 00:11:21,180 --> 00:11:23,516 can do for their patients. 196 00:11:26,227 --> 00:11:30,022 You gotta remember, OxyContin, at this time, did not have a bad name. 197 00:11:30,690 --> 00:11:31,690 Right? 198 00:11:32,108 --> 00:11:36,362 And so you could go in and you start talking to a physician 199 00:11:36,445 --> 00:11:40,199 that can see the benefits as I was giving it to him. 200 00:11:42,118 --> 00:11:45,830 We told them it's pain relief that will last 201 00:11:45,913 --> 00:11:47,665 12 full hours. 202 00:11:48,082 --> 00:11:54,046 And... And the FDA has approved this language in our package insert, 203 00:11:54,130 --> 00:11:58,008 which says it has lower addictive properties. 204 00:11:58,718 --> 00:12:01,053 The package insert is the little piece of paper 205 00:12:01,137 --> 00:12:05,141 that's folded up and you get it with every prescription in the pharmacy. 206 00:12:05,641 --> 00:12:09,395 So when somebody would talk to me about, "Well, it's more addictive..." 207 00:12:09,478 --> 00:12:10,646 "N-No." 208 00:12:14,900 --> 00:12:18,404 "I mean, Doc, you know what it takes to get stuff in this package insert." 209 00:12:18,988 --> 00:12:22,241 You have to submit everything to the FDA. 210 00:12:22,324 --> 00:12:24,368 The FDA has gotta pore through it. 211 00:12:24,452 --> 00:12:28,748 The FDA is gonna finally kiss it and put their blessing on it 212 00:12:28,831 --> 00:12:30,166 and now I have it. 213 00:12:31,751 --> 00:12:34,795 They say, "Not true." 214 00:12:36,005 --> 00:12:37,256 Why wouldn't you use it? 215 00:12:40,342 --> 00:12:43,137 There were so many people in pain 216 00:12:43,345 --> 00:12:46,140 that could benefit from this medicine. 217 00:12:47,725 --> 00:12:51,020 Coming out of training, I'm on fire for all this. 218 00:12:53,606 --> 00:12:57,359 Certainly, these doctors will see the benefit of what I'm selling. 219 00:12:59,612 --> 00:13:00,652 I can remember, 220 00:13:00,696 --> 00:13:03,699 oftentime, I'd go out that door to go to lunch 221 00:13:03,783 --> 00:13:07,244 and I can remember the guy from Purdue standing right there, 222 00:13:07,328 --> 00:13:09,789 saying, "Oh, Dr. Lutz, Dr. Lutz, you've got to see this. 223 00:13:09,872 --> 00:13:12,708 This is the pain pill your patients need. 224 00:13:12,792 --> 00:13:15,211 They don't have to wake up during the night with pain. 225 00:13:15,294 --> 00:13:17,546 They take it, it lasts for 12 hours. 226 00:13:17,630 --> 00:13:19,799 OxyContin, long-acting." 227 00:13:20,508 --> 00:13:22,051 Almost like car salesmen. 228 00:13:24,970 --> 00:13:29,225 They sent representatives to go out to the doctors and even pharmacists. 229 00:13:30,726 --> 00:13:34,897 We started having salesmen for Purdue Pharma come into our store. 230 00:13:36,232 --> 00:13:37,942 And they were promoting the drug. 231 00:13:42,321 --> 00:13:46,450 Part of our job responsibility was to go in and call on pharmacists. 232 00:13:48,702 --> 00:13:52,414 Just talking to them about the medication, just in case they get some questions 233 00:13:52,498 --> 00:13:57,044 and they knew how to consult patients that might have questions about it. 234 00:13:57,628 --> 00:14:00,381 You know, give 'em some ink pens and notepads 235 00:14:00,464 --> 00:14:03,092 and all of that good, happy, crappy shit. 236 00:14:04,552 --> 00:14:07,972 My district ranged all across south Louisiana. 237 00:14:08,764 --> 00:14:12,268 We would go from Lake Charles to New Orleans. 238 00:14:14,395 --> 00:14:18,357 The way that we would figure out who we were gonna target in our territory, 239 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:20,317 who are we gonna try to convert... 240 00:14:21,151 --> 00:14:24,905 um, from short-acting opioids to long-acting, 241 00:14:24,989 --> 00:14:26,490 because those are the... 242 00:14:26,574 --> 00:14:28,242 That's the low-hanging fruit. 243 00:14:28,325 --> 00:14:30,202 We would get the data in. 244 00:14:30,286 --> 00:14:32,872 We would know who was writing. 245 00:14:34,248 --> 00:14:36,250 And we would get their name and address. 246 00:14:36,834 --> 00:14:40,462 It was always told to us that this was the most... 247 00:14:41,046 --> 00:14:43,340 uh, comprehensive data... 248 00:14:44,717 --> 00:14:48,929 that any company in the industry would... 249 00:14:49,013 --> 00:14:52,725 could provide to their sales representatives. 250 00:14:55,019 --> 00:14:56,520 I was doing good. 251 00:14:56,604 --> 00:14:59,648 My numbers are growing. I think they look great. 252 00:15:00,482 --> 00:15:03,277 But we would be told every single day, 253 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:05,696 "There's a next tier of rep." 254 00:15:05,779 --> 00:15:08,282 Like, "Do you want to go next level?" 255 00:15:08,365 --> 00:15:11,619 Because the territory rep in New Orleans East 256 00:15:11,702 --> 00:15:13,662 was making me look like... 257 00:15:15,039 --> 00:15:16,665 I'm just a regular Old Joe. 258 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:24,089 You don't imagine New Orleans East as a destination for health. 259 00:15:25,841 --> 00:15:27,217 But apparently it was... 260 00:15:28,802 --> 00:15:29,803 for some people. 261 00:15:31,722 --> 00:15:33,474 Because this rep was killing it. 262 00:15:34,433 --> 00:15:38,103 We were told he was making close to $800,000 a year. 263 00:15:38,646 --> 00:15:40,940 As a territory rep, that's... 264 00:15:42,858 --> 00:15:43,859 It was unheard of. 265 00:15:45,486 --> 00:15:49,573 His territory was gaining more prescriptions 266 00:15:49,657 --> 00:15:52,284 than any other territory 267 00:15:52,368 --> 00:15:56,205 in the entire United States of America. 268 00:15:58,749 --> 00:16:00,709 As I would go through the data, 269 00:16:00,793 --> 00:16:04,129 'cause it was delivered weekly to us... 270 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:09,301 I saw there was one physician in New Orleans East 271 00:16:09,385 --> 00:16:13,681 generating this extremely high level of prescriptions. 272 00:16:14,723 --> 00:16:17,977 And, of course, my natural, you know, inclination 273 00:16:18,060 --> 00:16:20,229 is to say, "Let's go see this doctor." 274 00:16:20,312 --> 00:16:21,855 And we can't. 275 00:16:22,731 --> 00:16:25,109 Because the sun is still in the sky. 276 00:16:25,859 --> 00:16:28,696 And so you have to hang around a lot longer... 277 00:16:29,363 --> 00:16:30,781 after the sun went down. 278 00:16:36,495 --> 00:16:39,581 Okay, that's different hours for a doctor. 279 00:16:41,834 --> 00:16:45,004 Let's take a look and see what the fuck is going on out there. 280 00:16:47,131 --> 00:16:50,009 You know how somebody smells when they've been smoking cigarettes 281 00:16:50,092 --> 00:16:50,926 for three days 282 00:16:51,010 --> 00:16:53,554 and they haven't slept or showered? 283 00:16:53,637 --> 00:16:54,763 You know that smell? 284 00:16:55,389 --> 00:16:57,307 If you pull up in a parking lot 285 00:16:57,391 --> 00:16:59,393 and it smells like that... 286 00:17:02,271 --> 00:17:04,648 it really starts to make you think, 287 00:17:04,732 --> 00:17:07,568 "Man, something is not right in this equation." 288 00:17:09,945 --> 00:17:13,240 What I learned is it might be one doctor 289 00:17:13,824 --> 00:17:17,036 doing 95% of the prescriptions. 290 00:17:19,329 --> 00:17:22,624 I don't have to be a good salesman to have a good territory. 291 00:17:22,708 --> 00:17:24,460 I gotta have the right doctors. 292 00:17:28,839 --> 00:17:31,759 I certainly didn't want to be connected 293 00:17:31,842 --> 00:17:34,928 to any illicit activities that could be going on. 294 00:17:35,220 --> 00:17:36,055 Right? 295 00:17:36,138 --> 00:17:38,348 I wanted to be free and clear of that. 296 00:17:38,432 --> 00:17:39,725 Then, you know, 297 00:17:39,808 --> 00:17:43,979 you'd get a $35,000-$40,000 bonus check in a quarter. 298 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:45,480 Right? 299 00:17:45,522 --> 00:17:46,607 And you say, "Man..." 300 00:17:46,690 --> 00:17:47,690 You know... 301 00:17:48,067 --> 00:17:50,402 "Maybe I'll keep doing this for a little while. 302 00:17:50,486 --> 00:17:51,820 Maybe it'll get better." 303 00:18:01,455 --> 00:18:04,041 In our drugstore, we would read the death notices. 304 00:18:05,250 --> 00:18:06,250 We had a list. 305 00:18:06,585 --> 00:18:08,003 We called it the "death list." 306 00:18:09,213 --> 00:18:11,423 People that we anticipated were gonna die. 307 00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:16,678 And, believe it or not, 308 00:18:16,762 --> 00:18:18,597 we started checking off names. 309 00:18:22,768 --> 00:18:24,770 Everywhere you looked, people would experience 310 00:18:24,853 --> 00:18:26,021 how this was affecting us. 311 00:18:27,022 --> 00:18:29,733 I talked to an EMT that told me, "It's a nightmare," 312 00:18:29,817 --> 00:18:30,817 and he said... 313 00:18:31,235 --> 00:18:33,695 "Our hospital emergency room, 314 00:18:33,779 --> 00:18:36,782 we can't get heart patients in, we can't get old people in right now. 315 00:18:37,366 --> 00:18:39,159 We're full of overdoses." 316 00:18:41,328 --> 00:18:43,163 I can remember one incident on the news 317 00:18:43,247 --> 00:18:46,291 where a father lost his 17-year-old son 318 00:18:46,375 --> 00:18:48,043 by injecting him with OxyContin. 319 00:18:48,919 --> 00:18:51,713 Paul Breaux allegedly injected his son 320 00:18:51,797 --> 00:18:53,132 with two doses of OxyContin. 321 00:18:53,715 --> 00:18:55,676 His son was found dead hours later. 322 00:18:56,677 --> 00:18:58,887 He got those pills the same way most people do. 323 00:18:59,513 --> 00:19:00,973 With a doctor's prescription. 324 00:19:01,515 --> 00:19:05,519 Those prescription drugs were prescribed to him by a Dr. Cleggett. 325 00:19:05,602 --> 00:19:08,063 Jacqueline Cleggett, out of, uh, New Orleans East. 326 00:19:11,942 --> 00:19:14,319 I had many friends that overdosed. 327 00:19:14,403 --> 00:19:17,447 They would find them, you know, at home in bed. 328 00:19:18,782 --> 00:19:21,368 And they didn't want to die. They just used. 329 00:19:22,161 --> 00:19:25,497 They'll just start making what's called the death rattle. 330 00:19:26,874 --> 00:19:28,500 When an opioid user 331 00:19:28,584 --> 00:19:29,626 takes too much, 332 00:19:29,710 --> 00:19:32,671 they begin trying to breathe and they make this noise 333 00:19:32,754 --> 00:19:35,299 and their eyes roll in the back of their head. 334 00:19:35,382 --> 00:19:37,843 And I remember one of my girlfriends doing that. 335 00:19:37,926 --> 00:19:41,263 We were slapping her face and throwing water on her to wake her up. 336 00:19:43,599 --> 00:19:45,309 I've seen that happen a few times. 337 00:19:48,145 --> 00:19:49,145 Very scary. 338 00:19:50,230 --> 00:19:51,982 On separate occasions, 339 00:19:52,065 --> 00:19:54,359 two women have fatally overdosed on OxyContin 340 00:19:54,443 --> 00:19:55,903 in the home of James Price. 341 00:19:56,528 --> 00:19:57,728 Despite living in Mississippi, 342 00:19:57,779 --> 00:20:00,490 Price is a patient of Dr. Cleggett. 343 00:20:03,952 --> 00:20:06,038 It's an interesting situation, 344 00:20:06,121 --> 00:20:08,498 what some people think is insanity. 345 00:20:10,792 --> 00:20:13,670 In Mr. Claude's mind, I'm going overboard. 346 00:20:15,339 --> 00:20:17,758 In my mind, I see... 347 00:20:18,467 --> 00:20:19,676 kids dying right and left. 348 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:22,346 Now, in his mind, he thinks I see these kids dying 349 00:20:22,429 --> 00:20:23,555 because my son died. 350 00:20:23,639 --> 00:20:25,682 Yes, it has something to do with my son dying, 351 00:20:25,766 --> 00:20:27,017 but these kids are dying. 352 00:20:29,228 --> 00:20:31,563 There was a rumor that there was a pharmacist 353 00:20:31,647 --> 00:20:34,316 who had lost his son tragically. 354 00:20:36,318 --> 00:20:40,239 And he was making a lot of noise about Dr. Cleggett. 355 00:20:41,114 --> 00:20:42,114 And... 356 00:20:43,951 --> 00:20:45,452 that's not good for business. 357 00:20:46,536 --> 00:20:48,789 It's not good for business in my territory. 358 00:20:48,872 --> 00:20:51,041 It's not good for business anywhere. 359 00:20:52,084 --> 00:20:54,044 The crime that was being committed 360 00:20:54,127 --> 00:20:56,171 was actually in Dan's profession, 361 00:20:56,255 --> 00:20:58,757 so the things that maybe he had just done 362 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:00,384 through muscle training before, 363 00:21:00,467 --> 00:21:03,845 and that's filling those scripts and not paying a lot of attention to, 364 00:21:03,929 --> 00:21:05,722 he could no longer ignore. 365 00:21:06,348 --> 00:21:07,266 He understood. 366 00:21:07,349 --> 00:21:11,019 Particularly when he would hear that someone he filled a script for 367 00:21:11,103 --> 00:21:12,437 died of an overdose. 368 00:21:12,521 --> 00:21:14,356 He knew that he was in that chain. 369 00:21:15,023 --> 00:21:16,316 He was filling those scripts. 370 00:21:18,485 --> 00:21:20,779 As a pharmacist, much less an employee, 371 00:21:20,862 --> 00:21:24,408 I have a responsibility for the well-being of my patients. 372 00:21:24,950 --> 00:21:29,621 And nobody is inspired enough to take on Dr. Jacqueline Cleggett. 373 00:21:30,998 --> 00:21:33,792 So, I have to take a temporary leave of absence, 374 00:21:33,875 --> 00:21:35,627 because I definitely feel 375 00:21:35,711 --> 00:21:39,464 that I'm actually doing the things that a person should do... 376 00:21:40,841 --> 00:21:42,467 to correct evils and problems. 377 00:21:42,551 --> 00:21:43,719 It is a calling. 378 00:21:51,351 --> 00:21:53,311 Chalmette pharmacist Daniel Schneider 379 00:21:53,353 --> 00:21:56,398 says he's taking a leave of absence from his drugstore job 380 00:21:56,481 --> 00:21:59,484 to crusade against the illegal use of OxyContin. 381 00:21:59,568 --> 00:22:02,297 We have to educate them that these things are way more dangerous 382 00:22:02,321 --> 00:22:03,322 than they think they are. 383 00:22:03,405 --> 00:22:05,324 OxyContin scares you that much? 384 00:22:05,407 --> 00:22:07,075 It scares me every bit that much. 385 00:22:07,159 --> 00:22:11,288 In fact, it scares me worse than what my son died of. 386 00:22:15,250 --> 00:22:18,503 I was pretty much working full time at shutting Dr. Cleggett down. 387 00:22:20,297 --> 00:22:21,298 Whatever it took. 388 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:23,675 It's an interesting situation 389 00:22:23,759 --> 00:22:27,054 because the DEA wants me to stay away from Cleggett completely 390 00:22:27,137 --> 00:22:29,765 and quit asking questions and quit talking to people. 391 00:22:30,682 --> 00:22:32,976 They even almost threatened me not to go around her. 392 00:22:33,643 --> 00:22:36,480 But I told them, "Well, sometimes, I just happen to pass that way." 393 00:22:38,231 --> 00:22:39,399 I'm on the way home 394 00:22:39,483 --> 00:22:43,153 and it's even almost not out of the way to just pass by Cleggett's office. 395 00:22:43,737 --> 00:22:46,097 Which I fully well intend to do no matter what they've said. 396 00:22:46,865 --> 00:22:49,159 Because a lot of innocent people are getting hurt. 397 00:22:49,659 --> 00:22:52,788 And so, I think, in the overall scheme of things, 398 00:22:52,871 --> 00:22:54,122 it's the right thing to do. 399 00:22:57,626 --> 00:23:00,295 Her operation was so incredible. 400 00:23:01,171 --> 00:23:03,548 Why couldn't they shut her down? I didn't get it. 401 00:23:04,383 --> 00:23:05,383 You would think, 402 00:23:05,425 --> 00:23:08,470 "What a toothless agency, that you don't have mechanisms in place 403 00:23:08,553 --> 00:23:11,765 to be able to restrict this type of illegal prescribing." 404 00:23:11,848 --> 00:23:13,308 We do have mechanisms in place. 405 00:23:14,518 --> 00:23:18,980 DEA builds a case, presents its evidence to the United States Attorney 406 00:23:19,064 --> 00:23:21,024 and they'll decide to bring a prosecution. 407 00:23:22,943 --> 00:23:25,153 The Dr. Cleggett case had been presented. 408 00:23:25,737 --> 00:23:27,864 So I spoke with the United States Attorney. 409 00:23:28,281 --> 00:23:31,576 I met great resistance and I couldn't understand it. 410 00:23:32,411 --> 00:23:35,372 I asked them continually, "Why couldn't we go after this?" 411 00:23:35,455 --> 00:23:37,249 And they... they said, "Well, 412 00:23:37,332 --> 00:23:40,293 doctors are a profession in American society 413 00:23:40,377 --> 00:23:42,045 that's held in very high esteem." 414 00:23:42,129 --> 00:23:45,924 They would all revert to, "The doctors are trained medical professionals. 415 00:23:46,007 --> 00:23:48,468 They know what they're supposed to distribute. You don't." 416 00:23:51,388 --> 00:23:54,599 They weren't accustomed to prosecuting doctors. 417 00:23:54,683 --> 00:23:56,643 Doctors were holy. 418 00:23:59,229 --> 00:24:01,648 We had to prove that the physicians 419 00:24:01,731 --> 00:24:04,693 had morphed from being caring physicians 420 00:24:04,776 --> 00:24:08,280 to nothing but dope dealers with white lab coats. 421 00:24:10,198 --> 00:24:13,368 It wasn't like you were dealing with a crack dealer 422 00:24:13,452 --> 00:24:15,454 or somebody selling pills on the street. 423 00:24:16,204 --> 00:24:18,165 But in reality, 424 00:24:18,248 --> 00:24:21,334 every day you don't take somebody like this off the street, 425 00:24:21,418 --> 00:24:23,670 you have the potential for more people to die. 426 00:24:24,337 --> 00:24:29,843 The US Attorney kept sending DEA back and back and back 427 00:24:29,926 --> 00:24:32,929 to get more and more information. 428 00:24:33,638 --> 00:24:37,267 There had to be a lot of really egregious things 429 00:24:37,350 --> 00:24:42,355 that you could prove or show to make a prosecutable case, 430 00:24:42,439 --> 00:24:44,608 you know, because this was new. 431 00:24:46,943 --> 00:24:47,943 In my opinion... 432 00:24:48,653 --> 00:24:51,990 the US Attorney's office was not moving fast enough. 433 00:24:52,574 --> 00:24:53,909 They don't see people. 434 00:24:53,992 --> 00:24:58,121 They don't see families destroyed by the opioid crisis. 435 00:24:58,205 --> 00:25:00,665 They only read numbers, stats. 436 00:25:00,749 --> 00:25:02,584 We were on the frontline. 437 00:25:02,667 --> 00:25:06,254 We saw what the effects of the opioid crisis are. 438 00:25:12,469 --> 00:25:15,222 And then 2001 was really the year 439 00:25:15,305 --> 00:25:18,308 the media finally started talking about 440 00:25:18,391 --> 00:25:21,144 the fact that people were dying from OxyContin. 441 00:25:28,860 --> 00:25:30,529 Then, like a ton of bricks, 442 00:25:30,612 --> 00:25:33,573 Time magazine released this article reporting that St. Bernard 443 00:25:33,657 --> 00:25:37,536 was one of the hotspots in the country for OxyContin abuse, in the entire nation. 444 00:25:40,830 --> 00:25:43,124 St. Bernard Parish, a community 445 00:25:43,208 --> 00:25:46,169 of 75,000 people, 446 00:25:46,253 --> 00:25:49,381 led the per capita overdose rate 447 00:25:49,464 --> 00:25:52,384 in Louisiana and in the southeast region 448 00:25:52,467 --> 00:25:56,012 and probably in a great portion 449 00:25:56,096 --> 00:25:58,640 of the United States at the time. 450 00:26:02,435 --> 00:26:03,995 There was national coverage, 451 00:26:04,020 --> 00:26:06,314 including Newsweek and Time magazine. 452 00:26:06,982 --> 00:26:08,942 It was written in the Times-Picayune. 453 00:26:09,442 --> 00:26:12,320 There were television exposés on it. 454 00:26:13,196 --> 00:26:15,365 There is a prescription painkiller in the news today 455 00:26:15,448 --> 00:26:16,950 for all the wrong reasons. 456 00:26:17,033 --> 00:26:18,076 OxyContin. 457 00:26:18,159 --> 00:26:20,829 No new prescription drug in the last 20 years 458 00:26:20,912 --> 00:26:24,416 has been as widely abused as quickly as OxyContin. 459 00:26:25,166 --> 00:26:27,752 It is now the most heavily prescribed narcotic 460 00:26:27,836 --> 00:26:28,670 in the country. 461 00:26:28,753 --> 00:26:30,255 Sales topped a billion dollars. 462 00:26:30,338 --> 00:26:33,550 Six million prescriptions for the legitimately suffering 463 00:26:33,633 --> 00:26:36,386 and, for thousands of others, an addictive nightmare. 464 00:26:41,224 --> 00:26:42,517 Around that time... 465 00:26:43,518 --> 00:26:45,562 I remember calling on a doctor... 466 00:26:46,646 --> 00:26:50,442 and I hand him one of the sales aids or whatever 467 00:26:50,525 --> 00:26:53,653 and, right in front of me, he just dumped it in the trash. 468 00:26:55,739 --> 00:26:56,573 "Bye. 469 00:26:58,658 --> 00:27:00,201 That's what I think of this." 470 00:27:01,828 --> 00:27:04,289 When the reports continued to come out... 471 00:27:05,665 --> 00:27:08,001 Purdue executives testified before Congress 472 00:27:08,084 --> 00:27:10,420 about the OxyContin abuse problem. 473 00:27:13,048 --> 00:27:14,591 My name is Paul Goldenheim. 474 00:27:14,674 --> 00:27:17,218 I'm the senior physician at Purdue Pharma. 475 00:27:17,302 --> 00:27:18,303 And, as you noted, 476 00:27:18,386 --> 00:27:21,014 its executive vice-president for research and development. 477 00:27:22,182 --> 00:27:25,602 OxyContin is widely recognized as a highly-effective treatment 478 00:27:25,685 --> 00:27:26,685 for pain. 479 00:27:27,062 --> 00:27:30,649 When properly used under the supervision of a physician, 480 00:27:30,732 --> 00:27:33,485 it is also an extremely safe medication. 481 00:27:34,027 --> 00:27:37,572 Addiction is rare in the pain patient 482 00:27:37,656 --> 00:27:38,990 who is properly managed. 483 00:27:40,241 --> 00:27:41,660 We were told 484 00:27:41,743 --> 00:27:44,329 physicians that understood what this medication was, 485 00:27:44,412 --> 00:27:45,997 and the benefits of it, 486 00:27:46,081 --> 00:27:48,583 would give it to appropriate patients. 487 00:27:50,168 --> 00:27:54,339 The appropriate patient is not the market. 488 00:27:55,382 --> 00:27:58,551 We've tried to teach doctors how to use these medicines appropriately. 489 00:27:58,677 --> 00:28:01,429 We have never encouraged misuse or diversion. 490 00:28:01,513 --> 00:28:02,430 There's some notion 491 00:28:02,514 --> 00:28:06,101 that because it's a pill manufactured by a pharmaceutical company, 492 00:28:06,184 --> 00:28:08,812 it's completely safe, even if you crush it and inject it 493 00:28:08,895 --> 00:28:13,066 and wash it down with a six-pack and snort some cocaine. 494 00:28:13,566 --> 00:28:14,901 Where the growth... 495 00:28:14,984 --> 00:28:17,153 Where the amazing growth 496 00:28:17,237 --> 00:28:19,948 and all the dollars that went to the company 497 00:28:20,031 --> 00:28:22,909 and went to the territory reps... 498 00:28:23,493 --> 00:28:25,078 It came from... 499 00:28:25,954 --> 00:28:28,289 physicians that were not doing the right thing. 500 00:28:31,543 --> 00:28:32,543 Plain and simple. 501 00:28:33,545 --> 00:28:37,424 We've never done anything that could remotely be suggested 502 00:28:37,507 --> 00:28:40,093 that it was a good idea for a criminal physician 503 00:28:40,176 --> 00:28:41,469 to sell a prescription. 504 00:28:42,095 --> 00:28:44,556 The pharmaceutical opioid industry... 505 00:28:45,181 --> 00:28:48,184 didn't overtly encourage pill mill doctors, 506 00:28:48,268 --> 00:28:50,520 but they certainly didn't do anything about them. 507 00:28:51,104 --> 00:28:54,649 We had to make sure that we were always calling on, uh... 508 00:28:55,900 --> 00:28:58,445 targets of opportunity, right? 509 00:28:59,154 --> 00:29:01,823 Management would have access to the data. 510 00:29:01,906 --> 00:29:05,201 They would see the physicians that were high targets. 511 00:29:05,744 --> 00:29:07,912 "Man, we really need to convert this person. 512 00:29:07,996 --> 00:29:09,122 Let's go see them." 513 00:29:10,039 --> 00:29:12,208 We would call those people "whales," 514 00:29:12,292 --> 00:29:13,626 "monsters," 515 00:29:14,335 --> 00:29:15,670 "huge." 516 00:29:15,754 --> 00:29:17,839 And it was almost 517 00:29:17,922 --> 00:29:20,383 a bit of a bragging, uh, point. 518 00:29:20,467 --> 00:29:21,968 It was pitched to me that 519 00:29:22,051 --> 00:29:23,845 Purdue spends more money... 520 00:29:24,804 --> 00:29:27,766 compiling this data to give to representatives 521 00:29:27,849 --> 00:29:30,268 than any other company in the business. 522 00:29:38,443 --> 00:29:41,613 In 2001, finally people started speaking out 523 00:29:41,696 --> 00:29:44,574 and yet nothing seemed to happen that reduced the problem. 524 00:29:47,452 --> 00:29:49,329 Dr. Cleggett was still out there. 525 00:29:52,248 --> 00:29:56,252 I thought that the US Attorney was moving too slow. 526 00:29:56,753 --> 00:29:58,922 So I personally went to her house 527 00:29:59,005 --> 00:30:00,423 and asked Dr. Cleggett 528 00:30:00,507 --> 00:30:05,136 to surrender her controlled-substance license voluntarily. 529 00:30:07,639 --> 00:30:10,266 Dr. Cleggett's house was in disarray. 530 00:30:11,017 --> 00:30:13,478 Of course, she was sleeping, because it was early morning. 531 00:30:14,229 --> 00:30:15,855 Although we did wake her up, 532 00:30:15,939 --> 00:30:18,274 she still seemed, um, disoriented. 533 00:30:18,775 --> 00:30:22,904 We suspected that she was using prescription pills herself. 534 00:30:25,907 --> 00:30:28,993 I never witnessed her abusing the pills myself. 535 00:30:29,619 --> 00:30:31,788 But there was talk in the waiting room 536 00:30:31,871 --> 00:30:33,832 that maybe Dr. Cleggett had gotten 537 00:30:33,915 --> 00:30:35,959 caught up in the same system 538 00:30:36,042 --> 00:30:37,627 that her patients were caught up in. 539 00:30:38,419 --> 00:30:40,547 But, you know, it's hearsay. 540 00:30:42,131 --> 00:30:44,276 Sometimes you can go to a doctor and say, "Doc, 541 00:30:44,300 --> 00:30:46,719 I think you're using drugs yourself 542 00:30:46,803 --> 00:30:48,972 and I think it's in your best interest 543 00:30:49,055 --> 00:30:51,307 to surrender your license right now. 544 00:30:51,766 --> 00:30:54,143 You have the right to apply to have it returned. 545 00:30:54,227 --> 00:30:57,355 once you seek treatment and help for yourself." 546 00:30:57,438 --> 00:30:59,315 Some of the doctors will say, "You know what? 547 00:31:00,358 --> 00:31:03,486 I am having problems," and will surrender their license. 548 00:31:03,570 --> 00:31:05,130 And that happens more than you'd think. 549 00:31:06,698 --> 00:31:10,451 I knew that it would not be easy for her to give up her license. 550 00:31:10,535 --> 00:31:14,372 And I also know that it's not an easy road to become a doctor. 551 00:31:14,956 --> 00:31:16,457 So I talked to her... 552 00:31:17,041 --> 00:31:19,419 woman to woman, profession to profession, 553 00:31:19,502 --> 00:31:23,089 explained to her the violations that she faced. 554 00:31:24,424 --> 00:31:26,050 She understood. She... 555 00:31:26,634 --> 00:31:27,634 understood. 556 00:31:28,803 --> 00:31:32,348 However, upon going towards her living room 557 00:31:32,432 --> 00:31:36,269 to get an ink pen and sign the DEA form, 558 00:31:36,352 --> 00:31:38,688 I mentioned her kids. 559 00:31:40,690 --> 00:31:41,691 You know... 560 00:31:41,816 --> 00:31:44,193 ...she went down the, uh, row 561 00:31:44,611 --> 00:31:47,030 and explained one was going to college, 562 00:31:47,113 --> 00:31:49,198 one was 13 and the other one was ten. 563 00:31:49,741 --> 00:31:50,783 And, uh... 564 00:31:52,535 --> 00:31:54,162 then told me, no, she couldn't. 565 00:31:54,245 --> 00:31:55,663 She had to pay for college. 566 00:31:58,750 --> 00:32:00,430 She said, "I'm not signing that. 567 00:32:00,501 --> 00:32:01,669 I'm not gonna do that." 568 00:32:01,753 --> 00:32:05,340 And she told them to get out, she was never surrendering her license. 569 00:32:05,423 --> 00:32:09,719 They didn't have anything on her and just leave her alone, you know. 570 00:32:10,345 --> 00:32:13,389 And she refused to surrender her DEA number. 571 00:32:15,808 --> 00:32:17,888 Nothing seemed to happen to reduce the problem. 572 00:32:19,228 --> 00:32:20,980 I'm at the wits' end right now. 573 00:32:21,064 --> 00:32:22,774 I really didn't know what to do. 574 00:32:28,237 --> 00:32:29,864 This is the American statue. 575 00:32:29,948 --> 00:32:32,075 - That's enough. - 1987. 576 00:32:33,242 --> 00:32:35,995 So, Danny boy, I love you. I'm in your room. 577 00:32:37,246 --> 00:32:38,414 I'm looking at the Beatles. 578 00:32:39,540 --> 00:32:42,377 And, God, please help me and Annie... 579 00:32:43,378 --> 00:32:47,215 Annie to have more faith in me and help her support me. 580 00:32:49,050 --> 00:32:51,094 Will he make it to the other side? 581 00:32:52,470 --> 00:32:53,596 Oh, Lord! 582 00:32:54,263 --> 00:32:55,306 Almost! 583 00:32:56,808 --> 00:32:59,060 But, God, most of all, please, 584 00:32:59,143 --> 00:33:01,104 I need help in the direction that I take. 585 00:33:01,604 --> 00:33:02,604 We need a break. 586 00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:10,154 And then I happened to be watching 20/20. 587 00:33:10,238 --> 00:33:13,241 Tonight, secret police tapes of young, 588 00:33:13,324 --> 00:33:14,617 healthy people lining up 589 00:33:14,701 --> 00:33:16,077 at the doctor's office. 590 00:33:16,619 --> 00:33:17,745 It was a segment 591 00:33:17,829 --> 00:33:20,248 about a doctor in Portsmouth, Ohio. 592 00:33:20,331 --> 00:33:22,709 He had been arrested and charged with running a pill mill. 593 00:33:23,501 --> 00:33:24,627 Authorities say 594 00:33:24,711 --> 00:33:28,423 Dr. Lilly wrote more than 4,000 bogus prescriptions, 595 00:33:29,007 --> 00:33:30,800 mostly for pain medications. 596 00:33:31,509 --> 00:33:33,803 I couldn't believe how similar he was to Cleggett 597 00:33:34,470 --> 00:33:37,056 and he had been taken down by one of the local prosecutors there. 598 00:33:37,432 --> 00:33:41,769 I think it's an old story. I think, uh, it's greed, pure and simple. 599 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:44,647 You could tell he was not examining patients 600 00:33:44,731 --> 00:33:46,232 in such an examination room. 601 00:33:47,567 --> 00:33:49,694 I wanted to find out what they had done, 602 00:33:49,777 --> 00:33:51,654 so I called the prosecutor on the case. 603 00:33:54,657 --> 00:33:55,657 Hello? 604 00:33:55,700 --> 00:33:58,077 - Yeah, Mr., uh, Brown? - Just call me Rick. 605 00:33:58,161 --> 00:33:59,829 - Okay, Rick, how are you? - Fine. 606 00:33:59,912 --> 00:34:01,672 Yeah, Rick, I'm calling about that case 607 00:34:01,706 --> 00:34:04,459 - that reached national prominence. - Yes. 608 00:34:04,542 --> 00:34:06,645 We have a situation down here. I'm a pharmacist. 609 00:34:06,669 --> 00:34:08,796 I'm not in law enforcement, although I'm... 610 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,316 I've been trying to help out law enforcement as much as I can. 611 00:34:11,340 --> 00:34:13,676 - Okay. - And we have a doctor that, uh... 612 00:34:14,302 --> 00:34:17,406 - seems to make your doctor look good. - What are the doctor's credentials? 613 00:34:17,430 --> 00:34:21,350 You're not gonna believe this. She was trained as a pediatrician. 614 00:34:21,434 --> 00:34:22,727 Well, well, well. 615 00:34:22,810 --> 00:34:25,873 Let me tell you what else she does. If you come in and pay an extra $100, 616 00:34:25,897 --> 00:34:27,065 you get stat service. 617 00:34:27,148 --> 00:34:29,752 Okay, well, this guy... Okay, there must be a... 618 00:34:29,776 --> 00:34:31,136 They must have this in a playbook, 619 00:34:31,194 --> 00:34:33,780 because this doctor had two lines. 620 00:34:33,863 --> 00:34:35,865 One for refills, one for new patients. 621 00:34:36,365 --> 00:34:37,283 Wow. 622 00:34:37,366 --> 00:34:38,576 This prosecutor, 623 00:34:38,659 --> 00:34:40,912 he had seen them do some of the same things she did. 624 00:34:40,995 --> 00:34:42,315 But he had never seen any of them 625 00:34:42,371 --> 00:34:44,874 that had a police department actually on their doorstep. 626 00:34:45,625 --> 00:34:49,087 Holy cow. You've got a major problem. 627 00:34:49,170 --> 00:34:51,130 The FBI and the DEA have been involved also 628 00:34:51,214 --> 00:34:53,254 and they just seem to be either dragging their feet, 629 00:34:53,299 --> 00:34:55,093 they don't give a damn or... 630 00:34:55,176 --> 00:34:58,846 I don't understand what their problem is. 631 00:34:58,930 --> 00:34:59,930 I really don't. 632 00:34:59,972 --> 00:35:03,017 Well, it's bureaucratic crap as near as I can make out. 633 00:35:03,101 --> 00:35:05,245 - We have that problem tremendously. - We have... 634 00:35:05,269 --> 00:35:07,271 You even have... You even have that problem? 635 00:35:07,355 --> 00:35:09,524 Oh, crap, we have a local federal task force. 636 00:35:09,607 --> 00:35:12,086 So they tell you they're doing something and they're not? 637 00:35:12,110 --> 00:35:14,070 They are not telling us what they're doing. 638 00:35:14,112 --> 00:35:17,240 If you can't cooperate with us, we've got a job to do. 639 00:35:17,323 --> 00:35:18,323 Exactly. 640 00:35:18,825 --> 00:35:20,505 Which is the question I have to ask y'all. 641 00:35:20,576 --> 00:35:21,911 What was the smoking gun? 642 00:35:21,994 --> 00:35:24,539 What's the key to getting a doctor like this? 643 00:35:24,622 --> 00:35:27,625 The key is you need the cooperation of your medical board, 644 00:35:27,708 --> 00:35:31,963 who can go in at any time and ask to see the doctor's records. 645 00:35:32,046 --> 00:35:33,646 Well, good. Look, I appreciate it. 646 00:35:33,673 --> 00:35:35,174 I may be back in touch with you, 647 00:35:35,299 --> 00:35:37,468 but I do appreciate the information you've given me. 648 00:35:37,552 --> 00:35:39,262 - And, uh, wish us luck. - Any time. 649 00:35:39,846 --> 00:35:42,348 He says, "I recommend that you go to the medical board 650 00:35:43,015 --> 00:35:44,684 and try to process it through the board." 651 00:35:45,893 --> 00:35:46,727 So, 652 00:35:46,811 --> 00:35:48,563 in April 2001, 653 00:35:48,646 --> 00:35:52,400 I wrote a letter outlining Dr. Cleggett's procedures and my concerns. 654 00:36:01,284 --> 00:36:03,744 For approximately 19 years, 655 00:36:03,828 --> 00:36:05,621 I served as complaint counsel 656 00:36:05,705 --> 00:36:08,666 to the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners. 657 00:36:10,293 --> 00:36:13,045 One of the primary functions of the medical board 658 00:36:13,129 --> 00:36:16,799 is to make sure the physicians that they license 659 00:36:17,550 --> 00:36:19,302 are practicing appropriately. 660 00:36:19,677 --> 00:36:20,511 And that means 661 00:36:20,595 --> 00:36:22,555 that if a complaint is filed with the board, 662 00:36:22,638 --> 00:36:25,016 then it is the board's authority 663 00:36:25,099 --> 00:36:29,312 to investigate that complaint for medical malpractice. 664 00:36:30,438 --> 00:36:33,983 So that put me in the role of, uh, a prosecutor. 665 00:36:34,483 --> 00:36:37,945 And my job is to round up the evidence. 666 00:36:39,488 --> 00:36:43,701 We at DEA have to do a lot more than a medical board does 667 00:36:43,784 --> 00:36:46,537 in order to shut down a doctor. 668 00:36:47,038 --> 00:36:49,957 The medical board can do something administratively. 669 00:36:50,041 --> 00:36:50,875 With DEA, 670 00:36:50,958 --> 00:36:53,920 we have to prove without a doubt 671 00:36:54,503 --> 00:36:57,048 that something has occurred criminally. 672 00:37:00,009 --> 00:37:01,169 All of a sudden... 673 00:37:01,219 --> 00:37:04,722 this big box of these records shows up. 674 00:37:05,514 --> 00:37:06,974 I call it my "Cleggett file." 675 00:37:08,684 --> 00:37:11,187 If the state board of medical examiners 676 00:37:11,270 --> 00:37:13,856 is suspending somebody's license, 677 00:37:13,940 --> 00:37:17,693 they need someone to review the records and give an opinion. 678 00:37:19,904 --> 00:37:22,323 Every profession has a few bad apples. 679 00:37:22,406 --> 00:37:24,867 The problem in medicine is that one bad apple 680 00:37:24,951 --> 00:37:27,870 can write hundreds and hundreds of prescriptions. 681 00:37:28,871 --> 00:37:30,998 I knew that, in order to proceed 682 00:37:31,082 --> 00:37:32,583 with a summary suspension, 683 00:37:32,667 --> 00:37:35,336 I would need lead pipe material. 684 00:37:37,129 --> 00:37:41,467 I felt that a licensed pharmacist would have instant credibility 685 00:37:41,550 --> 00:37:42,593 with the board. 686 00:37:43,886 --> 00:37:45,930 It's around Christmas time, I believe, 687 00:37:46,013 --> 00:37:48,724 and George Papale calls me and says, 688 00:37:48,808 --> 00:37:50,851 "Do you want to get involved in this?" 689 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:54,146 I said, "Amen, I sure do." 690 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,526 He was very grateful, uh... 691 00:37:58,609 --> 00:38:01,195 and invited me to come to his house... 692 00:38:02,405 --> 00:38:04,657 for a more in-depth discussion 693 00:38:04,740 --> 00:38:06,075 about what had gone on. 694 00:38:06,617 --> 00:38:08,619 My goodness, there were boxes 695 00:38:08,703 --> 00:38:11,831 and boxes of materials and videos, and he... 696 00:38:12,331 --> 00:38:13,833 He couldn't move fast enough. 697 00:38:13,916 --> 00:38:16,168 He was trying to talk and show me things. 698 00:38:18,004 --> 00:38:20,381 He said, "Look, you've got a wealth of information, 699 00:38:20,464 --> 00:38:21,507 but, you know... 700 00:38:22,383 --> 00:38:24,051 you really kinda need a smoking gun." 701 00:38:26,012 --> 00:38:28,597 And I realized I'm out of the loop. 702 00:38:29,348 --> 00:38:32,143 The only way that I can get back in the loop, 703 00:38:32,226 --> 00:38:34,145 I had to go to work back at Bradley's. 704 00:38:44,071 --> 00:38:47,533 Mr. Claude, you know, I pray that you want me back. 705 00:38:47,616 --> 00:38:49,660 Uh... And hopefully we can work it out, 706 00:38:49,744 --> 00:38:52,621 come to some resolution as to how to proceed 707 00:38:52,705 --> 00:38:55,583 and what maybe I should do and what I shouldn't do. 708 00:38:56,083 --> 00:38:59,545 So we'll discuss this and we'll see how everything goes. 709 00:39:00,338 --> 00:39:01,172 God bless. 710 00:39:04,008 --> 00:39:06,469 I talked to Mr. Claude at my drugstore. 711 00:39:06,969 --> 00:39:08,721 And we have a heart-to-heart talk. 712 00:39:10,598 --> 00:39:14,101 He says, "Danny, I'm not gonna force you to fill Dr. Cleggett's prescriptions. 713 00:39:14,185 --> 00:39:18,481 But you can't be questioning all the patients... 714 00:39:19,148 --> 00:39:20,274 about Dr. Cleggett." 715 00:39:21,984 --> 00:39:25,654 So, with some agreements not to hassle the patients, 716 00:39:25,738 --> 00:39:27,948 I go back to work at Bradley's Pharmacy. 717 00:39:29,158 --> 00:39:32,411 I've gotta be careful at the store as to what I say. 718 00:39:33,245 --> 00:39:36,082 However, that doesn't mean I have to be completely quiet. 719 00:39:36,874 --> 00:39:38,584 I do believe that, in some sort of way, 720 00:39:38,667 --> 00:39:41,796 some proof will come to me to stop Dr. Cleggett. 721 00:39:44,965 --> 00:39:47,843 Part of my agreement was that I leave my tape recorder at home. 722 00:39:50,054 --> 00:39:51,305 But I didn't really do that. 723 00:39:53,432 --> 00:39:55,309 - Rebecca? - Uh-huh. 724 00:39:55,393 --> 00:39:57,353 How are you doing? You're a little too soon. 725 00:39:57,395 --> 00:40:00,398 I don't know. They're supposed to last 22 days 726 00:40:00,481 --> 00:40:01,649 and it's, like, been 15. 727 00:40:02,233 --> 00:40:04,735 - When did you see Cleggett? - Yesterday. 728 00:40:05,194 --> 00:40:08,239 Doctor probably shouldn't have gave you these this soon. 729 00:40:08,697 --> 00:40:10,759 Yeah, well, I had a real, real bad surgery. 730 00:40:10,783 --> 00:40:11,863 - Did you? - Yeah. 731 00:40:11,909 --> 00:40:13,629 Even still, what you have to do now... 732 00:40:14,078 --> 00:40:16,539 If you have to take 'em more often... 733 00:40:16,747 --> 00:40:18,791 you've got to get her to write that. 734 00:40:19,250 --> 00:40:21,085 I'm pretty much biding my time, 735 00:40:21,210 --> 00:40:23,796 you know, tolerating some of this stuff, okay? 736 00:40:26,841 --> 00:40:27,967 And all of a sudden... 737 00:40:28,551 --> 00:40:31,804 a girl, who appears to be about 16 years of age... 738 00:40:33,431 --> 00:40:36,100 she comes skipping in the store. She's actually skipping. 739 00:40:36,725 --> 00:40:38,769 And the mother presents... 740 00:40:39,562 --> 00:40:40,855 a stack of prescriptions. 741 00:40:43,315 --> 00:40:47,528 She says, "My daughter's got sickle cell and she's really in great pain." 742 00:40:48,404 --> 00:40:49,905 I look at the prescriptions... 743 00:40:50,448 --> 00:40:53,534 and it's OxyContin, 80 mg. 744 00:40:54,201 --> 00:40:55,327 Eighty milligrams! 745 00:40:55,828 --> 00:40:57,496 This kid weighs 100 pounds! 746 00:40:59,915 --> 00:41:01,083 Soma, 100. 747 00:41:02,001 --> 00:41:03,043 Valium, 100. 748 00:41:04,044 --> 00:41:06,922 And roxicodone, which is a short-acting opiate. 749 00:41:08,632 --> 00:41:11,343 These prescriptions surely could have killed this girl. 750 00:41:13,179 --> 00:41:15,031 I delay the lady a little bit. 751 00:41:15,055 --> 00:41:17,535 I make copies of the prescription and I go out and talk to her. 752 00:41:18,434 --> 00:41:20,594 She's trying to talk me into filling the prescriptions. 753 00:41:20,644 --> 00:41:22,204 I'm not gonna fill these prescriptions. 754 00:41:23,272 --> 00:41:25,733 And I give them back, because they don't want to wait. 755 00:41:28,527 --> 00:41:29,695 It's kind of crazy. 756 00:41:29,778 --> 00:41:32,198 But, unfortunately, I didn't bring my recorder that day. 757 00:41:33,532 --> 00:41:36,327 So I've got to do this right. I've got to be smart. 758 00:41:37,536 --> 00:41:40,706 I've gotta make sure that Dr. Cleggett admits 759 00:41:41,290 --> 00:41:42,958 she wrote these prescriptions. 760 00:41:43,542 --> 00:41:47,004 Because sure as I try to nail her on it, she's going to say they're forgeries. 761 00:41:50,841 --> 00:41:52,718 So, I called Dr. Cleggett. 762 00:41:54,345 --> 00:41:55,846 My adrenaline was really pumping. 763 00:41:55,930 --> 00:41:59,433 This was the chance at the smoking gun that we needed to shut her down. 764 00:42:01,852 --> 00:42:03,062 I gave the child's name. 765 00:42:03,687 --> 00:42:05,773 And I said, "Did you write these prescriptions?" 766 00:42:06,565 --> 00:42:07,942 "I certainly did." 767 00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:11,820 I said, "Well, Dr. Cleggett, this is a definite overdose." 768 00:42:14,323 --> 00:42:15,366 She says, 769 00:42:15,866 --> 00:42:17,326 "Who the fuck made you a doctor?" 770 00:42:21,997 --> 00:42:22,997 Then she hung up. 771 00:42:31,215 --> 00:42:32,550 Smoking gun. 772 00:42:40,808 --> 00:42:42,142 I called George Papale. 773 00:42:43,894 --> 00:42:44,937 I said, "George... 774 00:42:46,021 --> 00:42:47,898 let me tell you about this situation." 775 00:42:50,150 --> 00:42:54,280 Dan Schneider talked to the young lady's physician 776 00:42:54,363 --> 00:42:57,199 who had treated her for her illness in the hospital... 777 00:42:57,825 --> 00:43:00,703 and had discharged her on Tylenol. 778 00:43:01,870 --> 00:43:06,625 As opposed to this huge amount of OxyContin 779 00:43:06,709 --> 00:43:09,670 and other medications prescribed by Dr. Cleggett. 780 00:43:12,339 --> 00:43:15,259 As soon as the medical board received this affidavit... 781 00:43:15,843 --> 00:43:19,096 they did verify my concerns with a Dr. Brobson Lutz. 782 00:43:20,306 --> 00:43:22,349 Eighty milligram OxyContin 783 00:43:22,433 --> 00:43:23,601 for her initial visit. 784 00:43:24,643 --> 00:43:27,187 "To take one or two every 12 hours." 785 00:43:27,271 --> 00:43:28,564 That's a tremendous dose. 786 00:43:28,647 --> 00:43:31,400 You would never start anybody out on a dose like that. 787 00:43:33,569 --> 00:43:35,613 There is no way that Dr. Cleggett 788 00:43:36,530 --> 00:43:39,783 could have really thought that she was practicing good medicine. 789 00:43:41,076 --> 00:43:43,287 When he put that in an affidavit, 790 00:43:43,370 --> 00:43:46,415 if there ever was a smoking gun, that was it. 791 00:43:46,999 --> 00:43:48,667 He says, "Dan... 792 00:43:49,418 --> 00:43:51,003 I think this just might do it." 793 00:43:56,550 --> 00:44:00,012 The medical board sent SUVs there... 794 00:44:00,721 --> 00:44:02,723 with the St. Bernard Parish police... 795 00:44:03,807 --> 00:44:04,892 the DEA... 796 00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:09,438 Dan Schneider was the linchpin. 797 00:44:10,522 --> 00:44:14,652 As crazy and as out of control as this guy was, 798 00:44:15,110 --> 00:44:16,320 he got results. 799 00:44:17,655 --> 00:44:19,657 The desk was piled high 800 00:44:19,740 --> 00:44:22,743 with tens and twenty-dollar bills in big stacks. 801 00:44:23,327 --> 00:44:26,664 There were stacks and stacks of prescriptions 802 00:44:26,747 --> 00:44:29,416 that had already been signed by Dr. Cleggett 803 00:44:29,500 --> 00:44:32,252 and were only awaiting somebody to put the date 804 00:44:32,336 --> 00:44:35,214 and the patient's name on the prescription. 805 00:44:36,924 --> 00:44:38,425 When they served Dr. Cleggett 806 00:44:38,509 --> 00:44:41,929 with the summary suspension order, she was not happy about it. 807 00:44:42,429 --> 00:44:44,473 She was mad as a hornet. 808 00:44:44,556 --> 00:44:49,770 She said, "DEA, NOPD, task force, whoever you are, 809 00:44:49,853 --> 00:44:50,853 you're dead." 810 00:44:51,897 --> 00:44:55,150 She literally threatened federal agents. 811 00:44:55,234 --> 00:44:57,486 That was pretty unusual, yes. 812 00:44:57,569 --> 00:44:59,113 Pretty unusual. 813 00:44:59,780 --> 00:45:03,325 It was very clear to us that she was not gonna let this go 814 00:45:03,409 --> 00:45:06,495 without a major defense and attack. 815 00:45:16,672 --> 00:45:18,424 - Here's your water. - Uh-huh. 816 00:45:18,507 --> 00:45:20,360 When you need it. I'm gonna put... 817 00:45:20,384 --> 00:45:23,095 Let me just take one little, quick glance at that. 818 00:45:23,178 --> 00:45:26,056 And then tissues are going be right here, too, okay? 819 00:45:26,140 --> 00:45:27,140 Okay.