Amid historic decisions concerning abortion and gun control, the Supreme Court also weighed in on the opioid epidemic—in a case concerning two doctors who had been convicted of running pill mills that fueled the staggering increase in overdose deaths over the past decade. The doctors were convicted of unlawful drug distribution under the Controlled Substances Act, including a clinic in Alabama that issued nearly 300,000 prescriptions for controlled substances in a little more than four years—making it one of the nation’s leading sources of prescriptions for deadly fentanyl-based drugs. The other doctor was accused of writing prescriptions for payments that roughly tracked the street prices of the drugs, and accepted payment in cash and firearms. The judges, ruling unanimously, differed however in interpreting a phrase in the regulation act, noting that a doctor had to show intent that they were acting in an unauthorized manner. Some analysts argued that the ruling did not let the pill mill doctors off the hook, but may make further prosecutions of prescribers more difficult. The case, which now goes back to the appeals court, highlights the role played by doctors in dispensing legal prescription drugs that have led to an epidemic that last year claimed more than 108,000 lives from a drug overdose.
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