Narcotics research, rehabilitation, and treatment. Hearings, Ninety ...

263Chairman Pepper. Mr. Steiger ?Mr. Steiger. Thank you, jMr. Chairman.Mr. Horan, to your knowledge, has any physician ever been chargedin the State of Virginia under the statute to which you just referred?Mr. HoRAx. Yes ; I think there have been charges under that statute.Mr. Steiger. To what degree of success ?IMr. HoRAX. The net effect was that the physician just turned in hislicense and the prosecution ended there. They didn't pursue it.IMr. Steiger. He didn't continue the practice of medicine?Mr. HoRAx. He lost his right to practice medicine.Mr. Steiger. You mentioned in several instances of private physiciansin the District of Columbia who are the source of divertedmethadone. How many are we talking about ?Mr. HoRAX. At least four.Mr. Steiger. At least four.And you know who they are ?Mr. HoRAX. Yes ; I think we have a good idea.Mr. Steiger. What kind of volume are we talking about. I ^uess thething that would really interest us would be not only that which findsits way into Fairfax, but that which is being diverted in the District,also.Mr. HoRAx. One example that I can give you is in the case of onespecific physician. We have had him under surveillance a numberof times over in the District because we feel that at least two of thedrug deaths we have are related to his supply.In the course of surveillance of this physician there was never atime when the physician had less than 10 patients an hour in his officeat $15 a throw. If you give him a six-hour day and a 5-day week, hehas about $325,000 gross minimum in just his dispensing habits.Mr. Steiger. Excuse me. All of these patients, based on your observance,were receiving methadone ?Mr. HoKAX. Yes ; everybody that was in there. That is what he isthere for.Mr. Steiger. He didn't do much else ?Mr. HoRAX. He is supposedly a general practitioner, but I thinkhis main business is methadone. In his case, he is dispensing in a formthat is probably costing him $0.25. In my opinion, the whole treatment,at least as we know it, has to do with dispensing methadone andnothing more.Mr. Steiger. Right.Mr. HoRAx. There are no rehabilitative or vocational services.Mr. Steiger. Do you know the form, the physical form ?Mr. HoRAx. Methadone mixed in Tang.Mr. Steiger. It was the same form in which it is given at the clinicas you described ?Mr. HoRAX. That is right.Mr. Sreiger. It has been your experience, which you stated in yourstatement, that contrary to some of the medical opinion we had that atleast one victim apparently did shoot the mixture in the Tang ?Mr. HoRAX. Every one of our dead ones was in the vein with methadone;in one case it was the methadone mixed in Tang. Every oneof them was shooting but only one of them, to my knowledge, hadTang.