It seems that for one central Texas doctor, prescribing dangerous medications without valid medical purpose has proven to be as habit-forming as some of the drugs he peddles. Dr. Dwight James Nichols of Stephens County, Texas, who was arrested in Breckenridge in December 2011 for writing narcotics prescriptions without examining patients, had been previously indicted on a similar charge in 2009. And he had been sanctioned in 2004 by the Texas Medical Board for the same offense. Nichols, 81, was arrested December 7, 2011, via a sealed indictment from the 90th Judicial District Court in Stephens County and charged with delivery of a controlled substance by fraud “for other than a medical purpose”—a third-degree felony. Just two years prior, in October of 2009, Nichols had been arrested for delivery of a controlled substance—a state jail offense—for prescribing a woman who was not his patient hydrocodone, Xanax, and alprazolam, allegedly for a third party who was also not his patient.
But as far back as 2004, Nichols had prescribed Demerol, Oxycontin, hydrocodone, and other serious pain medications to patients without conducting any diagnostic tests to ascertain whether the drugs were required. Upon his 2004 sanctioning, Nichols was placed under orders to have his practice monitored by a fellow physician, and to log all prescriptions for potentially dangerous or addictive substances. He was also prohibited from accepting any new patients seeking treatment for chronic pain, paid a $5,000 administrative fee, and was required to complete 50 hours of continuing medical education in order to pass the SPEX, or Special Purpose Examination of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States.
Nichols failed the test twice before the Texas Medical Board removed the requirement that he pass it, citing a positive report from Nichols’ supervising physician and the fact that he “practices in a rural community that is medically underserved.” But old habits die hard, and it seems that the only service Nichols could bring himself to offer was enabling drug abuse. According to court documents, he prescribed narcotics without examinations to patients in June 2008 and again in April 2011. Nichols’ criminal cases are still pending, and a formal complaint filed by the Texas Medical Board against him in August 2011 is also still in process. Let’s hope he doesn’t slip through the legal cracks again—doctors as unethical as Nichols should be brought to justice for damaging the communities they ought to be serving.
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