Patient perspectives on criminal prosecutions of pain management practitioners:lessons from the Fisher-Miller case

The profound effect of the filing of criminal drug trafficking charges against health professionals on the patients are described. Two high profile cases in which a physician, Frank Fisher, and a pharmacist, Stephen Miller, were prosecuted for providing opioid analgesics for pain patients are described. The patients' personal perspectives on their being labeled as drug abusers for using prescribed analgesics that improved their quality of life and the way in which other health professionals and society related to them are described. In spite of the fact that the charges were dismissed, lasting harm to the professionals, their patients and society resulted from this prosecution.