Pain Patients Challenge DEA’s ‘Bogus Judicial System’

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Patients of a California doctor whose license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances was suspended by the DEA have launched another long shot legal bid to get his license reinstated.

DEA administrator Anne Milgram suspended the license of Dr. David Bockoff in 2022, largely based on allegations that five of his pain patients were receiving dangerously high doses of opioids. Bockoff’s abrupt suspension left 240 patients – including many who suffer from severe and incurable pain conditions -- scrambling to find new providers and pain medication.

At least three of those patients have since died, including one who committed suicide with his wife and another who died after buying opioid medication in Mexico.

“Every time you take away a doctor's license without giving them any opportunity to fight it, you put a patient on the street who's a chronic pain patient and they've just been abandoned. No explanation or anything,” says attorney John Flannery. “And the government doesn't give a damn. They don't care at all.”

Flannery represents nine Bockoff patients who have tried repeatedly to gain legal standing as interested parties in the DEA case against the Beverly Hills doctor. Their efforts so far have failed. An Administrative Law Judge would not let them attend DEA hearings on the case, and a federal judge refused to grant a temporary restraining order that would have restored Bockoff’s license while he appeals his suspension.

Recently, a three-judge panel on the District of Columbia’s U.S. Court of Appeals declined to intervene in the case, saying the patients provided the court with “no credible factual submissions” that document how they were harmed by Bockoff’s suspension. The judges’ order makes no mention of the patients who died.

‘We Were Entirely Hamstrung’

Part of the problem is the closed administrative system that the DEA uses to discipline doctors, in which the agency essentially serves as the prosecutor, judge and executioner. Flannery calls it a “bogus judicial system” that the DEA created for itself. Even the rulings of a supposedly independent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) can be rejected by the DEA Administrator.

“There is much talk about how the government is ‘open’ and transparent, but DEA’s proceedings are entirely opaque to patients and the public,” Flannery wrote in his latest appeal, in which he asks the full DC Court of Appeals for an en banc review of the case.

“We were entirely hamstrung to proceed to seek review in any DEA proceedings as we had no right to review any pleadings, to attend any hearings, to monitor the proceedings, to review any of the ‘evidence,’ to hear the arguments, and the only decision made available to us by the ALJ related to the (unsuccessful) motion to intervene.”

Flannery says federal law allows any “interested persons” or “person aggrieved” by the DEA to have a legal standing in its administrative hearings. If the Appeals Court accepts that argument, it would set a major precedent that would affect all future DEA cases against doctors by giving their patients a seat at the table.

Flannery says the DEA’s disciplinary actions against Bockoff and other doctors interfere with the practice of medicine.

“I hate to say it’s a witch hunt, but I think we found a witch and the witch is the present DEA administrator,” Flannery told PNN. “She's part of a machine that just keeps chugging along, hurting and hurting and hurting. How does one go into government to do that? Who do they think they're saving? They found five patients that they claim were harmed, and so the other 235 patients, they have no idea about them, and they just cut them off. How do you justify that?”

Flannery’s appeal also cites the DEA’s “flimsy evidence” against Bockoff, most notably the agency’s expert witness, Dr. Timothy Munzing, a family practice physician who has launched a lucrative second career for himself as a government witness against doctors accused of overprescribing opioids. Munzing has made over $3.4 million testifying for the federal government in dozens of cases against doctors. In an Ohio case, a judge declared a mistrial after Munzing contradicted himself during testimony.

“The DEA’s expert, Dr. Timothy Munzing, was, by any fair review, ‘damaged goods’ by DEA’s overuse of his ‘skills,’” Flannery wrote. “On information and belief, this impeachment material involving Dr. Munzing, the DEA’s sole expert witness, was withheld from Dr. Bockoff in the DEA Administrative proceeding.”

A protracted legal challenge of this kind is expensive and a GoFundMe campaign has been created by the nine Bockoff patients to help support it. Over $10,000 has been raised so far.

“Please know that we'll be working as hard as we can to keep this fundraiser and our effort going,” said Kristen Ogden, the wife of one of the patients. “Our donors are helping so much in this effort to make a difference for chronic pain patients and doctors. As John (Flannery) says, we are doing something that hasn't been done before... seeking to intervene so that patients can have a voice.”

Army Veteran Is Latest Casualty of DEA’s War on Drugs

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Becky Snyder and her husband Vance were soldiers when they first met in 1979 at Fort Lewis, Washington. Becky was a legal clerk for the Army, while Vance was a combat medic who later became an Army-trained physician assistant and chief warrant officer. They soon married and had a son.

After years spent defending their country, Vance and Becky could not have imagined they’d windup becoming unintended casualties of the DEA’s failed War on Drugs. Vance lost the love of his life when Becky died last month at the age of 70, after a lifetime of suffering from chronic pain.

“She had scoliosis her whole life, probably congenital. And that made it hard for her to do sit ups in the in the military and probably injured her spine trying to do that,” said Vance. “She could walk with difficulty. Usually when we went out, we used a wheelchair.”

Becky’s back pain progressively worsened and she became bedridden after developing intractable pain from two very serious complications: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and arachnoiditis, a chronic inflammation of spinal nerves.

Both conditions are incurable and cause severe pain, but Becky found relief under the care of two Los Angeles-area doctors, Forest Tennant and David Bockoff. 

BECKY SNYDER AND SON

The careers of both physicians effectively ended after their offices were raided by DEA agents, Dr. Tennant in 2017 and Dr. Bockoff in 2022. They were targeted by the DEA for giving patients like Becky with complex medical conditions high doses of opioid pain medication — which, in the eyes of the DEA, has no legitimate medical use.

There is no evidence that any of Tennant’s patients were harmed or overdosed while under his care, but he retired in 2018 rather than face a costly legal battle with the DEA and Department of Justice.

Becky and other Tennant patients became “opioid refugees,” scouring the country for doctors because no one was willing to treat them locally. Several eventually found their way to Bockoff, with some traveling thousands of miles from out-of-state to see him and get their prescriptions filled in California. That made Bockoff a target for the DEA.

Last November, the DEA suspended Bockoff’s license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances, even though he practiced medicine for over 50 years in California with no record of any disciplinary action or complaints filed with the state medical board. The DEA claimed five of Bockoff’s patients were in “imminent danger,” but then waited a year to suspend him.  

Patient Deaths

While Bockoff appeals his suspension, at least three of his former patients have died, including one who committed suicide with his wife and another who died after buying opioid medication in Mexico. Becky Snyder is the most recent death.        

“The last six years have been very difficult, because we couldn’t get the amount of medicine that Dr. Tennant gave. Dr. Bockoff, I mean to his credit he did the best he could, but he couldn’t give the amount that Forest Tennant was willing to give,” said Vance.

“But if there hadn’t been Dr. Bockoff, I think she would have died even sooner.”

Becky didn’t die from withdrawal, but from pancreatic cancer. She was diagnosed earlier this summer after complaining of stomach pain, and the cancer quickly metastasized. Becky didn’t drink, and Vance is convinced that poorly treated pain contributed to her death.

BECKY SNYDER

“I was in Army medicine. Clinically and diagnostically, pain can be an important indicator of what’s wrong with a patient. You have to take the suffering seriously,” Vance told PNN. “I believe pain kills people all the time because it just wears the person out. It leads to all kinds of conditions, whether it’s endocrine, whether it’s cancer, whether it’s depression and suicide. There’s all kind of things that pain causes.”

“Cancer follows intractable pain like night follows day,” says Tennant, who believe Becky’s death was preventable. “Because if you can’t get the pain relieved, you disturb your hormonal systems and your immune system. I can’t tell you how common cancer is in these people who can’t get care. It’s just one of the complications.

“I’m sure if I was still in practice or Dr. Bockoff was, she’d still be alive.“

Vance Snyder says intractable pain took a toll on Becky’s physical and mental health, and she aged considerably in her final years. He believes high dose opioids is what kept her alive.

“For the worst, worst cases of intractable pain, opioids have to be part of the package. The idea that nerve blocks, epidurals, aromatherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and all those things are going to make a big difference with the worst kind of pain is ridiculous,” he said.

Snyder has joined with several other Bockoff patients in a lawsuit asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to give them legal standing as interested parties in the Bockoff case. 

In an open letter, Snyder urged the court to find a “proper balance” between appropriate pain care and the needs of law enforcement.

“Severe intractable pain does not exist in isolation, but is connected to every other aspect of the patient’s overall health,” he wrote. “Becky is gone now, but there are many thousands of agonized patients who are desperate and on the verge of suicide. Please think about them when you make your decisions.”     

DEA Gaslights Pain Patients Over ‘Unwillingness’ to Find Doctors

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Faced with record high overdoses, a fentanyl crisis, medication shortages and corruption within its own ranks, you’d think the Drug Enforcement Administration would have better things to do than gaslight chronic pain patients.

You’d be wrong.

In a blatant case of victim-blaming, a Department of Justice attorney claims that patients of a California doctor whose license to prescribe opioids was suspended last year by the DEA were not making any effort to find new physicians.

The DEA’s suspension of Dr. David Bockoff effectively shuttered his practice and left 240 patients – including many who suffer from rare and chronic health conditions – scrambling to find new providers and pain medication.

While Bockoff appealed his suspension, nearly a dozen of his patients went to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington DC, asking the court to let them intervene in the case – which would essentially give patients and their lawyers a seat at the table while the DEA decides whether to make Bockoff’s suspension permanent. 

It’s an unusual legal strategy that the DOJ and DEA are resisting. Last week Anita Gay, the DOJ’s lead attorney, filed a 6-page motion to have the patients’ case dismissed, saying they have no legal right to intervene in a DEA case against their doctor. Then she gaslighted Bockoff’s patients, blaming them for the life-threatening predicament that the DEA created for them. 

“Petitioners have had since October 25, 2022, to find a new physician and their unwillingness to do so does not warrant intervention,” wrote Gay, who works in the Criminal Division of the DOJ’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section.

The alleged “unwillingness” to find new providers angered many of the patients, who have struggled for years to find doctors willing to treat their pain with high-dose opioids. Some traveled thousands of miles from out of state to see Bockoff.  

Patients say Gay was either misinformed or misleading judges in her motion to the DC Court of Appeals. Even her reference to “October 25, 2022” was puzzling, because patients didn’t learn about Bockoff’s suspension until November 1. Some went to his office that day for appointments and were turned away.  

“Ms. Gay’s assertion that patients are unwilling to find other providers to assist them in continuing successful treatment or even tapering their medication could not be further from the truth,” says Anne Fuqua, a disabled nurse in Alabama who lives with painful dystonia and arachnoiditis. Fuqua was able to find a palliative care doctor in Florida to take her as a patient. Others have not been as fortunate.

“The 60 plus patients I have spoken with who have been unable to find a new source of care have searched extensively for a new health care provider,” Fuqua told PNN. “The problem is that physicians are loathe to accept any new patients, much less those whose physician was the subject of a DEA investigation.” 

“Ms. Gay is aware of the medical environment that her office created. We have diligently tried to locate a pain management physician, but all of them fear losing their freedom and who can blame them with the current frenzied atmosphere?” said Dustin Parker, who also suffers from the painful spinal disease of arachnoiditis.

“It was awful, calling each time was full of anxiety, the little hope that we held onto was quickly extinguished each time we dialed. I began feeling an impending doom build. I thought if I could lose access to medical care, how would I care for my family, would I ever achieve my goals, and my dream of earning a retirement?”

‘To Say We’re Not Trying Is Absurd’ 

Gay did not respond to an email request for comment. Her assertion that patients were unwilling to find new providers seems particularly cruel, because two of Bockoff’s patients died after his suspension – not because of his medical care, but from the lack of it. 

Danny Elliott and his wife Gretchen were so distraught over his inability to find another doctor that they both committed suicide in their Georgia home on November 7.  Four weeks later, Jessica Fujimaki died at her home in Phoenix after unsuccessful attempts to find proper pain care.

Both Elliott and Fujimaki had incurable conditions that cause severe pain and needed high dose opioids to have any quality of life. 

“To say that this group of patients hasn’t made efforts to find alternative medical care is just bullshit. The last door open to them was slammed shut by the DEA.”

— Jim Elliott, brother of deceased patient

“To say that this group of patients hasn’t made efforts to find alternative medical care is just bullshit. The last door open to them was slammed shut by the DEA,” said Jim Elliott, Danny’s brother  

“It’s not like Jessica wasn’t trying to look for another doctor, because we tried. And no one would take her in the state of Arizona,” said Tad Fujimaki, Jessica’s husband. “The doctors don’t want to deal with (high dose opioid patients) because they know they’re going to get exposed. They’re going to be put under the microscope by DEA.” 

The Fujimakis were so desperate for pain medication that they made three trips to Mexico to buy opioids for Jessica – a risky move because counterfeit medication has been found in some Mexican pharmacies that cater to U.S. visitors.  

“For them to say we’re not trying is just absurd,” Fujimaki said. “It’s not just Jessica. All the other patients went through multiple doctors before they got to Dr. Bockoff. And they got denied, denied and denied. No one would take them as patients. And then finally Dr. Bockoff took them.”

Little has been revealed publicly about the DEA’s investigation of Bockoff. DEA agents first searched his office in September, 2021 and confiscated the medical records of all 240 patients. They determined that five of them were in “imminent danger” from Bockoff’s prescribing practices, but then waited over a year to suspend his license.

Much of the government’s case against Bockoff appears to be dependent on the opinions of Dr. Timothy Munzing, a family practice physician and outspoken critic of opioids, who has a lucrative sideline working as a consultant and expert witness for the DEA and DOJ. According to GovTribe, a website that tracks federal contracts, Munzing has made over $3.4 million in recent years working for the government.

In court documents, the DEA said Munzing was prepared to testify that Bockoff’s treatment of the five patients “fell below the standard of care in California” and was “not for a legitimate medical purpose.” But the DEA has produced no evidence that any of Bockoff’s patients overdosed, became addicted or harmed in any way while under his care. The 80-year old Bockoff has practiced medicine for over 50 years in California, and according to the state medical board has no prior record of disciplinary action or complaints.

Bockoff is appealing his suspension to a DEA Administrative Law Judge, but a final ruling could be months away. It would be unusual for the courts to intervene and give his patients a seat at the table, but many consider it a life-and-death issue. In their eyes, the “imminent danger” is from the DEA, DOJ and their attorneys.

“I’d like to ask Ms. Gay if this was willful ignorance or does her affluent position afford her an alternate to my reality?” said Parker. “It’s offensive saying that it’s a patient’s fault for not trying hard enough.”

Judge Won’t Stop DEA Despite Patient Deaths

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A federal judge in California has refused to grant a temporary restraining order that would have allowed Dr. David Bockoff to resume prescribing opioid medication to hundreds of pain patients at his practice in Beverly Hills. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration suspended Bockoff’s license to prescribe controlled substances on November 1, claiming five of his patients were in “imminent danger” because he prescribed high doses of opioids and kept inadequate medical records. Since the DEA’s suspension, however, at least two of Bockoff’s patients have died -- not because of his medical care, but from the lack of it.

Danny Elliott and his wife were so distraught over his inability to find another doctor and get opioid treatment that they both committed suicide on November 7.  Four weeks later, Jessica Fujimaki died at her home, apparently from complications caused by pain and opioid withdrawal. Both Elliott and Fujimaki had incurable conditions that cause severe pain and needed high dose opioids to have any quality of life.

Despite those deaths and the threat posed to other sick patients who can’t find new providers, Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. sided with the DEA, saying the “potential impact” on Bockoff’s patients was outweighed by the DEA’s concerns about his record keeping.

“The need for careful evaluation, monitoring, and control in these circumstances is obvious; and the combination of high dosages and the lack of documentation justifying those dosages and demonstrating proper evaluation and oversight is troubling,” Blumenfeld wrote in his 7-page ruling.

“As for the public interest, the Court is certainly concerned about the potential impact on vulnerable patients who need treatment to manage their pain. This concern, however, must be evaluated in the context of a case in which the DEA is asserting abusive prescription practices and its decision is entitled to deferential review.”

Bockoff has practiced medicine for over 50 years in California without any prior record of disciplinary action or complaints. The DEA provided no evidence that any of Bockoff’s patients – including the five said to be in “imminent danger” – were harmed while under his care.

One of the five – who is only identified in court records as “EC” – has lived with severe pancreatic pain for over 15 years. Bockoff gave her prescriptions for methadone and fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. In its emergency suspension order, the DEA said that use of fentanyl was “not consistent with FDA approved use,” and put EC at higher risk for addiction, overdose and death.

However, in an email provided to the judge, EC said she needed high doses of fentanyl to be able to work and eat food.

“I have exacerbated pain anytime I smell food, eat food, digest food, or sometimes just randomly,” EC wrote. “This pain medication allows me to practice law and serve as a prominent traumatic brain injury litigator and managing attorney for the largest personal injury law firm in California.

“I am able to rise to this level of practice because Dr. Bockoff counsels me on how to manage my pain and prescribes medication for me that allows me to manage my pain so I can be a contributing member of society.”

Judge Blumenfeld dismissed the email, essentially saying that EC’s medical records were more important than her ability to eat and work.

“While proper pain management can have significant benefits, E.C’s email does not fully address the allegations that she was prescribed controlled substances without proper medical evaluation, monitoring, and documentation,” the judge wrote.

‘More Deaths Could Be Imminent’

Several other patients – whose full names were redacted -- also provided testimonials about their care under Bockoff.

“I want to say I appreciate Dr. David Bockoff as the rarest of physicians that actually cares about my health and well-being,” MC wrote in a letter. “If I no longer could receive my pain medication from Dr. Bockoff I would not be able to walk, do house chores, continue part time consulting work, go to school, drive, not be able to get out of bed or walk even in the house.”

“I suffer from a great deal of pain and without medication my life would be awful. I would not be able to move, stand or do any of the activities that I do perform,” said SH. “Dr. Bockoff has helped me tremendously and I need his service in order to have some quality of life.”

“Dr. Bockoff’s practice is already filled with patients who are in a dangerous medical predicament, with no medicine. As more patients run out of their last month’s medication, more deaths could be imminent,” warned DL.

Judge Blumenfeld rejected those claims as well, saying Bockoff’s attorney, Ashli Summer McKeivier, provided no evidence that Bockoff’s medical practice faced “irreparable harm” from to his suspension or that the DEA erred in suspending his license.  

“Plaintiff has not responded by producing substantial evidence to refute claims that he has been improperly dispensing high dosages of the controlled substances at issue,” Blumenfeld wrote. “Nor has Plaintiff shown that there are no other available providers able to properly treat patients who can no longer receive a prescription from him.”

“I’m very disappointed in the judge’s ruling,” McKeivier told PNN.

Munzing Testimony

Much of the government’s case against Bockoff is dependent on the opinions of Dr. Timothy Munzing, a family practice physician who has created a lucrative second career for himself by working as a consultant for the DEA and DOJ. According to GovTribe, a website that tracks federal contracts, Munzing has made over $3.4 million in the last 8 years working for the government and testifying in dozens of cases against doctors.

“Dr. Munzing will testify that Dr. Bockoff’s patient care fell below the standard of care in California and the prescriptions resulting from several examinations were not for a legitimate medical purpose,” the DEA said in court documents. Munzing was not called to testify before Judge Blumenfeld.

McKeivier says the DEA failed to prove there was any “imminent danger” or harm done to Bockoff’s patients, even though Munzing reviewed three years of his medical records.

“The government made an argument that basically disproved itself,” she said. “If you’ve got 3 years of records and in those 3 years of records you cannot point to one example of death, overdose, bodily injury or diversion, then that disproves the fact that any of the danger based on those things is imminent. If for three years you have a track record of it never happening, then how can it be imminent to happen now?”  

Bockoff is pursuing another legal avenue by appealing his suspension to a DEA Administrative Law Judge, who will begin hearings in Washington DC on January 19. That hearing process is expected to take nine days. A final decision on the suspension could be weeks or months after that.

Second Patient Dies After DEA’s Suspension of Doctor’s License

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A second chronic pain patient has died as a result of the DEA’s suspension of a California doctor’s license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances. 42-year Jessica Fujimaki died Saturday, December 10th at her home in Arizona, apparently due to complications caused by opioid withdrawal.

Jessica lived with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), arachnoiditis, stenosis and other chronic conditions that cause severe, intractable pain and left her bedridden. In the past year, she found relief through injections of the opioid hydromorphone every two hours, which allowed her to walk, have some quality of life, and take care of her husband and two children.   

That came crashing to an end in early November, when she learned from her pain specialist, Dr. David Bockoff, that his license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances had been suspended by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“She was frightened, because she knew what was going to happen to her if she didn’t have that medication,” said Tad Fujimaki. “There’s no way she could live without it.”

The Fujimakis were unable to find another doctor in Arizona willing to treat Jessica, and her health steadily deteriorated as opioid withdrawal set in. In desperation, they made two trips to Mexico to purchase oral opioids there, but were uncertain of the quality of medications they received.

JESSICA FUJIMAKI

A last-minute prescription for injectable hydromorphone from an out-of-state doctor failed to stop her cascading health problems. Her exact cause of death has yet to be determined, pending an autopsy.

Had the treatment that Jessica received from Dr. Bockoff continued, Tad believes his wife would still be alive today. He blames the DEA for her death.   

“Absolutely. DEA, government, all of them. If they didn’t stop the medication, if Jessica was still getting medication from Dr. Bockoff, this would have never happened,” he told PNN.

Like many patients with EDS, Jessica wasn’t diagnosed with the genetic connective tissue disease until well into adulthood. In 2020, when the Fujimakis lived in Hawaii, she had an epidural steroid injection for leg pain that made her condition far worse. Seeking better treatment, the family moved to the mainland.

“The one mistake we made was to move to Arizona,” said Tad, explaining they could find no doctors to treat Jessica near their Phoenix home.  

“Because she was too complicated a patient. They knew they can’t prescribe hydromorphone,” he said. “If we knew the state of Arizona was an anti-opioid state, then we probably wouldn’t have moved from Hawaii to Arizona. We’d have picked a different state.”

Like many other “opioid refugees” on high doses, Jessica searched for doctors out-of-state, eventually finding Bockoff, who has practiced medicine for over 50 years in California without any record of disciplinary action or complaints.

“I have no comment. A very unfortunate tragedy,” Bockoff replied in an email when asked about Jessica’s death.  

THE FUJIMAKI FAMILY

Another Bockoff patient who lived with intractable pain ran out of medication and died one week after the license suspension. Danny Elliott and his wife Gretchen were so distraught over his inability to find another doctor and get opioid treatment that they committed suicide in their Georgia home.

‘Imminent Danger to Public Health’

Why the DEA suspended Bockoff’s license is still not entirely clear. DEA agents searched his office in September, 2021 and confiscated the medical records of 240 patients, which they later returned.

Although a DEA notice of the suspension – signed by DEA administrator Anne Milgram -- states that Bockoff posed “an imminent danger to the public health,” his license was not suspended until 14 months after the initial search, when he was accused of violating the Controlled Substances Act when treating five patients.

Those allegations primarily deal with improper record-keeping and prescribing high doses of opioids that could potentially be diverted or abused. But there is no indication that any harm was caused to the five patients while under Dr. Bockoff’s care, or that they sold or abused the opioids he prescribed.

While Bockoff appeals his suspension, 11 of his patients have hired a lawyer and tried – unsuccessfully so far -- to sign on as intervenors, so they could participate in DEA hearings on the case. One of them was Jessica Fujimaki.

“With the suspension of Dr. Bockoffs license, I am left without care again. It took over a year to find the protocol that work for me and allowed me to have some quality of life,” Jessica wrote in a statement to the DEA.

“I was very fortunate to find Dr. David Bockoff, who accepted me as his patient and has been able to treat me in accordance with the treatment protocol that works for me. This treatment protocol changed my life and gave me hope,” she wrote. “I am able to walk most days unless I am in a huge flare. Without Dr. Bockoff's care and prescribed medication, I would be bedbound, unable to walk, unable to function, and certainly unable to care for my children.”

A DEA Administrative Law Judge declined to let Jessica and the other patients participate in a pretrial conference on November 28, but has not officially rejected or approved their motion to intervene in future hearings. The patients are considering other legal avenues.

Whatever happens, it’s not likely to happen in time to prevent future tragedies. Under DEA rules, doctors have 30 days to appeal their license suspensions. Legal experts say the process can then take months or years to resolve – too long for patients like Jessica and Danny Elliott, who suffered needlessly and didn’t have time to wait.

My Story: Why We’re Fighting the DEA

By Louis Ogden, Guest Columnist

I have been troubled by severe and chronic intractable pain since childhood, beginning at age 6.  I am now 72 years old. My earliest memories of pain are of aching in my legs so bad I remember crying myself to sleep.  My parents took me to doctors who said the aches were “growing pains” that would go away as I got older. 

My pain gradually got worse as I grew older and expanded to be body-wide. The worst pain of all was in my neck and upper back, along with incredibly severe head pain. It felt as if my skull was being crushed in every direction. I first remember having the head pain at age 12, but doctors had no answers for my parents and me. 

I finally got a diagnosis of fibromyalgia from a family doctor in 1990 at age 40. I can still remember his exact words when I asked him if there was anything he could give me for the pain.   

"Yes I could, but I won't because it would require opioids and you would be a junkie within two weeks,” the doctor said.  

I carried on with my life, usually with a tin of Excedrin in my pocket that I took to get me through each day. I did have many symptoms of fibromyalgia and it was good to finally have a diagnosis, but it didn’t seem to explain the crushing head pain.  

The pain grew so bad in my 40’s that I could no longer stand to do the demanding physical work required of an electrician and was forced to retire early. 

I was couch-bound most of the time and went on a 13-year search to find a solution to this painful existence. 

I saw many physicians and tried many treatments and medications, including opioids. Unfortunately, none of the therapies or medications eased my pain to tolerable levels. 

LOUIS and kristen OGDEN

Finding Relief With High Doses

In 2010, I sought out more aggressive pain care using high-dose opioid therapy as a last resort.  Dr. Forest Tennant of California took over my care. I think it was at my third appointment with Dr. Tennant when he told my wife Kristen and I that I probably would not have a very long life. I was 60 when he told us that bad news, but I am now 72 and still kicking thanks to his treatment protocol.   

After a thorough review of my medical records, a physical evaluation and various assessments, Dr. Tennant prescribed OxyContin, as well as oxycodone and morphine for breakthrough pain. He titrated me up to where I was comfortable and enjoying the highest quality of life I’d ever had as an adult.  The daily dose I was taking was close to 3,000 morphine milligram equivalent (MME), which is considered quite high. 

For 8 years, I continued on that same regimen. I did not need, nor did I ask for a higher dose, as I was doing great on the daily dose as stabilized.  

Dr. Tennant eventually diagnosed me with Arachnoiditis and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). These rare, but very painful syndromes account for my body-wide, complex, constant and severe pain, including the crushing head pain. I believe I inherited EDS from my mother, her mother, and the maternal line of descent going back at least 6 generations. The exact causes of my need for such high doses of opioids may never be proven, but probably include anomalies of absorption, metabolism and receptor damage due to EDS.  

Once titrated up to an effective dose, I was a very happy, well-adjusted person with a good quality of life, no longer couch-bound in agony and once again able to participate in social activities and perform household chores. My medicine enables this, and I have no sensation of pleasure or “high” of any kind. In fact, people that I meet have no idea that I am on a very high dose of opioids. I do not slur my words, nor am I disoriented. 

The DEA Gets Involved  

After Dr. Tennant was forced into retirement by the DEA in 2018 over unsubstantiated allegations of drug trafficking, I moved on to another doctor in California who kept lowering my dose. It left me not feeling well enough to stay active and enjoy my life, so I moved on to become a patient of Dr. David Bockoff, who assured me at my first appointment that he would do his best to help my pain.  He increased my dose to a level that allowed me to be much more comfortable.   

As PNN has reported, the DEA last month suspended Dr. Bockoff’s registration to prescribe opioids and other controlled drugs, which soon led to the death of one of his patients. Danny Elliott was so distraught over losing his pain medication that he committed suicide, along with his wife Gretchen. The Elliotts were friends of ours and confidants, as we have dealt for years with many of the same problems finding appropriate pain care.  

I am also now facing a life with no pain control and the very serious complications of withdrawal and untreated constant, severe pain.  This situation is very frightening to me, as my blood pressure may spike and I could possibly die of heart failure, an aneurysm or a stroke when/if I run out of medicine.   

The families of several of Dr. Bockoff’s patients, including my wife and I, have pooled our resources and retained the services of an experienced, well-qualified attorney who views our case as a violation of our civil rights. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that abandoned pain patients have fought back in such a manner.  If we prove our case with the DEA, the suspension order that prevents Dr. Bockoff from prescribing our medications could be lifted and we will get our good doctor back.   

If we do not win at this stage, we will take our case to the next legal step. In the meantime, some 240 patients of Dr. Bockoff are left with no help and no access to life-saving medications.   

It is my understanding that a few more pain management physicians are considering leaving their practices in the near future. As a result, thousands of additional pain patients may soon lose their lifelines to the medications they so desperately need to function. The DEA has a lot of blood on its hands, with possibly more to come. 

Louis Ogden and his wife Kristen live in Virginia. Dr. Tennant and the Tennant Foundation give financial support to Pain News Network and sponsor PNN’s Patient Resources section.  

Do you have a “My Story” to share? Pain News Network invites other readers to share their experiences about living with pain and treating it. Send your stories to editor@painnewsnetwork.org

DEA Suspension of Doctor’s License Leads to Double Suicide

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Another chronic pain patient, along with his wife, has fallen victim to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ongoing war against doctors who prescribe opioid medication.  

61-year-old Danny Elliott and his 59-year-old wife Gretchen were found dead in their Georgia home Monday. Police are calling it a double suicide.

Family and friends say Elliott – who lived with severe intractable pain for over two decades -- was distraught over the suspension of his doctor’s DEA license to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances. Dr. David Bockoff, a longtime pain management specialist in Beverly Hills, California, was notified about the suspension by a Department of Justice attorney last week.

“OMG. I called for my phone appt on Tuesday, apparently just a couple of hours after they took his license to prescribe. Because I was due for my next Rx’s, I’m now totally out,” Elliott posted on Twitter days before his death.

“It’s the end of the road for me with doctors. Not sure what happens now but it’s going to be brutal.”

No reason was given for the suspension, according to Bockoff. The DEA confirmed to PNN that Bockoff’s license to prescribe was suspended, but declined to comment further because the case is under administrative review.

Danny and Gretchen Elliott

“Their blood is on the DEA’s hands,” Bockoff said about the deaths of the Elliotts.

Some of Bockoff’s patients, including Elliott, traveled thousands of miles from out of state to see him because they were unable to find doctors locally who were willing to treat their pain. Bockoff can still practice medicine in California, but without an active DEA license he cannot prescribe opioids – which are essential, life-giving medications to patients like Elliott.

“I talked to my sister on Sunday,” said Eric Welde, Gretchen’s brother. “They were very distraught because they heard that Doctor Bockoff was not going to be able to grant them another prescription because the DEA had gone after him and said he couldn’t prescribe anymore, otherwise he was going to jail or something. That hit them very hard like a ton of bricks.”

Welde says his brother-in-law suffered from severe chronic headaches after he was electrocuted in a freak accident 22 years ago. A former pharmaceutical rep, Elliott was unable to work and was dependent on opioids to have any quality of life.  In the days before his death, Welde says Elliott was so desperate for pain relief that he tried unsuccessfully to buy drugs on the black market.  

“I’m angry at the DEA. And I’m angry at the whole medical system. Because he was clearly in pain. He was not a junkie,” Welde told PNN. “There’s this whole stigmatism towards pain management that you should just be able to get over it. It’s like telling a diabetic that you don’t need insulin anymore. And it’s brutally wrong.   

“But it’s perfectly acceptable to bring thousands of pounds of illegal fentanyl over and sell that on the black market. But this is a more worthwhile cause for the DEA, which just absolutely floors me.”

Bockoff Patients ‘Among the Sickest’

“This unwarranted harassment of long-established pain doctor David Bockoff is almost beyond belief,” says Kristen Ogden, whose husband Louis is a patient of Bockoff’s. The Ogdens live in Virginia and traveled monthly to California to have Louis’ prescriptions written and filled. 

“These patients, including my husband Louis, are among the sickest people there are and yet they have been able to achieve and maintain a good quality of life with Dr. Bockoff's care and the pain medications he prescribed,” Ogden said. “Now Danny Elliott, a man Louis and I were privileged to call our friend, has ended his life because he could no longer endure such horrific pain and his sweet, caring wife Gretchen apparently chose not to live on without him. Who can explain why it was okay to take away this man's medication?” 

“Just sick over Danny and Gretchen. I'm a Bockoff patient as well, all of my meds were due to fill the day his DEA registration was suspended,” says Anne Fuqua, a disabled nurse in Alabama who lives with dystonia and arachnoiditis, two painful conditions that cannot be cured.   

Fuqua and Louis Ogden are both former patients of Dr. Forest Tennant, whose office and home in California were raided by the DEA in 2017.  A DEA search warrant alleged that Tennant ran a drug trafficking organization because many of his patients came from out-of-state and were on high doses of opioids. No criminal charges were ever filed against Tennant, who retired from clinical practice a few months after the raid. 

“I’m alive today because Dr. Tennant and later Dr. Bockoff chose to put themselves on the line for high-dose patients like me,” says Fuqua.  

It cannot be overstated how difficult it is for chronically ill patients like Fuqua to find new doctors. Many pain management doctors have stopped taking new patients or retired, fearing they could be targeted by DEA or other law enforcement agencies for prescribing opioids. 

For some patients, the pain and anxiety become overwhelming. Jennifer Adams, a 41-year-old Montana woman and former patient of Tennant, ended her life in 2018. Friends say Adams’ anxiety about losing her pain medication “was eating her alive.”

‘Not Helpful to Patients’ 

Dr. Bockoff has practiced medicine in California for 53 years and there is no record of him facing any disciplinary action or complaints filed with the state medical board. His office was searched by DEA agents about a year ago and patient records were taken at that time.

Bockoff says there was no warning about his suspension or the reasons for it. 

“You’d have to ask them what their motivation is. I don’t know. But I would say it certainly affects patients. Any patient who has chronic intractable pain is adversely affected by this action,” Bockoff told PNN. “It’s quite scary to think that a person in pain all of a sudden is unable to get their needed medication.” 

Bockoff says the DEA and DOJ agents who visited his office last week left behind a list of emergency rooms in the Los Angeles area, saying they didn’t want any of his patients to go into withdrawal. Such a list would be of no use to out-of-state patients and of little use to those locally. Many patients resist going to emergency rooms because they fear their pain won’t be treated or they’ll be viewed as drug seekers. 

“I’m not sure that’s helpful to my patients,” Bockoff said.       

Legal experts say the DEA has the power to suspend a doctor’s license in “emergency” situations for “imminent danger to the public health or safety.” A doctor then has 30 days to appeal the suspension to an administrative law judge, a process that can take months or years to resolve – too long for patients who have a limited supply of medication. 

While the DEA has no authority to practice medicine or regulate it, the effects of its decisions are far-reaching on both doctors and patients.  

“They’re certainly making judgements on the practice of medicine and they’re not qualified to do so,” said Michael Barnes, an attorney and chair of the Center for U.S. Policy, a non-profit that seeks to improve healthcare and drug policy. “The DEA is a one trick pony. It knows how to raid. It doesn’t regulate and so it employs it’s war on drug tactics against prescribers, including those who have no criminal intent.” 

Ironically, the suspension of Bockoff’s license comes at a time when opioid hysteria appears to be receding, as more people become aware that street drugs are responsible for the vast majority of overdoses.

This month the CDC revised its controversial opioid guideline, giving doctors more flexibility in using their own judgement to prescribe opioids. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of two doctors appealing their convictions for “overprescribing” opioids, saying doctors can prescribe opioids outside the usual standard of medical care, as long as they act in good faith.

The California Medical Board is also modifying its hard stance on opioid prescribing, which resulted in hundreds of threats of disciplinary action against doctors who prescribed high doses or had patients who overdosed. 

None of these efforts, however, have reined in the DEA or prevented tragedies like the suicides of Danny and Gretchen Elliott.