have the potential for harm as well as good,” Carreno said. “When they are abused, or when a physician over prescribes them or doesn’t do an exam of the patient, that creates a serious potential for harm to the patient. That’s the kind of thing that’s important for us to safeguard.”
She believes it’s vital for the DEA to continue to explore every case of potential malpractice to keep patients safe and make sure offending doctors never get to see patients again. “If you start dispensing these things without knowing anything about the patient you can kill them,” she added. “In too many cases there are doctors who are prescribing to patients who are already addicted. That’s where we will hear from families who say ‘please look into this doctor, we’re scared to death they’re going to kill our kid.’”
“It’s very important to get those doctors away from patients for the sake of protecting them. It’s part of the reason we’re here. In the criminal cases especially it’s hugely important,” Carreno concluded.
