The Utah Physicians Licensing Board Friday suspended the medical license of Dr. Warren Stack and ordered that he immediately cease and desist from practicing medicine and issuing controlled substances.
The license suspension came following a closed-door emergency meeting that lasted several hours Friday. In its conclusion, the board determined Stack represented "an immediate and significant danger to the public health, safety and welfare."
The panel further found that Stack had engaged in "inappropriate pain management" and "unprofessional conduct" and was issuing pain medications for patients in high doses, contradictory combinations and sometimes without first conducting a sufficient diagnosis of the patient," according to the panel's report.
"Warren R. Stack has demonstrated a severe departure from the standard of care, competency and skill that a physician and surgeon is required to maintain," the report stated.
Stack, 60, was arrested May 16 in his Murray office and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of nearly a dozen counts of controlled substance-related charges, including illegal distribution. He has since bailed out of jail. Some patients knew him as the drug "Candy Man."
Investigators believe Stack illegally distributed more than 3.5 million narcotic pain pills since 2001, getting patients addicted to drugs such as Oxycontin or feeding off those already addicted. Detectives were also trying to determine if any overdose deaths could be linked to Stack. As of Friday, he had not been officially charged in court.
The board, which is part of the State Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, further found Stack had been keeping false medical records of patients and falsified billing for services.
Stack did not attend Friday's meeting. He can appeal the board's decision.
Meanwhile, the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office is concerned that with a major drug supplier cut off, some addicts going through withdrawal may become desperate and turn to more violent crimes, such as robbing pharmacies.
Friday, District Attorney Lohra Miller, along with a number of county officials and members of the medical community, issued a reminder to Stack's former patients, and others suffering from prescription drug addiction, that help is available to those with legitimate needs. With the supply of drugs Stack had been providing cut off, both law enforcers and rehab specialists realize a lot of addicts could now be going through drug withdrawal, which can cause serious illness. Miller said now is the time for those people to get into rehabilitation.
Miller declined to talk about the facts of the Stack case, including how many patients he had or how many possible addicts he may have been supplying. However, in a prepared statement, Miller said, "recent events have created a substantial loss" in the amount of prescription pain medications available. "This is likely to affect thousands of people in many different ways," she said.
Pat Fleming, director of Salt Lake County Substance Abuse Services, said his office would have an open-door policy for those who are having a problem with Oxycontin and other pain medications. "People can recover from any drug abuse," he said.
If those people don't seek treatment for their addictions while going through withdrawal, law enforcers fear there could be a sudden spike in crime.
"The longer you let your abuse get away from you, the more chronic it gets," Fleming said.
Miller said already there had been a recent increase in crimes involving prescription drugs, although her office was still compiling exact numbers Friday. Although she said there was no evidence to directly link the recent spike to Stack's arrest, "We believe it is better to take a proactive approach to the problem to minimize further effects upon our community."
Those who turn to a life of crime will "get my office," Miller sternly warned. But she also admitted it could be a big strain on her office if there was a sudden flood of people arrested for Oxycontin robberies.
"We are on the brink of fracture," she said of her office's caseload. "It would overwhelm the system and overwhelm my office."
County officials hope more people will take the rehabilitation route. On Monday alone, Project Reality, a Salt Lake rehab center, said it received 21 calls from people seeking treatment for Oxycontin addiction. Some of those people admitted their supplier was Stack, said director Joel Millard. On a regular day, only five to 10 people call for the same reason, he said.
Miller would not say when she expected charges against Stack might be screened. She did say that "a number of agencies are looking at a number of charges."
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com