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Doctors and Pain Patients Avoid “Ruan” in the Supreme Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2023

Mark A. Rothstein ,
Mary E. Dyche  and
Julia Irzyk
Mark A. Rothstein
Affiliation:
LOUIS D. BRANDEIS SCHOOL OF LAW, THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, LOUISVILLE, KY, USA
Mary E. Dyche
Affiliation:
INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR, LOUISVILLE, KY, USA
Julia Irzyk
Affiliation:
INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA
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Abstract

Physicians’ fear of criminal prosecution for prescribing opioid analgesics is a major reason why many chronic pain patients are having an increasingly difficult time obtaining medically appropriate pain relief. In Ruan v. United States, 142 S. Ct. 2370 (2022), the Supreme Court unanimously vacated two federal convictions under the Controlled Substances Act. The Court held that the government must prove that the defendant knowingly or intentionally acted in an unauthorized manner.

Keywords

Controlled Substances ActCriminal ProsecutionOpioidsPain ManagementPhysicians
Type
Columns: Currents in Contemporary Bioethics
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 50 , Issue 4: Health Justice: Engaging Critical Perspectives in Health Law and Policy , Winter 2022 , pp. 841 - 847
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)

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Footnotes

About This Column

Mark A. Rothstein serves as the section editor for Currents in Contemporary Bioethics. Professor Rothstein is the Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine Emeritus at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. ([email protected])

References

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