Kansas Doctor Gets Life In Prison For Selling Opioids That Led To Patient’s Death

Dr. Steven R. Henson of Wichita, Kansas was convicted last October of multiple charges, including conspiracy to distribute prescription drugs outside the course of medical practice, presenting false patient records to investigators and money laundering, according to the Department of Justice. This week, he was sentenced to life in prison for distributing prescription drugs that resulted in the death of one of his patients.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten said, “There was ample evidence that Henson was prescribing opioid medications in amounts likely to lead to addiction, and in amounts so expensive that the patients would likely be forced by economic circumstances to support their addiction by selling some of the drugs to others.” Federal officials said Henson postdated prescriptions and wrote them without a medical need or legitimate exam in return for cash and in some cases, he prescribed opioid medications in dangerous amounts. 

Nick McGovern was a patient of Henson’s who passed away in 2015 due to complications from prescribed alprazolam and methadone and prosecutors presented this evidence during the trial. U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister, sent a  stern warning, “For any doctors, pharmacists or nurses who disregard their oath and distribute powerful drugs illegally to enrich themselves, the message today is that they will be prosecuted to the full extent allowed by federal law.”

McAllister said his sentencing is part of a crackdown on the national opioid epidemic.

“We are dealing with an epidemic. Nationwide, more than 70,000 Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses. That is more than all the American casualties during the war in Vietnam.”

According to #CNN, expert research says the United States is in the middle of an opioid epidemic with more than 2 million people dependent on or abusing prescription pain pills and/or street drugs. More than 130 people have died every day from opioid-related drug overdoses in 2016 and 2017, reported from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.