Supreme Court rules that doctors need to knowingly misprescribe opioids for it to be a crime
The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that prosecutors need to prove that doctors knowingly prescribed drugs in aberrant ways to win convictions against them for unlawful distribution of controlled medicines.
The decision came in a case brought by two doctors who were sentenced to decades in prison for unlawfully prescribing opioids. The doctors had argued they were acting in “good faith” trying to provide care for their patients.