In 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) launched an investigation of then-president-elect of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) Lynn R. Webster, MD, related to overdose deaths at Webster’s Lifetree Pain Clinic in Salt Lake City.
It was alleged there were up to 100 deaths at Webster’s clinic which was raided by the DEA.
Webster attributed the deaths to “suicide” and the pain clinic closed its doors. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah declined to pursue charges, effectively ending the DEA investigation. The late US Senator Orrin Hatch (Utah) was rumored to be the force behind charges being dropped against Webster.
There were personal injury cases settled against Webster by some of the family members of the dead victims at his pain clinic. Although he reportedly put the blame of the deaths on his medical staff.
Webster was able to retain his medical license, but it was alleged and reported that his ability to prescribe opioids was revoked. So, Webster reinvented himself and is now involved in research on opioids including being an advisor to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and a “champion” for physicians and corporations coming under investigation by the DEA. Sometimes reinvention pays off in many ways.
Here is a recent op piece Webster wrote for the “Salt Lake City Tribune” regarding his expertise on deaths in Utah due to cuts in treatment for opioid addiction.
This is an excerpt from Webster’s op-ed for the “Salt Lake City Tribune”:
“I have presented multiple times to the FDA on the urgent need for safer opioid formulations and continue to advocate for balanced, evidence-based approaches to pain and addiction care. I can say with confidence that you cannot solve a problem by ignoring its complexity. Addiction is not simply about drugs. It is about people — people struggling with pain, isolation, economic instability and trauma. It is a socioecological problem that manifests biologically and is sustained by policy failures.”
Webster’s concerns for policy failures relating to opioid addiction may very well be interpreted as “if I could beat criminal charges resulting in deaths — you may now consider me an expert on addiction and hang on my every word.”
