My name is Robert L. Ignasiak. I am a retired small town doctor that has been grievously wronged by our Federal Government.  I have been convicted of prescribing controlled substances to patients without determining a sufficient medical necessity for prescriptions of controlled substances.   I am truly innocent of any wrongdoing and practiced medicine with only my patient’s well being at heart.  The prescriptions I wrote were dosages recommended by the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) and was not over the recommended amounts. 

 I founded the Freeport Medical Clinic in 1985.  My wife, Teresa, was my nurse and later my office manager. I was the only doctor in this town for most of the years I practiced.  Over the years the practice grew and I cared for thousands of patients with a great variety of illnesses.  In 2005 I was able to retire because of a real estate investment that I made in 1994.  I finished out the year and made arrangements for a hospital to hire a new physician and become the custodian of records and treat my existing patients.

Two months after I retired, 2006, a joint task force subpoenaed my charts and began an aggressive investigation.  The Diversion Team consisted of the FBI, DEA, Walton County Sheriffs Department, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement.  In March of 2008 a SWAT team stormed my home and arrested me in front of my wife, two young children at 6:30 am. 

The trial began in October 2008 and involved a severe distortion and deception by the prosecution. They were successful and now I have been sentenced to 24 years in Federal Prison.

While it is true that there will be less controlled medicine on the street if they arrest all the doctors who prescribe them.  There are no limits on how many times a doctor may prescribe any specific medicine. I had accumulated many patients with arthritic problems that were appropriately treated with pain medicine.  I also had many patients with anxiety that were appropriately treated with nerve medicine. I also had many patients with other illnesses that were treated with noncontrolled medicines.

A small town doctor is expected to treat a variety of illnesses, especially chronic conditions.  Family practice doctors, general practitioners, and pain specialists are the types of doctors that are most likely to be treating patients with chronic pain.   These task forces are targeting these types of physicians.  If the Government would rather see patients treated correctly in their eyes then they need to provide strict guidelines in treating those who suffer from chronic pain.

As our population ages more people will develop painful degenerative joint disease and chronic pain will be a more prevelant problem.  If the government expects doctors to treat these conditions,  things need to change. I treated patients and tried my best to eliminate those from suffering. At the rate that the government is imprisoning doctors, physicians will be at risk of imprisonment each time they prescribes a controlled medicine.

I have been rewarded for my 20 years of medical service to my small community with life in prison.