Doctor To The Stars Loses License
A California doctor who allegedly prescribed addictive drugs to celebrities including actress Winona Ryder and singer Courtney Love, has had his medical license revoked, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Jules Mark Lusman may face criminal prosecution authorities said Monday.
The Medical Board of California said the Santa Monica physician's stated specialty was laser surgery. But he also catered to "the demands of wealthy and/or famous drug-seekers for prescription narcotics which would otherwise have to be obtained on the street," said a board report.
Lusman, 49, frequently made house calls to celebrities, examining them only briefly before prescribing drugs, the report said. The doctor charged thousands of dollars for those visits; in one case, the doctor received a $3,000 "retainer" charged to a sick patient's credit card. "The reason for such a fee cannot be fathomed," the medical board concluded.
Lusman called the decision "grossly unfair" in an interview Monday with the television program "Inside Edition," which said he had been interviewed at his mother's home in South Africa. He also denied any wrongdoing in his treatment of Ryder, star of "Age of Innocence" and "Girl, Interrupted."
A week after Ryder's arrest, police were contacted by California Medical Board investigator Charlene McKenzie, who told them that on Dec. 4, 2001, her office executed search warrants at the doctor's home and office.
The search revealed Ryder was a patient of the doctor "under an AKA of Emily Thompson" and all the personal information in the "Thompson" file was Ryder's, including a photocopy of her driver's license and an original patient form signed Winona Ryder, the report said.
Evidence indicated the doctor wrote prescriptions for her under both names, it said.
"If the defendant was under 'pain-management guidance' then the procedures that are recognized to affect pain were certainly not followed by this doctor," the report said.
Before the board, Lusman argued that "his care and treatment fell within the standard of care at all times for a physician in his community with his practice emphasis."
But the report identified eight patients and cited their treatment as grounds for revoking his license. One patient received approximately 360 prescriptions over five years, more than two-thirds from Lusman. The medical board's report identified patients only by initials. One was identified as C.L., whom the report went on to describe as "a fairly well known musician" who "at one time had been married to Mr. C., who had passed away.,"
A spokesman for Love, the widow of rock singer Kurt Cobain, declined to comment on the board's assertions. Two sources familiar with the investigation, however, confirmed that the C.L. in the report was Love.
A source familiar with several of the people alleged in the report to be patients of Lusman objected that the medical board had violated their privacy by detailing what Lusman's files contained.
"The California medical board never made any attempt to ascertain the accuracy of the information in Dr. Lusman's files," the source said.
According to those files, C.L. was treated by Lusman during the summer of 2001, and received Demerol and prescriptions for syringes and the hypnotic drugs Ambien and Xanax.
She was not the only patient to be prescribed Demerol with the understanding that it would be injected by the patients, the state found.
Candis Cohen, a spokeswoman for the state board, which licenses and regulates California's 112,000 physicians, said criminal proceedings are possible. "It is very rare for a physician's license to be revoked," she said. Statewide, the medical board revoked 38 medical licenses during the year ending on June 30. A state administrative judge determines whether physicians should lose their licenses based on evidence from board investigators.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office declined to say Monday whether the office will consider criminal charges against Lusman. The spokesman also would not say whether the district attorney is investigating other physicians who prescribed addictive painkillers to Ryder.
A native of South Africa, Lusman was once disciplined by medical authorities there for "improper prescription of medications to a patient," reportes the Times.
California authorities were made aware of Lusman's record when he moved here in 1990, and kept him on probation for two years.
In a probation report in the Ryder case, state investigators and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reported that Lusman had been "kicked out of South Africa for overmedicating people. He came to California and apparently is listed as a tattoo and hair removal doctor but at one time was a licensed internist."
The document added, "Apparently, he is the doctor to many celebrity-type people." That report did not identify any of the other alleged celebrity clients.
Lusman's role as a doctor to the stars came to light after police found eight types of prescription drugs in Ryder's possession last December while booking her for shoplifting.
According to her probation report, released December 6, Ryder, using half-a-dozen aliases, had 37 prescriptions filled by 30 doctors from January 1996 to December 1998. She obtained the medications from a Rite-Aid drugstore on Sunset Boulevard as well as pharmacies in the San Fernando Valley.
Ryder had faced up to three years in prison but prosecutors did not recommend any time behind bars. She was ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restitution and to perform 480 hours of community service. She was also ordered to participate in a court-approved drug and psychological counseling program.