Are Californians Safe from Their Doctors?

The Los Angeles Times has reported that drugs prescribed by doctors played a role in almost half Southern California's deaths from prescription-drug overdoses over a five-year span. At least 30 patients in Southern California died of overdoses while the State Medical Board was conducting investigations. One investigation took four years, during which eight of the doctor's patients died of overdoses or related causes. That's led Democratic State Senator Curren Price of Los Angeles to co-sponsor a bill that would transfer the Board's investigative authority to the Attorney General.