When Professionals May Be Impaired

Disorders Commonly Co-occurring With Drug Problems 

Physicians who have drug problems sometimes use a process called harvesting in order to obtain the medications for their own personal use. Harvesting occurs when a physician (seemingly innocendy) asks a patient to return any unused pain or other type of mood-altering medications to the physician. The physician will tell a patient that this is for his or her protection to take away the threat of accidental use of the medicines by someone in the household. The physician will offer to dispose of the medicine properly so that it is out of the household. However, the medicines will likely be used by the physician instead of being wasted. Patients should understand that since they have paid for (or their insurance has paid for) those medicines, it is unethical for a physician to ask for them in the first place, and such a request should warn of a problem. 

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