Date: 07/26	1:30 AM
Views: 1,993

I've recently been in contact with an AngryMarks.com respondent who for privacy reasons I will only refer to by the nickname Joe. "Joe" wrote to me alleging to be a patient of Dr. Astin's, and had a few remarkable things to say to me in Astin's defense. For the record I will note the original e-mail was in all caps, but I've edited the quoted portion to be more legible to our readers.

If Dr. Astin has any wrongful death charges against him, then there are some stupid people in this world. He may have prescribed the drugs, but he sure as hell did not force them to abuse the drugs.

Feeling Joe might have a valid point I wrote him a thoughtful reply on the subject.

You do raise a valid point Joe - personal responsibility has to play a role in this debate. Nobody has ever forced a wrestler to take a pill against his will or inject a needle into their arm. However are two sides to this issue legally - criminal charges and civil lawsuits. Dr. Astin faces some serious consequences due to prescribing controlled substances for non-legitimate purposes, as no doctor in their right mind would prescribe a wrestler hundreds of pain pills a week let alone testosterone replacement therapy at a 59 to 1 ratio.

I honestly thought this would be the end of the matter but Joe was OUTRAGED AND INCENSED by this reply. The next e-mail I received was in all caps, red with bold typeface, at a font size so large even a blind man could read it. Again all changes of spelling and typeface are for legibility only.

YOU ARE FULL OF IT!!!!!!!!!! There are a lot of quack doctors in this world but rest assured Dr. Astin is not one of them!!!!!!!!!! He sure as hell did not make a huge profit off any of his patients. I've known him for many years and trust me he is not a rich man. He just made some bad judgment decisions and got mixed up with some stupid wrestlers. He did his job, they misused the drugs. He is a 100% dedicated doctor and you have no right to compare him to a crack dealer. Get a life and quit trying to degrade a decent human being. [...] You want to degrade someone then talk about Vick, the good for nothing animal killer.

Well now - the gauntlet has been thrown down in my face. I suddenly stand accused by a person alleging to be one of Dr. Astin's patients of besmirching his good name. AngryMarks.com is just a website reporting the facts as they are being presented, so if there's any besmirching to be done it would be from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, or the talk infotainment TV shows hosted by the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Nancy Grace. Putting the slanderous remark about "stupid wrestlers" aside I'm certainly not the first or the last person to throw the "quack" adjective Dr. Astin's way, and no one reporting for this website can look at the facts associated with him and not cringe at the revelations. I had to address this firmly but fairly, and after I was done with this response I decided to share it with our readers as an editorial. Here's what I had to say to "Joe" in full.

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1. You don't have to be a millionaire to be a quack. I'm sure he made a modest albeit comfortable living (probably more comfortable than a lot of the wrestlers that he treated). Obviously there were other perks, such as knowing all of his favorite wrestlers on a personal basis, and having their autographed photos on his office walls. Being a "doctor to the stars" is its own reward.

2. I don't see how your personal knowledge of Dr. Astin makes your points more valid. If anything that suggests you have blinders on in regards to the quality of care he provides. It may be that 99% of his medical practice is in fact perfectly valid, and that those patients receive nothing but medicine prescribed exactly as intended. The 1% of patients who received outrageous dosages in unfathomable quantities who are professional athletes are the problem. It's that 1% that will haunt him and destroy his perfectly valid 99%.

3. You say that I am "degrading" Dr. Astin. What has Dr. Astin done for the wrestlers he's treated who ended up dead, with enlarged hearts and drug overdoses? Sure they "did it to themselves" but the Hippocratic Oath states "do no harm" and Astin knowingly prescribed drugs in such quantities that they could ONLY be harmful; either in creating an addiction or furthering an already existing addiction. That to me is "degrading" human life and I find myself morally OUTRAGED that a doctor could treat his patients that way. It shouldn't matter whether they are wrestlers, doctors, lawyers or Joe Q. Public - "do no harm" means "do no harm."

4. Whatever you may think of my opinion, this case will ultimately be settled in front of a judge, with a prosecutor making the case and an undoubtedly vigorous legal defense team making Astin's case. Therefore even if you find my opinion inflammatory and upsetting (yet presented in a quiet, thoughtful, intelligent way) you really have nothing to worry about. Jury selection is done on the basis of unbiased common citizens who have no knowledge about the case or predisposition towards the outcome. That means I won't be sitting on the jury and YOU won't be sitting on the jury. Our opinions mean nothing - only the facts will prevail.

If it turns out that I am completely wrong, that all the evidence so far is completely wrong, and if in fact there's a "conspiracy theory" hanging Dr. Astin out to dry then he will prevail and be found innocent. I suspect rather than facing a long jail sentence and the revocation of his license to practice medicine he'll take a deal and be a witness for the prosecution as they work their way up the chain of people responsible for all of these horrific atrocities. Far be it from me to say Astin is the only quack doctor - in fact it may turn out there's a whole network of individuals who work in concert to keep their "favorite clients" from the entertainment world doped up and strung out. There may be much bigger fish to fry than him.

The bottom line is there's an inalienable right to "quality of life" for both sentient animals and human beings alike. You asked me why I'm not more concerned with Michael Vick than Dr. Astin. Well besides the fact this is a wrestling website, not the Humane Society, there's really no reason. I have a problem with both men degrading the quality of life - Astin prescribed athletes pills until they OD, Vick prescribed death for any dog who didn't win a pit fight. To me they are both worthy of contempt - they treated living creatures as only having entertainment value without consideration for their feelings or needs, and found both equally disposable when no longer of use.