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T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2017 DUKECHRONICLE.COM
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 26
TOO YOUNG, WILD AND FREE? Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
When first-years ventured into Pisgah National Forest for the student-run pre-orientation program Project Wild last year, they got a little too comfortable for law enforcement’s taste. An investigation by The Chronicle found that Duke suspended the program for 2017 after an incident in Aug. 22, 2016 during which 23 participants were cited for public nudity. The group also illegally blocked the Appalachian Mountains trail leading to the waterfall where the students were naked. The students were cited for the illegal blockage, according to citations obtained by The Chronicle via a Freedom of Information Act request to the United States Forest Service and public records from a United States District Court. Senior Camil Craciunescu, the project’s current student program director, said the group was suspended for blocking the trail and not the nudity. Jordan Hale, director and assistant dean of new student programs, declined to comment repeatedly. “I don’t have anything to say about it,” Larry Moneta, vice
In 2016, after more than 20 students participating in P-Wild were cited for public nudity, the program was suspended for one year. By Ben Leonard and Shayal Vashisth
president for student affairs, said. The program is now off probation and will return in 2018, with a number of changes to protect the safety and wellbeing of students. As part of the two-week wilderness trip, the program has usually encouraged participants to go on a 36hour isolated experience with no food. Moving forward, students will be given three meals a day throughout the 36 hours. Additionally, a supervising faculty member will now be required to go on the trip. In 2016, a faculty member accompanied the students, said Craciunescu, who was not program director at the time. However, Craciunescu added that at the time of the citations for public nudity and blocking the trail, the supervisor was not present. Craciunescu suggested the supervisor, Jan Hackett—a former physical education professor—might have been off getting groceries. “He was not at the scene, or anywhere close to it,” Craciunescu said.
Contributing Reporters
See P-WILD on Page 3
Woman forges Duke Medicine prescription for more than 8,000 pills By Jake Satisky Contributing Reporter
A North Carolina woman pleaded guilty after she was caught fraudulently obtaining more than 8,000 hydrocodone opioid pills— all using a Duke neurosurgeon’s name and DEA number. Heather Smith Elliott, from Burlington, N.C., pleaded guilty Oct. 4 in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to two counts of using forged and fraudulent prescriptions to obtain the hydrocodone pills, one count
of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. She forged 132 prescriptions for herself, family members and friends for hydrocodone, a pain-relieving opioid and Schedule II controlled substance. The Duke neurosurgeon, whose name was not released in the Department of Justice press release, did not have Elliott—or any individuals who illegally received the pills— as patients. The neurosurgeon similarly did not provide any legitimate prescriptions to any of the associates. As unusual as this case seems, Professor of Medicine Lawrence Greenblatt argued
that it is just that—unusual. “Fraudulent prescriptions are a tiny percentage of the total of prescription pills that are being abused out there,” said Greenblatt, also co-leader of the Duke Opioid Safety Task Force. “It’s really not a significant problem.” However, Greenblatt added that he believed that physicians could learn several lessons from this case. He said doctors must be careful with their paper prescription pads, which are sent to pharmacies when a drug is prescribed. Those pads, however, may become a relic of the past with universal
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electronic prescribing, he explained. Udobi Campbell, associate chief pharmacy officer of Duke Ambulatory Pharmacy Services, stressed the importance of electronic prescribing. “We take our performance for e-prescribing very seriously at Duke,” she wrote in an email. “In fact, it is monitored as one of our medication safety metrics that is reported out to hospital leadership.” Nevertheless, not all controlled substances are prescribed electronically yet, Campbell See PILLS on Page 12 @thedukechronicle | © 2017 The Chronicle