Lonergan

A jury convicted appellant, a physician, of three counts of unlawfully issuing prescriptions for controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose, in violation of Health and Safety Code section 11153, and two counts of prescribing controlled substances to a person not under treatment for a pathology other than addiction, in violation of Health and Safety Code section 11154. On appeal, appellant contends the jury instructions were inadequate and there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction.

Facts

Prosecution’s Case

On May 24, 1984, Michael Withem presented prescriptions written by appellant for 100 tablets of Tylenol number four (Tylenol combined with 60 milligrams of Codeine) and 50 tablets of Doriden to a pharmacist at La Veta Pharmacy. The pharmacist recognized Withem as someone who had filled similar prescriptions in the past. Since Withem was young and apparently able-bodied, and because the combination of drugs requested is known on the street as “fours and doors” and is highly abused, the pharmacist reported appellant’s prescriptions to an agent from the State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement (BNE).

Withem had been seeing appellant since…