The lowest drug lowlifes

There is nothing lower than a medical professional or a counselor or a therapy center director who uses his or her position, affiliation or facilities to enable drug use. That's why the allegations against David Francis, 66, are so disturbing.

Police said Mr. Francis, CEO and founder of the Next Step Foundation, used the McKees Rocks drug-rehab center as a front to deal drugs. A search warrant issued for the rehab center revealed counters littered with heroin stamp bags, police said. At his home on Chartiers Avenue in McKees Rocks, a second building on the property allegedly was used as a “shooting gallery” for heroin addicts. In his home, police reportedly found enough drugs to make five bricks of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

In a separate case involving a physician who allegedly wrote more than 300 bogus painkiller prescriptions over a three-year period, police charged Dr. Ralph Capone, 64, formerly chief medical officer at Excela Health from 2007-09. Police said the prescriptions were made in the names of Dr. Capone's relatives and picked up by him.

Those convicted of serving their own self-interest on the pretense of “treating” addicts or others deserve nothing less than the harshest penalty provided by law.