Supreme Court sides with doctors in "pill mills" case

Details: Justices unanimously ruled a good-faith defense protects a physician from prosecution under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

• Advocates for patients with chronic pain argued doctors could only be convicted when they intended and knew they were prescribing in an unauthorized manner.
• "The difference is important, and especially so for doctors treating patients in pain, who might otherwise be deterred from meeting the needs of their patients by the fear that disagreement with their medical judgment would subject them to serious criminal liability," the National Pain Advocacy Center wrote on Twitter following the decision.

Background: Xiulu Ruan and Shakeel Kahn were sentenced to 21 and 25 years in prison, respectively, in separate criminal cases, Reuters reported.