Pain Doctor Being Prosecuted For Stupid Patients

This is just stupid.
From the Des Moines Register: Des Moines physician Daniel Baldi was charged Wednesday with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly prescribing large amounts of narcotic painkillers to patients who later died of overdoses.
One of the eight patients was identified in court papers as Paul Gray, an internationally known musician who helped found the band Slipknot. Gray was found dead of a drug overdose at an Urbandale hotel in May 2010.
Baldi’s lawyer, Guy Cook, said no such charges had ever been filed against an Iowa physician in such circumstances. “It is unprecedented to turn unfortunate deaths or medical results into a crime against a doctor,” Cook said. If convicted of all the aggravated misdemeanor counts, Baldi, 50, could face up to 16 years in prison. Cook said he would battle to prevent a conviction.
National experts said serious criminal charges are very unusual in such cases.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120905/NEWS/120905020/Pain-doctor-charged-in-8-deaths-including-Slipknot-s-Paul-Gray?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage&nclick_check=1
I'm sorry, but just because your patients are stupid and misuse the drugs, it is not the doctor's fault.  Maybe the families of the dead should be prosecuted for raising stupid kids who don't know how to take prescription medicine or do something stupid like being a boozehound while taking narcotics. And what if the drug users lied to the doctors about their medical history?  Should the doctor be responsible for the patients lies?
What this does is make legitimate patients with severe pain have a difficult time finding legitimate pain doctors who will help them with pain.
These charges should be dropped and the families of the dead ought to take responsibility for the deaths of their family members.  It's too bad they died but it wasn't the doctor's fault for their stupidity.