Introduction
Robert Courtney was a pharmacist who operated in Kansas City. He was widely known as “Research Medical Tower Pharmacy.” Robert, dressed in a lab coat, had a white table under which he mixed powders and creams to create diluted medications from scratch. Toxins were diluted and then mixed carefully to create saline solutions. The solutions were then offered to clients as cancer medication.
Patients came with their prescriptions, and Robert prepared their dosages. Some patients, such as Chelson, were convinced that they were overcoming cancer as they did not experience the side effects of the medication offered by Robert. Others noticed that the pharmacist was careless and at times gave them half-full syringes. About two months before his arrest, the pharmacist had a gross income of 48,000 dollars. In addition, he owned assets worth 18.7 million dollars (Draper, 2003).
The case
Lawsuitswere filed against Robert Courtney by patients and their loved ones after realizing that they were tricked into purchasing diluted solutions as medication. This medication did not heal them but only made their conditions worse. According to the law enforcement records, 4,200 patients were estimated to have been offered the adulterated medication by Courtney. Patients and their relatives and friends accused Robert during the sentencing, and he did not deny any of the statements. He just mumbled that he could not explain his actions.
In this case, stakeholders included the patients affected, their loved ones, and Robert. The people in the pharmaceutical field could not explain how Robert could sell his drugs. His case was a novel abomination that had never been heard before. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison (Draper, 2003).
In Robert’s case, he did not have an explanation for his actions. The rules of discovery were used, and information was obtained from the testimonies and documentation that was available. The use of an alternative dispute resolution would have enabled the grim-faced patients to understand why Robert knowingly gave them the wrong medication (Weiss, 1999). ADR would have also offered an alternative for patients to have several adjudications in which they would have determined the level of sentencing that best suited Robert.
Victim-offender sessions gave the offenders an opportunity to hear the victims’ story. That presented the offender a chance to understand the impact that the offence had on the victim. This also gave the community members a chance to deliberate on the effects of the crime and identify the underlying issues for them to promote healing. For instance, Robert would have been ordered to make restitution for patients who had developed adverse effects after taking the wrong medication. ADR does not limit itself to civil litigation but offers restorative justice in which the offenders and the victims are addressed. This would have been applicable to help those victims who had been traumatized by the turn of events (Dunnewold, 2009)
Business Regulation in the US
Robert Courtney’s case is a reflection of how the American Government has done too little in terms of business regulation. Many people had been harmed before the illegal activities of Robert were discovered. Possibly, other patients experienced premature deaths. Robert Courtney was not professionally trained, and his operations were illegal. When his illegal activities had been discovered, he was immediately accused. The patients initiated the discovery. Therefore, a greater damage would have occurred if that case relied solely on the government operations (Cheeseman, 2013).
Conclusion
From the activities that had happened before Robert Courtney was discovered, it is evident that a lot has to be done in business regulation. There should be a reliable system in which illegal operations can be discovered early before they advance to irreversible stages like the case of Robert Courtney.
References
Cheeseman, H.R. (2013). Business law: Legal environment, online commerce, business ethics, and international issues. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Draper, R. (2003). The Toxic Pharmacist. The New York Times. Web.
Dunnewold, M. (2009). What Every Law Student Should Know. Student Lawyer. 38(2), 1-7. Web.
Weiss, S. A. (1999). ADR: A litigator’s perspective Viewing the pluses and minuses. Business Law Today. Web.