So it has been ten days since Michael Jackson died at home. The speculation of narcotics playing a role is still strong and this morning the DEA is ramping up an investigation into at least five Los Angeles physicians who may have prescribed legal -- but inappropriate -- drugs to the pop superstar. One medication under suspicion is Diprivan, a powerful sedative that is used for out-patient surgery and in the operating room. I can think of no application for at-home use other than abuse. The other concerns are that numerous unlabeled pill bottles were found in Jackson's home and that various names appeared on those bottles that were labeled.

Of course at the heart of this is the doctor (or doctors) who implicitly played a role or looked the other way.  Can physicians be "bought" for $30,000 to $150,000 to procure drugs or look the other way? Increasingly it looks like the answer is yes.

Doctors are slow to police their own. We worry about counter suits for defamation of character or restraint of trade. And there will always be outliers...rogue physicians who do our entire profession harm. But this investigation will be a dark look into concierge medicine and those doctors who walked a shade of grey and went to the dark side.