Dr. Murray's cautionary conviction

Dr. Conrad Murray's dramatic fall from Michael Jackson's personal physician to felon is a cautionary tale for doctors at a time when drugs provide a popular escape.

Murray was a Dr. Feelgood who apparently gave Jackson whatever he wanted, including propofol, a powerful surgical anesthetic that should never have been administered as a sleep aid. The drug played a key role in the insomniac pop icon's June 2009 death.

Murray, the Houston cardiologist whom Jackson paid $150,000 a month to provide what he called his "milk," now faces up to 4 years behind bars and ought to lose his medical license.

His fate should be a warning to doctors to be ever more wary of drug-seeking patients. And it should send a message to authorities to be vigilant in seeking out physicians who supply abusers, and tough in disciplining those they find.

Jackson's arrangement with Murray was an anomaly. There aren't many people as rich and quirky as the pop singer. And there aren't many doctors as reckless as Murray, who repeatedly ignored accepted medical practice by administering propofol for the wrong reasons and without proper monitoring equipment.

But prescription drug abuse is a growing problem on Long Island and across the nation. There are plenty of people with money who would prefer to get their drugs from doctors rather than on the street. And there's a word for any doctor who goes along: dealer.