THE VICE-PRESIDENT'S DOCTOR.(The Talk of the Town)(Vice President Dick Cheney's personal physician for nine years turns out to have history of prescription narcotic abuse dating back to 1997)

When George W. Bush chose Dick Cheney to be his running mate four years ago, Dr. Gary Malakoff, Cheney's personal physician, assured the nation, in a letter released that July by the Bush campaign, that Cheney, despite having suffered three heart attacks and undergone quadruple-bypass surgery, was "up to the task of the most sensitive public office." Four months later, Cheney suffered a fourth heart attack, and Malakoff joined Cheney's cardiologist in declaring him fit to return to work. Now Cheney has dropped Malakoff from his medical team, after nine years of service. In June, Malakoff was relieved of his position as chairman of George Washington University Medical Center's General Internal Medicine Division. Hospital officials said last week that Malakoff was on leave until September.

It turns out that Malakoff has a history, going back to 1997, of abusing prescription narcotics. At the same time that he was attesting to Cheney's physical fitness, he was privately struggling with problems that call into question his own fitness to practice medicine and to treat one of G.W.U. Medical Center's most prominent patients. The Vice-President's office severed its professional ties with him after learning about the problems.

"Dr. Malakoff is no longer a member of the team that treats the Vice-President," Kevin Kellems, Cheney's press secretary, confirmed in an e-mail. "The office of the Vice-President does not make a practice of commenting on the private lives of private citizens." Kellems added, "The results of the Vice-President's most recent comprehensive checkup were very good; he was advised by his physicans that there is no health issue that would interfere with his running for reelection or holding office for a second term." Calls and e-mails to Malakoff himself went unanswered.

According to colleagues, and to sealed legal records from his 2002 divorce (which include medical invoices, pharmacy records, sworn depositions, and reports by treating physicians), in November, 1999, Malakoff was placed in a program for impaired physicians, which required him to undergo urinalysis and other monitoring. According to pharmacy records and customer invoices, in July, 2000, for example, the month that Malakoff wrote the letter certifying Cheney's good health, he purchased thirty bottles of a synthetic narcotic nasal spray called Stadol from two mail-order drug-supply companies. Stadol, which can be addictive, is ordinarily used to treat migraine headaches. Each bottle contains an estimated fifteen doses. In the previous two months, he had bought eighteen bottles. In August, he bought twenty-eight more bottles. During the two-and-half-year period ending in December, 2001, Malakoff spent at least $46,238 online on Stadol and such medications as Xanax, Tylenol with codeine, and Ambien.

Pharmacy and ...