Ashcroft had decided physician-assisted suicide was not a "legitimate medical purpose" for any medication. Because of this, he said, any doctor in Oregon who wrote another prescription for physician-assisted suicide would be breaking the Controlled Substances Act. As punishment, the DEA could take away these doctors' licenses to prescribe controlled substances. This would make it impossible for those doctors to prescribe medicines for physician-assisted suicide. The DEA could also fine the doctors or even charge them with crimes.