Posted on 04/18/2019 12:24:11 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
April 17 (UPI) -- In one of the largest federal crackdowns on opioids yet, prosecutors said in an indictment Wednesday investigators uncovered a vast illegal prescription scheme in which physicians traded painkillers for sex and money.
The federal indictment involves 350,000 illegal prescriptions in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia.
"That is the equivalent of one opioid dose for every man, woman and child in the five states in the region that we've been targeting," Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department, told The Washington Post. "If these medical professionals behave like drug dealers, you can rest assured that the Justice Department is going to treat them like drug dealers."
Thirty-one doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners and seven other licensed medical professionals are named in the indictment. At least one physician is charged with a death in connection to the scheme.
Investigators used confidential informants and undercover agents with recording devices to document the exchanges, prosecutors said. The work was done by the Criminal Division's Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force, which launched in December.
Prosecutors said in some cases patients consented to have teeth pulled so they could get an opioid prescription from a dentist. In others, doctors traded oxycodone and hydrocodone prescriptions for sexual favors. Undercover agents said patients would travel to multiple states to fill prescriptions. One pharmacy in Dayton, Ohio, prescribed 1.75 million opioid pills between 2015 and 2017, earning it the nickname "pill mill." Others filled fraudulent prescriptions, or allowed known addicts to get more.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
As for the addicts who participated, if there are any trials and convictions, just let them off with probation and recovery. They are true victims.
About time. Some of these doctors had lines out in the parking lot every morning and every dope head within three hundred miles knew who they were. I reported one in FL that druggies in our extended family used and the police already knew about. It took another two years for them to raid the place.
Unconstitutional. Just like 90% of the federal government.
I agree with that
Just all the more reason to hang the ringleaders in public.
How are the users victims? Did someone hold a gun to their heads? All of them?
OR! An alternate explanation. How about they can't handle reality, and decide to commit suicide on the American Plan?
That's why the new one, canfenytal, 100X as potent, trace amounts are fatal, is so attractive. Because drug dealers are scrupulous about quality control, it will kill them all, problem solved.
Fine, if that’s the case, let the good ol’ boys in Alabama, Kentucky, etc. handle it. The results may not be as neat and clean as a public hanging, however. But as long as the ringleaders are put to death, I suppose . . .
The perscriptions that shouldn't be written for people who are addicts often with no real need for any pain killer are 99.9% written by doctors making a quick buck off their license to prescribe.
Taking pain killers away from people who need them because of law breaking by a few doctors is just like the crap laws that make it more difficult and expensive for honest people to buy firearms because one dirt bag is insane and kills multiple people.
You can bet your bottom dollar none of the politicians and bureaucrats in the DC bubble will continue to get whatever they want from a physician who the Fedz will never investigate. The same is true for the Hollyweird crowd.
These doctors should know better. Having sex with someone like that is as smart as going swimming in the sewer. Didn’t they teach them about VD in med school?
think of the carnage one drug user in a family can bring....
the users are NOT the victims.....WE are the victims...
I'm pretty sure that not how that works.
Normally physicians PRESCRIBE the pills and pharmacies FILL the prescription. What in the hell are they talking about?
I see nowhere in the Constitution that any governmental entity is given authority over what I can put in my body.
Legalize everything and let the ‘Self Cleaning Oven’ take over.
I injured my kne. The pain as excruciating. Due to the opiate crisis I couldn’t get one single pain pill. Zero. Thanks to jerks like these we are lucky to bite a bullet.
When I was in retail pharmacy I would dispense about 100 opiates in a normal day. Sometime it would be 200 or less than a hundred. A 100 to 150 was normal. Any pharmacy that is dispensing over 2300 opiates a day is unethical and in fact part of a criminal enterprise. The pharmacist needs to lose his license and go to jail.
Sarah suffers from back pain but has to live with it because you work and pay taxes. And you’re the victim? Bless your heart and we’ll pray for you.
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“Indictment: Doctors, other providers traded prescriptions for sex, cash”
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You are spot on right.
I’m blessed that surgery has taken care of most of my pain but I know someone that is suffering horribly.
Let the pain patients families that can no longer get pain medication take care of them.
I agree. That way real suffers can get what they need and the rest, well the rest will get what they get.
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