Posted on 07/21/2005 8:52:38 AM PDT by Born Conservative
A 78-year-old doctor from West Pittston who earned up to $4,000 a day by illegally prescribing and selling controlled substances to drug dependent patients was sentenced to two years' probation Wednesday.
Dr. Harry Alexanderian, Susquehanna Avenue, will be required to stay at home for the first six months while wearing an ankle bracelet. The sentence imposed by Luzerne County Senior Judge Gifford S. Cappellini angered at least one mother who said Dr. Alexanderian was treating her son.
"My son was one of his victims," the mother said. "My sentence for him would be scrubbing toilets in a treatment facility."
His lawyer, Frank Nocito, argued for the probation sentence, saying his client's health is deteriorating. Nocito said Dr. Alexanderian is legally blind, suffers from depression and from coronary heart disease that resulted in two cardiac catheterizations on June 21 and June 27. "That condition would require close monitoring and serious treatment," Nocito said.
State Deputy Attorney General Heather M. Albright wanted Dr. Alexanderian to be incarcerated and pointed out that one criminal charge to which Dr. Alexanderian pleaded guilty carried a maximum sentence of seven years plus a $15,000 fine. "We understand the defendant is elderly, but the crime deserves a jail sentence," Albright said. "I do feel incarceration is appropriate."
Nocito said Dr. Alexanderian cooperated with the state attorney general's investigation by voluntarily surrendering his medical license and his federal license to dispense and prescribe controlled substances. Agents with the state attorney general's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control seized more than 190,000 tablets consisting of Tylenol with codeine and other controlled substances from Dr. Alexanderian's home on March 23, 2004.
Federal documents that list transactions of controlled substances from drug companies showed Dr. Alexanderian bought 55,000 tablets of Tylenol with codeine, making him the largest physician purchaser of the drug in the country for the first quarter in 2003, authorities said.
He was accused of prescribing and selling controlled substances without conducting medical histories or examining patients. He was also accused of treating patients suffering from heroin addiction without a license and prescribing weight loss pills to patients who were underweight.
Authorities said Dr. Alexanderian was treating up to 100 patients a day and as many as 30 to 40 waited outside his office door for him to open at 8 a.m., authorities said. When Dr. Alexanderian was arrested on Oct. 4, authorities claimed he was earning $2,000 to $4,000 a day by prescribing and selling the drugs to patients.
The investigation began when Dr. Alexanderian's neighbors complained to state authorities about the high volume of patients to his office in the basement of his home. Dr. Alexanderian, who pleaded guilty May 24, was sentenced on seven counts of prescribing and delivering controlled substances outside the scope of treatment principles, five counts of Medicaid fraud, three counts of prescription of controlled substances not in good faith, and one count each of improper treatment of drug dependent persons and dealing in unlawful proceeds.
Nocito said Dr. Alexanderian has paid restitution of $3,550 to the state Medical Assistance program. He was also ordered to pay $1,582 for investigative costs.
boy talk about a slap on the wrist!
Meanwhile three ounces of another product from a different type of plant netted someone 31 years in prison.
This guy has been known for YEARS as the pill doctor. Just about every person in Pittston knew about him and were surprised at how long it took authorities to notice him.
Compare this with the 30-year sentence given out for a dealer with 3 oz. of cocaine, just yesterday. Double-standard city!
I had Tylenol 3 prescribed once, for bursitis. It still hurt just as much, I just didn't care. Or couldn't, which is the same thing. A very strange feeling, that.
There were rumors of several of my high school classmates going to his office in a pregnant state, and leaving in an unpregnant state.
cost him all of maybe two days profits.
when this thing is treated like inner city crug dealing, we simply arent' serious about narcotics.
"I had Tylenol 3 prescribed once, for bursitis. It still hurt just as much, I just didn't care. Or couldn't, which is the same thing. A very strange feeling, that."
That's what I like about these new NSAIDs. The pain actually abates or disappears, and there's no high and no addiction.
Drawback: they're hard on the liver.
The real crime here is that what he was doing was considered 'illegal', and the friggin DEA, not the doctor, gets to decide the proper 'scope of treatment principles'.
The DEA is a unconstitutional organization that should be immediately abolished, and all of its agents reassigned to investigate terrorism and enforce immigration laws.
How can we be serious about narcotics when the Controlled Substances Act is such a joke?
"My son was one of his victims," the mother said."
Um, no, your son was an accomplice, perhaps, but not a victim.
I do not excuse the doctor's violation of the law and his position, but I can't let this woman absolve her son of any responsibility for his own actions.
Actually, NSAIDS are more toxic to the kidneys; Tylenol is more toxic to the liver.
You're right about Tylenol. Tylenol with alcohol can actually cause liver failure.
Having had Hep C, I keep an eye on such things. I don't know about the relative toxicity of NSAIDs vis a vis kidneys and liver, but the fact that they're hard on the liver is what concerns me most.
NSAIDs are hard on the liver...and the liver is kinda essential...
People generally consider over the counter meds as totally harmless e.g. if 2 aspirin help my headache then 4 aspirin are even better. Unfortunately, some realize too late that they have irreversible organ damage. My mother had an underlying undiagnosed kidney problem, and was popping aspirin like crazy for severe ankle pain (numerous surgeries; this was back in the mid 70's). She was on dialysis at the age of 35. Although she would have had to eventually go on dialysis, I'm sure that her aspirin use hastened the process by several years.
"She was on dialysis at the age of 35."
That's a real shame. Sometimes there just isn't any good choice.
I'm kind of between a cow and a flat rock my own self.
Got the liver damage, and need to take NSAIDs for osteoarthritis of the spine.
I wonder how far medicine is from developing a full-body transplant.
I'd settle for them being able to develop individual organs for transplant from adult stem cells.
Tylenol 3?? Jeez, I'd get a better high from Nyquil. If you are going to get an illegal script, do it for something decent.
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