A Florida doctor has been arrested after police say that he wrote and signed more than 24,000 prescriptions in a single year. The doctor is charged with drug trafficking and other crimes because of the prescriptions and his involvement with a clinic that police believe was a pill mill. At the facility, the doctor is said to have issued some 1.3 million dosage units of the painkiller oxycodone alone, in addition to several other suspect prescriptions.
The doctor is accused of writing and signing blank prescription slips at his medical office. Then, police assert, one of the owners of the medical facility would fill out the remainder of the slip for patients. In fact, this led to the doctor being accused of handing patients as many as 65 prescriptions per day while he worked with the medical clinic in question.
The drugs that led to the criminal drug trafficking charges included multiple prescriptions for a combination of oxycodone, Xanax and ibuprofen. It is unclear what medical conditions this combination of drugs was intended to treat. The couple that owns the medical clinic that employed the doctor has also been charged with related crimes.
When a medical professional in Florida finds that they have been accused of drug trafficking or other crimes in our state, they must begin to consider how they will work to defend themselves against the claims made against them. Presenting a defense that includes questioning of all available evidence can be a benefit to many who stand accused of crimes. However, all who have been accused of a crime, like the doctor in this case, have the right to determine what defense they wish to assert as their criminal case goes forward.
Source: Sun Sentinel, “Pompano Beach pain clinic doctor accused of racketeering and drug trafficking,” Erika Pesantes, Dec. 4, 2012