Feds: Dentist who pulled healthy teeth, doctors who traded sex for drugs among indicted in opioid crackdown

Indictments were announced Wednesday in what federal authorities are calling the “largest prescription opioid law enforcement action ever.”

Among the 60 defendants are a doctor, three pharmacists and another individual accused of running a pill mill in Dayton.

The doctor, Morris L. Brown, is alleged to have been at one time the highest prescriber of controlled substances in Ohio. Between October 2015 and October 2017 the clinic’s pharmacy allegedly dispensed more than 1.75 million pills.

>> READ MORE: Dayton 'pill mill' included in 5-state drug bust that targeted medical pros 

The allegations against medical professionals in other states include:
  • An Alabama doctor who allegedly recruited prostitutes and other women he had sexual relationships with to be patients at his clinic, while simultaneously allowing them and their associates to abuse illicit drugs at his house.
  • In Tennessee, a doctor who branded himself "Rock Doc," allegedly prescribed powerful and dangerous combinations of opioids and benzodiazepines, sometimes in exchange for sexual favors.  Over approximately three years he allegedly prescribed approximately 500,000 hydrocodone pills, 300,000 oxycodone pills, 1,500 fentanyl patches, and more than 600,000 benzodiazepine pills.
  • A Kentucky doctor was charged with controlled substance and health care fraud counts for allegedly providing pre-signed, blank prescriptions to office staff who then used them to prescribe drugs when he was out of the office. He also allegedly directed staff at the clinic, including individuals not licensed to practice medicine, to perform medical services on patients.
  • Also in Kentucky, a dentist was charged for allegedly writing prescriptions for opioids that had no legitimate medical purpose and were outside the scope of his practice, removing teeth unnecessarily, scheduling unnecessary follow-up appointments, and billing inappropriately for services.
  • A West Virginia surgeon who wrote fraudulent prescriptions to relatives for his own use and stole a driver's license so he could obtain pills from the pharmacy.
  • A Louisiana neurologist who allegedly ran a pill mill where he would pre-sign prescriptions for patients he never examined, including while he was traveling internationally.
  • In Pennsylvania, a former licensed practical nurse allegedly filled fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone in her name and in the names of others at a local pharmacy in order to obtain the pills for herself and to distribute to others.

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