Recent Posts in Prescription Drugs Category

According to the indictment, in the Safescripts Online conspiracy, which began in November 2004 and continued until December 2006, eight individuals conspired to distribute in excess of $22.2 million worth of controlled substances outside the scope of professional medical practice and without establishing a legitimate medical purpose for the drugs. The individuals charged are: Christopher Napoli, 44, of Newtown Square, Pa.; Joseph Carozza, M.D., 65, of Garden City, N.Y.; Daniel Johnson, 38, of Pekin, Ill.; Jeffrey Herholz, 43, of Fayetteville, N.C.; Darrell Creque, 60, of Clayton, N.C.; Jeffrey Entel, 40, of the Dominican Republic, Steven Paul, 49, of Glendale, Ariz.; and Salvatore Lamorte, 52, of Freehold, N.J. All of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to distribute schedule III and IV controlled substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, and conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). In addition, all but Paul were charged with distribution of the schedule IV controlled substance Phentermine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and all but Creque were charged with conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h).

The indictment also alleges that, in the Pitcairn conspiracy, which ran between May 2003 and April 2007, five defendants sold at least $55 million worth of controlled substances outside the scope of professional medical practice and without establishing a legitimate medical purpose for the drugs. The individuals charged are: Michael Arnold, 40, of Boca Raton, Fla.; Diego Podolsky Paes, 29, of Brazil; Lamorte, Herholz, and Creque. All of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to distribute schedule III and IV controlled substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. In addition, Lamorte, Arnold, and Paes were charged with four counts of distribution of the schedule IV controlled substance Phentermine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and all defendants but Creque were charged with conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h).

According to the indictment, during the United Mail Pharmacy Services conspiracy, which began in January 2006 and ended in March 2008, three defendants conspired to distribute in excess of $48 million worth of controlled substances outside the scope of professional medical practice and without establishing a legitimate medical purpose for the drugs. The individuals charged are Paul, Entel, and Dino Antonioni, 42, of Miramar, Fla. All three were charged with conspiracy to distribute schedule III and IV controlled substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, and conspiracy to launder money, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). Entel and Antonioni were also charged with the Attempted Distribution of Schedule III and IV Controlled Substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, and international money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1956(a)(2)(A).

The narcotics conspiracy offenses (21 U.S.C. § 846) carry a maximum penalty of: five years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The offense of distribution of a schedule IV controlled substance (21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)) carries a maximum penalty of: three years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, one year of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The offense of attempted distribution of schedule III and IV controlled substances (21 U.S.C. § 846) carries a maximum penalty of: five years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The money laundering offenses (18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(h) and 1956(a)(2)(A)) carry a minimum penalty of: 20 years of imprisonment, a fines of up to $500,000, or twice the value of the property involved in the offense, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.

The indictment was obtained in connection with an international investigation of illegal Internet pharmacies that began in 2005. The investigation has resulted in the indictment of 37 federal defendants, the conviction of 26 individuals on federal criminal charges, and the dismantling of more than five Internet pharmacies that illegally distributed more than 80 million doses of controlled substances to users in the United States. As a result of the investigation, law enforcement agents have seized more than $39 million in cash and assets, including several high value homes and multiple luxury vehicles.

The federal criminal cases resulted from an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation involving the coordinated efforts of multiple federal and state law enforcement agencies plus foreign authorities from several jurisdictions. The law enforcement agencies include the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Boards of Pharmacy from North Carolina, Florida, Kansas, Colorado, Connecticut, and Louisiana. Significant additional assistance was provided by authorities in Brazil, Panama, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Romania, Costa Rica, The Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the Bahamas. Additional federal prosecutions are contemplated upon completion of the ongoing investigations.

Criminal defense attorneys Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier have been representing clients on conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and other drug related matters since 1976. When faced with drug conspiracy charges you need experienced Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers with experience in representing individuals for drug crime charges. If you have been charged with a drug conspiracy crime, we recommend you contact us in order to begin to prepare your case for a successful defense.

A Los Angeles physician was arrested for prescribing Vicodin pain medication to homeless people who didn't need the drugs. Dr. Zhiwei Lin is set to be arraigned on five counts of illegally prescribing drugs, misdemeanors each punishable by up to a year in County Jail and a $20,000 fine, according to the arrest warrant filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Lin, a board-certified neurologist, declined to comment. "I cannot speak to you right now because they are coming to me without any explaining," Lin said as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy led him away in handcuffs from his Western Avenue practice in the Harvard Heights neighborhood.

Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Opferman, who runs the medical fraud unit that made the arrest, said Lin is suspected of prescribing Vicodin, a powerful pain reliever popular among drug abusers, to homeless people without legitimate medical need. Police believe the homeless "patients" were brought to the doctor by recruiters, also known as cappers. The cappers would pay the homeless people for their prescriptions and turn them over to dealers who sold them by the pill at a huge mark-up.

A security officer at the building, said that Lin's practice drew "strange characters" on the days it was open and that police had been called to at least one disturbance. Opferman said Lin's case would be referred to the Medical Board of California, which could pursue action against his license. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was also involved and could pull the physician's federal permit to prescribe drugs prone to abuse.

Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier have been representing clients on illegal prescription drug and other drug related matters since 1976. When faced with illegal prescription drug charges you need skilled Los Angeles prescription drug criminal defense attorneys with experience in defending clients on prescription drug charges. Such charges could include offenses for unlawful prescription drug possession, prescription drug trafficking and other drug related charges. If you have been charged with an illegal prescription drug crime, we recommend you contact us in order to begin to prepare your case for a successful defense.

Dr. Lisa Tseng, a Rowland Heights osteopath, is the focus of a DEA probe into the over-prescribing of painkillers. At least six of her patients in their 20s have died since 2007.

Last December, Joey Rovero and a couple of pals from Arizona State University set out on a road trip to Southern California.

They weren't headed to Hollywood or some other spot likely to attract a trio of rowdy frat boys out for a good time. Their destination was a clinic in a mini-mall off the 60 Freeway. After a short visit with Dr. Lisa Tseng, the young men left with a handful of prescriptions and headed back to ASU. Nine days later, Rovero, a muscular former high school football star, was dead of an overdose. He was 21.

Rovero was one of at least six men in their 20s who have died of overdoses since 2007 after making the trek to Tseng's office in Rowland Heights. Two others died after getting drugs from patients who got them from Tseng. Though Tseng is a general practitioner without a specialty, some patients drove from San Clemente, Palm Springs and places even farther away to see her.

Many who died were white men in their early 20s from Orange County. As kids, they played baseball and soccer and went surfing. They had nice homes and loving parents. Several shared a mischievous streak or bad-boy edge that led them to experiment with drugs. Friends and family members of some patients described their loved ones as addicts who used old injuries,  a once-shattered ankle from riding motocross, a sore knee from a snowboarding mishap or a stiff back from a car accident, as excuses to score drugs.

Tseng prescribed an array of painkillers, muscle relaxants and anti-anxiety medications, according to records. Sold under the brand names OxyContin, Vicodin, Soma and Xanax, these drugs are widely abused by teens and young adults who increasingly are ending up in detox centers, emergency rooms and county morgues. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration deemed her "an imminent danger to public health and safety" and suspended her license to prescribe drugs prone to abuse. Since then, law enforcement officers have received calls from more parents alleging that their children had overdosed after getting prescriptions from Tseng.

Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng graduated from Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine with an osteopathic degree in 1996. Her California medical license remains in good standing, according to state records. She has no reported malpractice judgments against her or settlements of note and has not been charged with any crime. The drugs Tseng prescribed, although addictive, can provide much-needed relief to patients in pain. The law gives doctors broad latitude to make diagnoses and treatment decisions, but requires that they conduct physicals and document a patient's medical history.

Experts say such measures should help physicians tell the difference between a patient with real pain and an addict shopping for his or her next high. Among the most obvious signs of abuse are patients willing to drive long distances to see a doctor; patients asking for a specific medication in its most potent dosage; and patients going to multiple pharmacies to have their prescriptions filled. Tseng said she had noticed that some of her patients drove long distances to see her. She said she asked them why and was told that they had been referred by friends or relatives, an explanation she accepted.

Cases against doctors are fraught with the difficulties medical and legal authorities face in drawing the line between legitimate medicine and drug dealing. "If somebody is selling heroin or coke on the street, one undercover buy and they are going to prison," said Steve Opferman, a Los Angeles County sheriff's detective who specializes in medical fraud. "With doctors, it's a whole other matter. You need overwhelming evidence."

Matt Stavron was happiest soaring through the air on his Yamaha dirt bike after hitting a jump on the various motocross tracks throughout Southern California that he would visit with his dad and little brother. Landing wasn't always so much fun. Stavron was 13 when he suffered a compound leg fracture in the mid-1990s, the first of many injuries. He was hospitalized and given morphine for the pain. His parents think that's when he started on the road toward addiction.

Over the next decade, Stavron was in and out of rehab, battling an addiction to painkillers. As much as his son loved competing in motocross and hoped to turn pro, Bruce Stavron said, it got to the point where he began to wonder whether Matt was crashing his bike on purpose to get drugs. In 2007, however, things began to look up. Stavron spent the summer in rehab and this time, his parents said, it appeared to be taking. He had been clean for three months and was engaged to be married.

That September, Stavron's fiancee broke her neck and, rather than continue with his rehab in Long Beach, he stayed home to take care of her. He relapsed about two weeks later. His mother, Kelle, found him curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor, dead at age 24. Pills,  large white ones, small bluish green ones and rectangular bars,  were strewn about: There was OxyContin, Soma and Xanax,  all traced back to Tseng, more than 50 miles away in Rowland Heights, according to Orange County coroner's records. She prescribed 80 milligrams of OxyContin, intended for people in extreme pain and favored by addicts. Of the 30 tablets Tseng prescribed just two days earlier, four remained.

Stavron's parents said they had never heard of Tseng and didn't know how their son had met her. What they did know, they said, was that he had no legitimate injury requiring the sort of medication he was given. Kelle Stavron said she knows her son could have died after scoring drugs on the street, "but the truth is this doctor gave him those pills, and he died," she said. "She's gotta live with that."

Ryan Latham was 21 when he overdosed in 2008. He died of the combined effects of hydrocodone, Xanax and Soma,  the same drugs prescribed by Tseng less than a week earlier. The coroner ruled his death a suicide, noting, among other things, that Latham had grown depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend about a year earlier.His mother, Tina, said her son was particularly upset because his ex-girlfriend was about to get married. Handsome and gregarious on the surface, Latham was "pretty sensitive, emotional" underneath, his mother said. He struggled with drugs for years, but had been clean for about six months before he started seeing Tseng.

Tina Latham said her son was born with a mild case of spina bifida and had suffered a broken jaw in a fight a year or so before his death. Neither was causing him any pain, she said. In fact, Latham said, her son confided to her that Tseng, given some pretext,  "an old X-ray, whatever," would prescribe "all the drugs you want." Ronnie Wiessbrod, one of Ryan Latham's roommates when he died, recalled his friend sending him a text message from Tseng's waiting room in which he talked about other patients laughing about the things they were planning to tell Tseng to get drugs.

Jeffrey "Neil" West did not die of an overdose. But his mother says she believes Tseng played a role in his death. In the two weeks before West fatally shot himself in July 2009, Tseng wrote him seven prescriptions totaling 325 pills,  Adderall, Xanax, Soma, hydromorphone and 80-milligram tablets of OxyContin, coroner's records show. At one point, she wrote him overlapping prescriptions for Soma, 90 tablets on July 8 that should have lasted a month, then another 45 a week later. Upon learning after his death that Tseng had been prescribing such powerful drugs to her son, she blamed the doctor for fueling his addiction.

Criminal defense lawyers Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier have been representing clients on prescription drug and other drug related matters since 1976. When faced with unlawful prescription drug charges you need experienced Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys with experience in representing individuals for prescription drug crimes. Such charges could include offenses for unlawful prescription drug possession, drug trafficking and other drug related charges. If you have been charged with a prescription drug crime, we recommend you contact us in order to begin to prepare your case for a successful defense.