Voice of America
18 Apr 2019, 01:05 GMT+10
CINCINNATI - Federal authorities said Wednesday they have charged 60 people, including 31 doctors, for their roles in illegally prescribing and distributing millions of pills containing opioids and other dangerous drugs.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman of Cincinnati described the action as the biggest known takedown yet of drug prescribers. Robert Duncan, U.S. attorney for eastern Kentucky, called the doctors involved ``white-coated drug dealers.''
Authorities said the 60 includes 53 medical professionals tied to some 350,000 prescriptions and 32 million pills. The operation was conducted by the federal Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force, launched last year by the Trump administration.
Authorities said arrests were being made and search warrants carried out as they announced the charges at a news conference. They didn't immediately name those being charged.
U.S. health authorities have reported there were more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017, for a rate of 21.7 per 100,000 people. West Virginia and Ohio have regularly been among the states with the highest overdose death rates as the opioid crisis has swelled in recent years.
Among those charged was a Tennessee doctor who dubbed himself the ``Rock Doc'' and is accused of prescribing dangerous combinations of drugs such as fentanyl and oxycodone, sometimes in exchange for sex, authorities said
Others include a Kentucky doctor who is accused of writing prescriptions to Facebook friends who came to his home to pick them up, another who allegedly left signed blank prescriptions for staff to fill out and give to patients he hadn't seen, and a Kentucky dentist accused of removing teeth unnecessarily and scheduling unneeded follow-up appointments.
A Dayton, Ohio, doctor was accused of running a ``pill mill'' that allegedly dispensed 1.75 million pills in a two-year period. Authorities said an Alabama doctor recruited prostitutes and other women he had sexual relations with to his clinic and allowed them to abuse drugs in his home.
Most of those charged came from the five strike force states of Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. One person each was also arrested in Pennsylvania and Louisiana.
``The opioid crisis is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region,'' U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement in Washington.
Get a daily dose of Cleveland Star news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Cleveland Star.
More InformationSAN FRANCISCO, California: Grammarly is doubling down on AI-powered productivity tools with the acquisition of Superhuman, a sleek...
NEW YORK, New York -U.S. stock markets closed with broad gains on Thursday, led by strong performances in U.S. tech stocks, while European...
LONDON/STOCKHOLM: The Persson family is ramping up its investment in the H&M fashion empire, fueling renewed speculation about a potential...
PARIS, France: L'Oréal is making a fresh play in the booming premium haircare segment with a new acquisition. The French beauty conglomerate...
MENLO PARK, California: Robinhood is giving European investors a new way to tap into America's most prominent tech names — without...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks diverged on Wednesday for the second day in a row. The Standard and Poor's 500 hit a new all-time...
Washington DC [US], July 3 (ANI): As the Expedition 73 and Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crews kept up their ongoing space biology studies...
ABU DHABI, 19th June, 2025 (WAM) -- Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has become the first and only research hospital in the UAE to receive...
ABU DHABI, 17th June, 2025 (WAM) -- Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, part of the M42 group, has successfully introduced continuous infusion...
ABU DHABI, 9th June, 2025 (WAM) -- Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has successfully performed the UAE's first robotic cytoreductive surgery...
ABU DHABI,16th May, 2025 (WAM) - Oracle Health, Cleveland Clinic, and G42 today announced a strategic partnership to develop a groundbreaking...
ABU DHABI, 6th May, 2025 (WAM) -- PureHealth and its subsidiary SEHA have partnered with the number one US children's hospital, Cincinnati...