Drug Diversion Case Database: Search 730 Documented Cases

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Showing 730 of 730 cases · page 15 of 15.

Case / When	Where	Setting	Drug	Method	Role	Prosecution status	Penalty	Source
Psychiatrist summarily suspended for prescribing controlled substances in others' names and picking up prescriptions 2005-06	Maryland College Park, MD	Not specified	controlled dangerous substances (CDS)	prescribing large quantities of CDS in the names of 12 individuals for whom the physician could not provide medical records, and picking up the filled prescriptions himself	not stated	Summary Suspension	none documented	source
Physician removed hospital supplies to administer a controlled substance to a friend and falsified test records to conceal it 2005-02	Maryland	a hospital	a controlled dangerous substance (CDS, unspecified)	Removed supplies from a hospital to intravenously administer a controlled dangerous substance to an addicted friend, then arranged for the friend's blood to be tested with results filed under another inpatient's name to conceal the act.	not stated	License revocation	none documented	source
Registered nurse diverted morphine and fentanyl from Children's Hospital of Wisconsin stock or waste 2004-11	Wisconsin Milwaukee County, Wisconsin	Children's Hospital of Wisconsin	morphine and fentanyl	The Board found that the nurse diverted morphine and fentanyl from hospital stock or waste for personal use over four years until June 28, 2004, and consumed the substances at work without a prescription or other authority. The nurse was also criminally charged with unlawfully obtaining a controlled substance.	not stated	License suspended for six months, then indefinitely, with conditions including treatment, monitoring, and restricted access to controlled substances; partial costs of $200.	none documented	source
General practice physician summarily suspended over alleged conspiracy to distribute Ecstasy and Phentermine 2004-03	Maryland Baltimore, MD	Practice	Ecstasy and Phentermine (controlled dangerous substances)	alleged conspiracy, possession, and intent to distribute CDS, and illegal manufacture, distribution, storage, and concealment of CDS	not stated	Summary suspension of medical license	none documented	source
Family practice physician's license revoked after ingesting morphine in violation of probation 2004-01	Maryland Catonsville, MD	Practice	Morphine	violated a prior Board consent order and rehabilitation contract by ingesting morphine	not stated	Revocation of license; barred from applying for reinstatement for 3 years	none documented	source
Physician assistant's certification revoked after guilty plea to illegally distributing oxycodone 2004-01	Maryland Montgomery, PA	Montgomery, PA	Oxycodone	pled guilty to distributing Oxycodone not for legitimate medical purposes, and to falsely altering a certificate of discharge from the Army	not stated	Revocation of certification	none documented	source
Anesthesiologist placed on probation after being sanctioned for abusing fentanyl and Demerol 2003-07	Maryland Los Angeles, CA	Practice	fentanyl and Demerol (meperidine)	Found by a state medical board to have abused fentanyl and Demerol, controlled substances to which the physician had professional access.	not stated	5 years probation subject to terms and conditions (reciprocal to an Arizona Medical Board sanction)	none documented	source
Radiation therapy technologist's certification revoked after positive drug test for morphine 2003-01	Maryland Bel Air, MD	Bel Air, MD	morphine	Tested positive for morphine on a urine screen, in violation of a disposition agreement with the licensing board that required abstinence from controlled substances.	not stated	Certification revoked	none documented	source
Rochester nurse admitted diverting morphine and hydromorphone through fraudulent dispensing-cabinet entries 2001-11-09	New York	not stated	Morphine and/or Dilaudid (hydromorphone)	Fraudulent withdrawals from an automated dispensing cabinet using patient identification numbers	Registered professional nurse (also held LPN license)	not stated	none documented	source
Physician assistant self-prescribed narcotic analgesics and benzodiazepines while addicted to opiates 2000-03	Maryland Baltimore, MD	Practice	narcotic analgesics and benzodiazepines	The Board found that the practitioner, who had a problem with opiate dependency, filled prescriptions for himself for narcotic analgesics and benzodiazepines, and was found guilty of providing professional services while using a narcotic or controlled dangerous substance and being addicted to narcotics or CDS.	not stated	Suspension for three years effective 12/15/1999, with 26 months stayed (10 months active suspension), followed by probation for five years subject to terms and conditions	none documented	source
Children's Wisconsin nurse diverted morphine and fentanyl for self-administration 2000	Wisconsin	Children's Wisconsin	morphine and fentanyl	stole morphine and fentanyl intended for pediatric patients and self-administered the drugs; convicted of stealing drugs on the job	not stated	charged with multiple felonies; convicted; spent four months in jail; nursing license suspended indefinitely, later fully reinstated; pardoned	none documented	source
Physician assistant applicant found guilty by court-martial of self-prescribing controlled substances and prescribing them for his spouse without authorization 1999-12	Maryland Virginia Beach, VA	U.S. Navy	CDS (controlled dangerous substances, unspecified)	found guilty by Navy court-martial of self-prescribing and prescribing for his spouse controlled dangerous substances without authorization	not stated	Application for certification denied	none documented	source
New York practical nurse surrendered license after admitting diversion of Fioricet for personal use 1999-11-05	New York	Not specified in board summary (licensee of Rome, NY)	Fioricet (controlled substance)	not stated	Licensed practical nurse	not stated	none documented	source
Psychiatrist in Salisbury, MD, reprimanded for writing controlled dangerous substance prescriptions for himself under others' names 1999-08	Maryland Salisbury, MD	Psychiatric practice	controlled dangerous substances	wrote prescriptions for controlled dangerous substances for himself in the names of others and issued undated CDS for patients	not stated	Reprimand; terms and conditions for four years	none documented	source
Physician wrote prescriptions in patients' names and diverted the controlled substance for personal use 1999-04	Maryland Kensington, MD	Kensington, MD	Stadol (a controlled dangerous substance)	Alleged to have written prescriptions for patients for a controlled dangerous substance and then used part or all of the medication himself, and to have asked other physicians to write him personal prescriptions for the same drug	not stated	Summary suspension based on investigatory findings of imperative health, safety, and welfare concerns	none documented	source
Physician pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining diazepam 1997-05	Texas Brownsville, TX	Brownsville, TX	diazepam	Pleaded guilty to possession of the controlled dangerous substance diazepam obtained by fraud.	not stated	License revocation, statutorily required following the guilty plea	none documented	source
Family practice physician convicted of illegally distributing stimulants and dispensing controlled substances 1997-04	Maryland Potomac, MD	Practice	stimulants	Convicted in circuit court of fifteen counts of distribution of stimulants and seven counts of unlawful dispensing of a controlled substance; the conviction was affirmed on appeal.	not stated	License revocation, statutorily required following the criminal conviction	none documented	source
Registered nurse misappropriated controlled substances at Mountainside Hospital 1995-09	New Jersey	Mountainside Hospital	controlled substances	misappropriated controlled substances for personal use from December 1994 through April 1995 while employed as a nurse	not stated	nursing license suspended indefinitely by consent order	none documented	source
Mooresville pharmacist's license suspended indefinitely for unauthorized consumption of controlled substances 1995-01	North Carolina Mooresville, NC	Practice	controlled substances	Consuming controlled substances without authorization	not stated	Prior stay terminated; license to practice suspended indefinitely	none documented	source
Graham pharmacist's license suspended indefinitely for obtaining and consuming controlled substances without authorization 1995-01	North Carolina Graham, NC	Practice	controlled substances	Obtaining and consuming controlled substances without authorization	not stated	License to practice pharmacy suspended indefinitely	none documented	source
Charlotte pharmacist's license suspended indefinitely for altering prescriptions and unauthorized controlled substance use 1995-01	North Carolina Charlotte, NC	Charlotte, NC	controlled substances	Altering prescriptions for controlled substances; obtaining and consuming controlled substances without authorization	not stated	License suspended indefinitely	none documented	source
Durham pharmacist admitted unauthorized Sufentanil use; license suspended 30 days, stayed five years 1995-01	North Carolina Durham, NC	Durham, NC	Sufentanil	Admitted use of Sufentanil without authorization	not stated	License suspended 30 days, stayed five years with conditions; accepted by the pharmacist and the Board	none documented	source
Mullins pharmacist's license revoked for consuming controlled substances without authorization 1995-01	South Carolina Mullins, SC	Mullins, SC	controlled substances	Consuming controlled substances without authorization	not stated	License revoked	none documented	source
Pharmacist at Fairview Pharmacy Consultants obtained and consumed controlled substances without authorization 1994-03	North Carolina Fairview, NC	Fairview Pharmacy Consultants	controlled substances	obtaining and consuming controlled substances without authorization	not stated	license suspended indefinitely, stayed for five years with conditions	none documented	source
Arkansas hospital nurse's license suspended three years after narcotics cabinet tampering and Demerol concerns 1993-08-17	Arkansas	Two hospitals, in Bentonville and Eureka Springs	Demerol (meperidine)	not stated	Registered nurse	not stated	none documented	source
Registered nurse misappropriated controlled substances at Montclair Community Hospital 1991-10	New Jersey	Montclair Community Hospital	controlled substances	misappropriated controlled substances during February and March 1991 while employed as a nurse	not stated	nursing license suspended for two years	none documented	source
University of Utah Medical Center nurse accused of diverting Percocet by substituting Tylenol 1990-06	Utah	University of Utah Medical Center	Percocet; Tylenol; Tylenol and Motrin combinations	Allegedly signed out Percocet prescribed to patients who had already been discharged and had not requested the drug; on about 10 occasions allegedly gave plain Tylenol or Tylenol and Motrin combinations to women who had requested Percocet and kept the Percocet for her own use; allegedly began taking one to three pills a week away from work and later used Percocet at work.	not stated	Faces sanctions against her license; charged by the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing with two counts of violating the state's Nurse Practice Act and Controlled Substance Act; had 30 days to respond, after which a hearing could be held or a settlement negotiated; voluntarily entered a drug dependency program earlier that year.	none documented	source
Vermont hospital nurse admitted diverting patient drugs; civil suit tested confidentiality of board investigative files 1990-01	Vermont	Hospital (Windham County civil action)	Injectable drugs intended for a patient (unspecified)	not stated	Registered nurse	not stated	none documented	source
Mississippi nurse anesthetist's license revocation over unaccounted Demerol reversed by state supreme court 1984-10-03	Mississippi	County hospital in Monticello, Mississippi	Demerol	not stated	Certified registered nurse anesthetist	not stated	none documented	source
DC agency nurse's Demerol pull for a patient with an expired order led to two-year suspension, upheld on appeal 1983-03-29	District of Columbia	Capitol Hill Hospital, Washington, DC	Demerol (meperidine), 50 mg	not stated	Registered nurse (temporary staffing agency)	not stated	none documented	source

Every filtered view has its own URL, so it can be linked or bookmarked. The same filters work on the JSON feed: /api/cases.json.

What each column does and doesn't cover

Every case states When (date) and Where (state) — 730 of 730. Beyond that, a blank cell means the source record does not state that fact, not that it did not happen:

Setting: stated in 649 of 730 cases (89%)
Drug: stated in 657 of 730 cases (90%)
Method: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%)
Prosecution status: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%); a documented penalty (fine, settlement, or restitution) exists for 77 of 730 cases (11%)
Role: stated in only 255 of 730 cases (35%) — filtering or sorting by role silently hides the rest of the registry, which may still describe the same role in prose without a structured field

Why: documented failure modes

A separate text analysis of the 723 case summaries found 371 cases (51.3%) matching at least one named failure-mode pattern below. 352 cases (48.7% of 723) matched none of these categories - most of these are short board-order summaries ("licensee diverted controlled substances from their employer") that state an outcome without describing a mechanism, not cases where no failure occurred. A case can match zero, one, or several categories — these are corpus-level counts, not a per-case tag, and are not used as a row filter above: reproducing the exact category membership per case from the stored patterns did not exactly match this file's hand-curated counts on independent re-check, so no individual case here is labeled with a "why" that this code cannot verify.

Drug swapped for a substitute and the container returned to circulation 137 of 723

Text names an act of replacing/refilling the drug with a named substitute (saline, water, an OTC pill, a cleaning product, etc.), OR uses swap/dilute/tamper to describe the same act, so the altered container went back into use looking unchanged.

Outright theft or embezzlement of stock (no substitution described) 120 of 723

Text uses stole/stealing/embezzled to describe removal of controlled substances.

Records, charts, orders, inventories, or receipts falsified to conceal the diversion 58 of 723

Text uses a form of "falsif-" within 60 characters of a record-type noun (chart, inventory, transaction, receipt, prescription, etc.).

Prescriptions fraudulent, forged, invalid, or written outside legitimate medical practice 53 of 723

Text explicitly characterizes the prescription(s) as fraudulent, forged, invalid, or issued outside legitimate medical practice (including "pill mill" language).

Automated dispensing cabinet used as the point of exploitation 30 of 723

Text names an automated dispensing cabinet/machine, or the acronym ADC, as part of the mechanism.

Waste/wastage claim used to cover the diversion, or wastage not witnessed 38 of 723

Text describes recording or claiming drug as "waste" (when it was not), pulling drug from a waste stream, or wastage that was not independently witnessed.

Cancelled, voided, or falsely entered dispensing-system transactions to hide the removal 11 of 723

Text describes cancelling, voiding, or falsely entering a system transaction (an order, a return-to-stock entry, a cancel entry) specifically to conceal a removal.

Facility-level failure to maintain accurate inventory or required records (not one employee concealing a theft) 24 of 723

Text states the FACILITY (not an individual concealing personal use) failed to maintain required inventory/records, or names a recordkeeping violation/negligent recordkeeping as the basis for the government action.

Drug obtained using a false identity, a fictitious patient, or impersonation 11 of 723

Text describes using a fictitious patient profile, a false name/identity, stolen patient information, or impersonating a licensed prescriber to obtain the drug.

Known or suspected loss/theft/diversion not reported to DEA or a licensing board 10 of 723

Text states a failure to notify or report a loss, theft, or suspected diversion to a regulator.

Disclaimer

Case summaries are based on public records (DOJ press releases, court documents, news reports). Charges are allegations unless a conviction is noted. Analysis is educational, not legal advice.

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Content is educational, not legal advice.

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