Case Database
Filter every documented case by date, drug, state, setting, role, prosecution status, and penalty. Search accepts brand or generic drug names, facility names, and cities.
Showing 18 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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California pharmacist applicant filled hydrocodone prescription issued without a prescriber-patient relationship
2025-10-15
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California | Pharmacy dispensing, April 2013 | Hydrocodone (Lortab), Maxzide; marijuana possession also alleged | not stated | Pharmacist license applicant (Statement of Issues) | not stated | none documented | source |
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UCSF pediatric anesthesiologist arrested after being found unconscious with a propofol syringe
2025-03-05
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California | UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) medical campus | Propofol | not stated | Pediatric anesthesiologist | not stated | none documented | source |
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California pharmacist sentenced to more than seven years for dispensing over 450,000 opioid pills on fraudulent prescriptions
2024-11-25
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California | Independent retail pharmacy, Madera | Oxycodone and hydrocodone; more than 450,000 pills | not stated | Pharmacist and pharmacy owner | not stated | none documented | source |
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Telehealth Firm Done Global Indicted in $100M Adderall Distribution Scheme
2024-06-13
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California San Francisco, California |
Done Global Inc. / Done Health P.C., subscription telehealth company (San Francisco / Los Angeles, CA) | Adderall and other stimulants — over 40 million pills prescribed | Structured telehealth platform to push stimulant prescriptions regardless of medical need — limited prescriber information, mandated sub-30-minute visits, auto-refill subscriptions, paid prescribers only per prescription written | not stated | He and Brody arrested Jun 13, 2024 on health care fraud and drug distribution conspiracy charges; both later convicted at trial | $1,000,000 (criminal fine) | source |
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Palomar Health Pays $250,000 Over Fentanyl Diversion in Cath Lab
2024-06-03
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California Escondido, California |
Palomar Health Cardiac Catheterization Lab, Escondido, California | Fentanyl | Employee diverted vials from automated dispensing machines over a five-month period; unused fentanyl was not properly disposed of | not stated | Palomar Health paid $250,000 CSA civil settlement June 2024 and entered a DEA monitoring agreement | $250,000 (civil settlement) | source |
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Madera pharmacist pleaded guilty to dispensing over 200,000 opioid pills on forged prescriptions
2024-06
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California | Independent retail pharmacy in Madera | Oxycodone and hydrocodone tablets | not stated | Pharmacist and pharmacy owner | not stated | none documented | source |
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Former Scripps Encinitas anesthesiologist placed on seven-year probation for taking and self-administering propofol and opioids
2024-03
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California | Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas | Propofol, fentanyl, hydromorphone, midazolam | not stated | Anesthesiologist (labor and delivery unit) | not stated | none documented | source |
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Valley Center Veterinary Clinic Pays $125,000 Over Controlled-Substance Mishandling
2024-01-17
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California Valley Center, California |
Best Veterinary Care (Valley Center Veterinary Clinic), San Diego County, California | Alprazolam, diazepam, and tramadol | DEA inventory audit found unaccounted-for controlled-substance pills and inadequate inventory controls to prevent theft and diversion | not stated | Clinic paid $125,000 civil settlement and signed a DEA Memorandum of Agreement, January 2024 | $125,000 (civil settlement) | source |
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San Diego Pharmacy Pays $105K for Ignoring Opioid Prescription Red Flags
2022-01-20
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California San Diego, California |
Balboa Pharmacy, retail pharmacy (San Diego, CA) | Opioids, incl. doses exceeding 100 MME + benzodiazepine/muscle-relaxant "trinity" combinations | Filled prescriptions without resolving red flags — high MME doses, dangerous drug combinations, patients with multiple prescribers, early refills | not stated | Civil settlement, $105,000 — announced Jan 20, 2022; entered Oct 2021 memorandum of agreement with DEA | $105,000 (civil settlement) | source |
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Fontana pharmacy technician's registration revoked over diversion of 117 tramadol tablets
2021-04-26
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California | High-volume outpatient pharmacy of a large health system in Fontana | Tramadol 50 mg (Schedule IV) | not stated | Pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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UC San Diego anesthesiologist's license revoked after alleged sedative diversion and saline substitution
2018-04
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California | UC San Diego Medical Center | Sedatives and opioids including morphine and fentanyl | not stated | Anesthesiologist | not stated | none documented | source |
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California respiratory care practitioner's license revoked after nursing board discipline for possessing controlled substances and false hospital records
2017-03-25
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California | not stated | Controlled substance (not specified in the board summary) | not stated | Respiratory care practitioner who also held a registered nursing license | not stated | none documented | source |
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California respiratory care practitioner surrendered license after being found with four fentanyl syringes not needed for work
2017-03-23
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California | not stated | Fentanyl | not stated | Respiratory care practitioner | not stated | none documented | source |
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Pharmacy technician diverted over 216,000 Norco tablets from a retail pharmacy while the pharmacist-in-charge failed to detect the theft
2015-08
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California West Hills, CA |
retail pharmacy (Target) | Norco (hydrocodone/acetaminophen) | A pharmacy technician diverted the drug over a roughly two-year period by repeatedly ordering large quantities to be delivered on days she worked, intercepting and hiding the bottles in the storeroom, destroying the packing invoices, and removing the drugs to her car while the on-duty pharmacist was on break. The pharmacist-in-charge failed to review delivery invoices, restrict access to the phone-ordering passcode, or conduct random audits that could have detected the diversion sooner. | not stated | The California State Board of Pharmacy found grounds for discipline after a hearing and revoked the pharmacist-in-charge's license but stayed the revocation, placing the license on three years' probation with conditions; a petition for writ of administrative mandate challenging the discipline was denied, and the Court of Appeal affirmed. | none documented | source |
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California hospital system agreed to $1.55 million civil penalty after hydrocodone losses at Stockton outpatient pharmacy
2015-04
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California | Outpatient pharmacy at a Stockton medical center and other Sacramento-area facilities | Hydrocodone tablets and other controlled substances | not stated | Hospital system as DEA registrant | not stated | none documented | source |
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California retail pharmacy technician accused of conspiring with physician to divert opioids; Board decision issued
2013-07-17
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California | Independent retail pharmacy, Glendale | Oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin, Norco), hydromorphone (Dilaudid) | not stated | Pharmacy technician (accusation also named the pharmacy and its pharmacist-in-charge) | not stated | none documented | source |
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Psychiatrist reprimanded for prescribing Ritalin to her spouse without medical justification
2011-12
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California Ridgecrest, CA |
Ridgecrest, CA | Ritalin | Admitted to prescribing Ritalin to her spouse without adequate documentation of medical necessity. | not stated | Reprimand by the Maryland Board of Physicians, taken reciprocally after the Illinois Board of Medicine fined her for the same conduct | none documented | source |
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California hospital lead pharmacy technician diverted over 6,000 controlled-substance tablets from dispensing system
2011-02-07
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California | University medical center hospital pharmacy, Loma Linda | Several controlled substances; accusation alleged 6,540 tablets, evidence established over 6,000 | not stated | Lead pharmacy technician | not stated | none documented | source |
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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.
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.
Text uses stole/stealing/embezzled to describe removal of controlled substances.
Text uses a form of "falsif-" within 60 characters of a record-type noun (chart, inventory, transaction, receipt, prescription, etc.).
Text explicitly characterizes the prescription(s) as fraudulent, forged, invalid, or issued outside legitimate medical practice (including "pill mill" language).
Text names an automated dispensing cabinet/machine, or the acronym ADC, as part of the mechanism.
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.
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.
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.
Text describes using a fictitious patient profile, a false name/identity, stolen patient information, or impersonating a licensed prescriber to obtain the drug.
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.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Content is educational, not legal advice.