The owner and operator of a small independent pharmacy in Pinellas Park, Florida, a licensed pharmacist registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration, filled Schedule II prescriptions for 30 mg oxycodone and 8 mg hydromorphone that were outside the usual course of professional practice and not issued for a legitimate medical purpose. According to court documents, the pharmacy accepted only cash for these prescriptions and charged a higher-than-market per-pill price, usually $5 to $6 per pill.
The pharmacy ordered a far higher volume of opiates for its inventory than the average for other pharmacies in Florida and across the United States. Prescriptions were filled for opiate-naive patients without consulting the prescribing physician or the patient about the diagnosis and need for the drug. Many of the patients were young and healthy-looking, and had traveled long distances to the pharmacy, usually after visiting a prescribing physician in Tampa. The pharmacist and an employed pharmacy technician falsely noted on the back of many prescriptions that they had been verified with the prescriber's office when they had not.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney's Office's Opioid Fraud Abuse and Detection Unit, which focuses on opioid-related fraud and abuse by medical and health care professionals.
The pharmacist pleaded guilty on April 24, 2020, to unlawful distribution of oxycodone outside the scope of professional practice and was later sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, a $500,000 criminal fine, and a forfeiture money judgment of $766,819 representing the proceeds of the illegal distribution. The pharmacy technician pleaded guilty for her role and was sentenced to 25 months in federal prison on August 27, 2020.