The United States sued a Farmville, North Carolina pharmacy and its owner, who also served as pharmacist-in-charge, alleging repeated violations of the Controlled Substances Act. The complaint alleged that for years the defendants filled prescriptions for highly abused opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and methadone, often together with potentiator drugs like diazepam, alprazolam, and zolpidem that heighten opioid effects and raise overdose risk.
According to the complaint, the pharmacy filled dangerous drug cocktails for patients who lived and saw their doctor roughly an hour away, filled hundreds of opioid prescriptions for multiple members of one family, filled prescriptions from a prescriber the pharmacist knew had been cut off by other pharmacies, and filled prescriptions for patients hopping between doctors and pharmacies. One patient allegedly received four thirty-day supplies of 30-mg oxycodone within 66 days, sometimes combined with methadone and a muscle relaxer at dosages well above CDC caution thresholds.
The complaint also alleged that when other employees raised concerns about the pharmacy's practices, the pharmacist-in-charge dismissed them, saying the pharmacy would fill anything a doctor wrote. The case was a joint effort of the DEA, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and the Justice Department's Consumer Protection Branch.
The parties resolved the case through a consent judgment and permanent injunction. The pharmacy and pharmacist agreed to pay $600,000 in civil penalties, the pharmacist agreed to surrender his pharmacy license and never seek renewal, and the pharmacy agreed to permanently surrender its DEA registration. The claims remain allegations only, and there was no judicial determination or admission of liability.