A pharmacist working as the manager of a chain retail pharmacy in Berlin, Vermont was sentenced in federal court to three years of probation following a conviction for obtaining controlled substances by fraud. According to court records, the pharmacist tampered with a bottle of hydromorphone oral solution by removing a quantity for personal use and then diluting what remained with liquid diphenhydramine and distilled water.
The pharmacist reattached the tamper seal with clear tape and returned the diluted bottle to the pharmacy's inventory, from which it could have been dispensed to patients. Court records also describe the pharmacist obtaining hydromorphone tablets and oral solution through false entries in the pharmacy ordering system and false pill counts in the inventory system.
Public records of state pharmacy boards cited in the release show this was not the first such incident. The pharmacist had taken hydromorphone tablets in 2015 while employed at a pharmacy in Texas and in 2016 from a Vermont hospital, which led the Vermont Board of Pharmacy to place strict conditions on the license. The license was fully reinstated in 2020 and then suspended on September 24, 2021 when the Board learned of the new allegations. That suspension was an interim step taken while the matter was pending, not a final finding.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Vermont Secretary of State's Office of Professional Regulation and the Berlin Police Department.