Over 100 Metro Detroit Doctors Convicted or charged in Opioid Schemes

[Lowell]

This was a jaw-dropping read in today's Free Press. TV news tends to focus on sensational "if it bleeds it leads" news. Meanwhile the individual stories of these 100 doctors slides under the radar--even this article is in the back pages. Arguably they have been the source of a lot of that bleeding and leading.

Surprising too are the severity of some sentences, 10+ years, and the age of some of the convicted, 70+ years. What's mind boggling to contemplate is, what were they thinking throwing away likely prosperous lives?

Here's a snippet of those convicted.

[EGrant]

There's a plethora of stories where young people were prescribed opioids for relatively common injuries, became addicted and sought out much harder substances like heroin to satisfy their addiction. It was [[might still be) a particularly bad problem in Fraser.

[Richard]

I have an acquaintance that owns a high end Italian restaurant that makes 6 figures,he has no seating and has a sign on the door,take out only during remodeling,nobody is going to pay $100 a plate for take out.

He is paid by the pharmaceutical companies to bring lunch to the doctors every day.

It is not just Oxy’s it is every medicine on the books,needed or not,I do not see the difference in pushing Oxy then every other medicine that kill people long term from the side effects or tainted Chinese ingredients.

Across the board the whole Medicaid/Medicare system is one big fraud magnet based the government is to big to watch it all.

Most of these doctors were charged with fraud to Medicare/Medicaid and the oxy was just the tool.

[Jimaz]

I'm surprised this subject hasn't become more of a hot topic around here before now.

Before the press started covering this opioid crisis, I shepherded a family member through surgery [[all went well). I was shocked at the amount of Vicodin prescribed. It was something like 60 tablets with refills! Since I wasn't yet aware how widespread this practice was, my first reaction was "How much pain do you expect this poor patient to confront?!" I was worried! Fortunately almost none of that prescription was necessary.

Later I had a minor procedure and received a prescription for a similar quantity of Hydrocodone but a separate prescription for Ibuprofen in case the pain wasn't that bad. I think that was about the time that the opioid crisis started getting press. I felt lousy for a couple days but I couldn't call it pain so I didn't take anything.

As the story developed it became evident that the problem was being driven by the profit motive of the pharmaceutical industry. If you think about it, opioids are the wet dream of ambitious business. They not only create their own demand through repeat business, but they also provide a convenient means of disposing of the patient through suicide after the patient has served their purpose: profit.

It's an ugly business.

And of course it should be noted that there are legitimate uses for opioids in hospice situations, etc.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

I can't possibly see why a Doctor would jeopardize his practice, for some extra cash overwriting prescriptions.

[lpg]

What government program isn't rife with fraud ?

[401don]

I can't possibly see why a Doctor would jeopardize his practice, for some extra cash overwriting prescriptions.

Some of these guys are making ten fold what they would without doing any extra work. Also, it appears several made their cash and skipped the country with it. Again, the lack of gov't oversight is astonishing.

[One Shot]

This is only a FRACTION. So many crooks that just prescribe drugs and more drugs instead of trying to help people. I worry about my parents and what they are taking. How much of it is REALLY necessary and what about side effects?

[Richard]

I can't possibly see why a Doctor would jeopardize his practice, for some extra cash overwriting prescriptions.

It is the lure of easy money,it’s not really extra cash,people were making millions.

The now closed Kmart that was by me used to have a line of at least 300 people on script day.

The whole thing was set up like the ambulance chasers.

You claim back pain,they send you to thier doctor,who cannot prove that you do not have back pain,but they write you a script anyways,you take that script to their pharmacy and it gets filled,all in the same day.

Pain management clinics,in Fl anyways were like 7-11 on every block and every one had a line out the door 7 days a week all day.

They clamped down in Tennessee and people were driving down to Fl and picking them up and getting $100 a pill for them up there,before they put the limit of 30 days,that would have been 120 pills for the trip back home.

It was $300 for the pain management clinic in Oder to get the script,if you did not have the $300 it was fronted by the street,for a fee,you turn over 80% of your script for 3 scripts as repayment,if you did not,then you would really need some pain management.

I used to see the fresh hookers in my hood,they would start out looking kinda healthy and within 3 months they would be dead,laying in the street or found in a drug house.

The police moved them to a different erea now though in the usual hooker wack a mole process.

The ones at the top of the chain were making millions per day,pain clinics and pharmacies.

Now get busted and you are charged a count for each pill and you will get charged and arrested for having a pill bottle in your car without a label.

You are better off getting caught with heroin.

But the people that really need them,have to jump through a lot of hoops and most doctors require a piss test before writing a script,if you have traces of any other drugs in your system they will drop you.

The reality is,it is to little to late,people have moved on to meth,the pills are so regulated they are extremely difficult to get.

They should have been on this 5 years ago when it was doing the most damage.

There was a reason it was let slide.

When you have a town of 5000 ordering 100,000 pills a month it should have been pretty obvious.

They screwed up when they went to jailing for $5 bags of weed and drying up the supply,people that want to get high are going to do so in anyway.

The whole pill thing was no different then crack,the drug dealers just wore white jackets,they clamp down on weed everybody switched to cocaine,they clamped down on cocaine everybody went spice,they cracked down on spice then everybody switched to pills,they clamped down on pill everybody goes to meth and heroin.

Another drug of choice will pop up,the people that get in at the ground floor and get out at the peak will make hundreds of millions,while at the tail end you will see lists like posted here that got caught with no seat in the circle of chairs.

They need to develop a drug that people can take,that just makes the mind think they are high when they are not.

It creates hundreds of millions that builds cities and dumps revenue into economies,it puts thousands in city and state jails that collect millions from the federal government,the victims are easy to write off because they are just junkies and drug heads anyways.

The local,state and federal agencies were busting thier butts on this for the last 10 years and pleading with the previous administration to put a stop to it,they knew exactly what was going on and allowed it to continue,this list of doctors is only one in one city,it is repeated in every city.

They were doing $15 to $50 million dollar busts in Miami 9 years ago based strictly on the pills,not including the thousands of doctors arrested.

And just now they are throwing out a token pharmaceutical company after being given free reign for the last 10 years.