A doctor in Seminole County was sentenced to a minimum mandatory 25 year State Prison sentence for selling prescriptions for Oxycodone.  The investigation was a joint investigation that included the Sarasota Sheriff's Department.

The doctor's arrest was just another in a statewide effort to crack down on pill mills and doctors writing scripts to people who then resell the pills on the street.  Trafficking in oxycodone carries a minimum mandatory sentence.  There are numerous investigations pending in an ongoing attempt to stem the epidemic of prescription drug abuse.  The new prescription drug database has given law enforcement a new tool in identifying potential doctors writing prescriptions for patients.

Legitimate physicians now find themselves in the dilemma of deciding how to treat patients with actual chronic pain.  It is difficult for doctors to identify drug abusers who often come in with phony MRI reports.  The new drug database allows doctors to check and see if the patient is also seeing other doctors and obtaining multiple scripts.  That is called doctor shopping

As a Sarasota criminal defense attorney I have seen an increase in arrests and prosecutions for prescription fraud.  No one has really addressed the real issue.

What no one realizes is that the drug manufacturers are the ones who are really profiting from this terrible epidemic.  Purdue, one of the principal manufacturers, in 1997 obtained approval from the DEA to produce 8 tons of Oxycontin.  By 2011 their quota approved by our government was 100 tons of Oxycontin.  You cannot dump that much on the market and not expect a drug problem.  Who is the real drug dealer? 

I encourage everyone to go online and learn more about this subject

Although the doctors and patients are being prosecuted, no one has even begun to address the real issue of unlimited supply.

If you have comments, post them or contact me at my Sarasota criminal defense office