Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer - Pain Clinic Doctor Suspended

By Nick Dorsten, Esq.

LARGO — For the second time in five years, health officials have taken emergency action to stop a Pinellas County doctor from writing excessive prescriptions for powerful painkillers.

Authorities say the doctor, an osteopathic family physician, prescribed "potentially lethal quantities" of widely abused narcotics such as Roxicodone and Percocet, often without even a physical exam.

He also permitted an assistant — a nurse who was then his girlfriend — to illegally sign prescriptions after he took a leave from practice, state health officials say.

Similar charges netted this doctor, 46, a previous suspension in 2006. In that violation, he was fined $12,500 but still allowed to return to practice.

In recent years, the man, who could not be reached for comment, has been treating patients at his Medical Clinic, a pain clinic at Seminole Blvd. in Largo.

An employee told investigators he was instructed to recruit new patients by promising they would leave the clinic with at least 240 oxycodone pills, as well as other prescription medications popular as street drugs.

When contacted, two patients said the clinic knew they were illegally going from doctor's office to doctor's office to shop for drugs (commonly charged as "doctor shopping", a third fegree felony!

Even with that knowledge, the doctor refilled their prescriptions.

One was a 41-year-old man. In an 8-month period, he left the pain clinic on 10 occasions with prescriptions from the doctor on each visit for 690 pills, mostly narcotics.

At one point, the patient told the doc that he was worried about being overmedicated and even asked to change his treatment.

But the man was informed that his prescriptions were pre-signed and couldn't be changed — at least not without a $25 charge.

The Florida Department of Health announced Wednesday the emergency suspension of his medical license.

As noted above, this was not the first time the "good" doctor has had run ins with the law...

In 2006, he was the medical director of a St. Petersburg walk-in clinic advertising easy access to Vicodin, Percocet and other drugs.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office eventually raided the clinic and arrested one of its doctors, as well as the clinic's owner and two physician's assistants.

But the doctor wasn't charged. Detectives said he was rarely there.

Instead, he signed stacks of blank prescriptions and sent them by courier from his main office in Seminole.

Outside of his medical work, he has also been arrested multiple times, most recently in 2009 on cocaine charges.

In a related story, state health officials suspended the license of another doctor, a Treasure Island osteopathic physician who pleaded guilty in August to a felony drug trafficking charge involving oxycodone.

Have you or someone you loved been arrested for a prescription drug or an oxycodone charge? Then contact the law offices of Blake & Dorsten, P.A. to speak with an experienced Pinellas criminal defense lawyer now!

Our office is located at 4707 140th ave. N, Suite 107, Clearwater, FL 33762, across from the criminal courthouse and minutes from Tampa and St. Petersburg. You can contact your St. Petersburg criminal defense attorney by phone at 727.286.6141 or online at info@BlakeDorstenLaw.com.