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Federal prosecutors said Monday that five doctors pleaded guilty to a pain-killer prescription scheme involving clinics in West Virginia and Virginia.
The plan, linked to the Hope Clinic, included prescribing oxycodone and other controlled substances for non-legal medical purposes from 2010 to 2015. Some prescriptions offered him up to seven pills a day, and some Hope stores served an average of 65 or more customers per day. With a 10-hour workday, only one practitioner is working, the prosecutor said in his news release.
Hope Clinic had offices in Beckley and Charleston, West Virginia, and Wytheville, Virginia.
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Four of the doctors pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston to aiding fraudulent acquisition of controlled substances, according to a statement.
Those doctors are William Early, 66, of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Brian Garrett, 45, from Clarksville, Pennsylvania. Roswell Tempest Lowry, 88, from Elland, North Carolina. Vernon Stanley, 79, of Fayetteville, West Virginia.
Mark Clarkson, 64, of Princeton, West Virginia, pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of aiding and abetting the fraudulent branding of drugs involved in interstate commerce, the statement said.
U.S. Attorney Will Thompson said, “These petitions demonstrate that our office continues to do everything possible to save lives and prevent future overdoses.” A lot of effort went into the case.”
Gullett, Earley, and Stanley signed a number of oxycodone prescriptions for clients at the Charleston Hope Clinic in 2013. They admitted that the customer’s chart did not support the prescription, not for legitimate medical purposes, prosecutors said.
In August 2014, Lowry signed a prescription for 180 oxycodone tablets to Hope’s customers in Charleston. He admitted that he deliberately did not read the customer’s medical charts to determine whether those prescriptions were necessary. Issued.
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Gullett, Earley, Lowry, and Stanley reported that their customers reported being addicted to painkillers, failed drug screenings several times, underwent abnormal drug screenings, bought pills on the street, He admitted to selling pills from Hope’s prescription to others. Physicians did not discuss possible addiction or the need for addiction treatment with these customers, the statement said.
Clarkson acknowledged helping the Hope Clinic issue prescriptions after major retailers stopped issuing prescriptions and smaller pharmacies were unable to keep up with Hope’s customer demand. In 2014, Clarkson wrote a total of 635 illegal prescriptions for his oxycodone pills for five different of her Hope clients in Virginia, formulated at Adkins Pharmacy in West He, Gilbert, Virginia. I was. Adkins Pharmacy has agreed that in 2020 he will pay an $88,000 fine.
The doctor’s verdict is scheduled for December 22nd. Gullett, Earley, Lowry, and Stanley each face up to four years in prison and her $250,000 fine. Clarkson faces up to his five years in prison and his $500,000 fine.
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The doctor was indicted in 2018, along with owners, managers, and other doctors associated with Hope Clinic and the group that manages Hope’s day-to-day operations. The remaining defendants are awaiting trial.