A federal court enjoined a Cumberland, Maryland, pharmacy and its owner and pharmacist from dispensing controlled substances, including opioids, without taking specific steps to help ensure the drugs will not be abused or diverted, and ordered them to pay a $120,000 civil penalty. The court’s order, entered pursuant to a consent decree of permanent injunction, resolves a complaint filed by the United States on June 16 alleging that Beckman’s Greene Street Pharmacy and its owner and pharmacist-in-charge, John A. Beckman, filled hundreds of prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
The complaint alleges that the defendants ignored obvious “red flags” of drug abuse, drug diversion, and drug-seeking behavior. For example, according to the complaint, the defendants repeatedly filled prescriptions for dangerously large doses and high-risk combinations of controlled substances known to be sought by drug abusers and which significantly increase the risk of overdose. The complaint alleges that the defendants frequently filled prescriptions for an opioid known as buprenorphine in a form that did not include the abuse-deterrent component with which it is ordinarily prescribed. The complaint further alleges that the defendants often dispensed controlled substances to patients who lived long distances from the pharmacy or who paid in cash despite the availability of insurance. According to the complaint, at least 10 patients died within 10 days of having controlled substance prescriptions filled at Beckman’s Greene Street Pharmacy.
