DEA Raids Texarkana Clinic, Arrests Doctor
https://txktoday.com/crime/dea-raids-texarkana-clinic-arrests-doctor/
Federal agents from the DEA and FBI raided Primary Care Specialists and arrested Dr. Lonnie Parker Tuesday morning.
Duane (DAK) Kees, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas and Justin King, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, announced today that Dr. Lonnie Joseph Parker was arrested today on federal charges. A federal grand jury in the Western District of Arkansas indicted Dr. Parker on nine counts of Prescribing Without a Legitimate Medical Purpose Outside the Scope of a Professional Practice.
Primary Care Specialists is located at E. 24th St. and County Ave in Texarkana, Ark.
Dr. Parker has been in legal trouble for over prescribing in the past. Parker has also been convicted of possessing child pornography.
According to the Indictment, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Little Rock District Office (LRDO), Tactical Diversion and Diversion Groups initiated an investigation into Dr. Parker of Texarkana, Arkansas in 2018 after receiving complaints from local law enforcement about a suspected pill mill and possible overdose death of a patient. Investigators analyzed prescription drug monitoring data attributed to Dr. Parker, and the investigation revealed Dr. Parker was an over-prescriber of controlled substances, to include opiates, benzodiazepines, and promethazine with codeine cough syrup in the Texarkana area. In the two-year period analyzed, Dr. Parker prescribed approximately 1.2 million dosage units of opiates, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, to approximately 1,508 patients (approximately 847 dosage units per patient). Dr. Parker also prescribed approximately 16 gallons of Promethazine with Codeine cough syrup to approximately 29 patients during the same time period. These prescriptions included several prescriptions written in combination with narcotics and sedatives to high diversion risk patients.
Other agencies participating in the investigation are the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Texarkana Police Department, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS). Special Assistant United States Attorney Anne Gardner is prosecuting the case for the United States.
An Indictment is merely an accusation. An arrest warrant represents a finding of probable cause. A person is presumed innocent unless or until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
At the pharmacy that I worked at during the summers while I was a student we had a prescriber in the same shopping center in an adjacent building… His favorite “cough syrup” was a 1:1 ratio of Tussionex and Benylin. The first being a long acting Hydrocodone and Chlortrimeton and the second was Benadryl in a sugary syrup. This particular prescriber was a high volume writer and this particular store got so many of these prescriptions from this particular doctor that the store premixed up a gallon at a time.
Back then the DEA did not exist and Chlortrimeton and Benadryl were prescription only meds. During cold season it was not unusual for the pharmacy to go thru a gallon of this mixture in a WEEK. So this one doctor it would not be unusual for him to write prescriptions for TWO GALLONS of the Tussionex in a SINGLE MONTH.
Let’s look at their numbers 1.2 million doses for 1508 pts over TWO YEARS… that means that each one of those pts – presuming that they are chronic pain and/or on going pain pts… would come out to abt 1 dose/day/pt – OMG !!!
Looking at the 1.2 million doses another way… using standard of care and best practices for a intractable chronic pain pts… those doses over two years could provide appropriate pain management to 235 pts or about 15% of the total number of pts. Since it is claimed that about 1/3 of the US population suffers from chronic pain… So using those averages it would appear that Dr. Parker may have been UNDER TREATING most of the chronic pain pts in his practice.
I wonder if any of these “numbers” were shared with the grand jury ? Color we skeptical !!!
A federal grand jury in the Western District of Arkansas indicted Dr. Parker it is claimed that the way that our grand jury system is set up… that a prosecuting attorney could get a HAM SANDWICH INDICTED.
Filed under: General Problems
I’m a paraplegic with chronic pain. Dr.Parker was the 9only Dr 8n my area that would give me the meds I need to live a normal life. He is an awesome Dr and I pray he is set free. I haven’t heard anything about him till now.
They assume you won’t do the numbers. Figure you will look at the BIG number and say OOOOH nasty. We need someone (Steve) to do this math and print it on every takedown to bring awareness. I have tried but my name isn’t as big.
I can do the numbers… but … others can use my calculations… send them to media… prefacing the submission that Steve Ariens (Pharmacist Steve) well known chronic pain advocate … has done the math…. and submit the quote… others can leverage my visibility and knowledge base to spread the truth
The DOJ must think people dont have basic math skills when they publish numbers like this. At 50 MME a day that amounts to 35 pills per month per patient over that 24 month period. My 92 year old mother takes that much and still has daily pain from crippling arthritis. People on these grand juries are either brain dead or brainwashed.
WOW they sure do twist facts to add to the “over prescribing” hysteria! What a crock!!
Thanks for the breakdown Steve.
So
16 gallons
At 128 oz/ gallon
29 patients
2years.
35 oz in one year.
3 oz per month.
About the same amount of shampoo I use.
Thanks Mark.
Steve; I’d bet none of your numbers were shown to the grand jury…why muddle hysteria with facts?
I very recently ended up with pneumonia on top of savage bronchitis b/c I couldn’t get any codeine-containing cough syrup…only time in my life I wished I lived in Texarkana.
I know certain politicians have way overused the term “witch hunt,” but that is exactly what is going on with them going after doctors willing to try to treat anything at all these days.