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Judge Urges Deeper Drug Probe: Alliance Pair Sentenced for Selling OxyContin; Suppliers Not Charged

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Rick Armon, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Apr. 25--CANTON -- A Stark County judge on Monday questioned a prescription drug trafficking investigation that netted charges against an Alliance couple but not the doctor who wrote the "inordinate amount" of prescriptions or the pharmacists who continually filled them.

"You can't sell it if nobody gives it to you," Common Pleas Judge Richard D. Reinbold Jr. said while sentencing the pair.

The judge recommended that Alliance police continue their investigation and that state licensing agencies become involved. Police referred questions to Capt. Scott Griffith, who could not be reached, and the department would not release documents related to the trafficking probe.

But Joseph Vance, assistant county prosecutor, said police and state officials are still looking into the case.

"The issue is not dead," he said.

Louis J. Brush, 41, was charged last year with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, money laundering and four counts of drug trafficking.

His wife, Tina A. Brush, 38, was charged with complicity.

Louis Brush obtained about 180 OxyContin pills per month -- a large amount for a single month, according to state medical officials -- between July 2002 and July 2005 and then sold them. His wife was aware of the trafficking.

Police also found numerous other prescription drugs at their Parkside Drive residence when they were arrested last year, according to court papers.

Louis Brush was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $10,000. His wife was given probation.

Reinbold named, in open court, the doctor who wrote the OxyContin prescriptions and three pharmacies that filled them. The drug is a strong pain reliever similar to morphine.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Jakmides said he doesn't know why his clients were the only ones charged. Prosecutors have paperwork detailing the prescriptions written by the doctor and all the drug purchases from the pharmacies, he said.

The attorney added that Louis Brush, who was on disability, paid for the prescriptions with large amounts of cash.

"I don't know whether any of this was presented to the grand jury or not," Jakmides said.

Officials at the State of Ohio Medical Board, which oversees physicians, and the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy, which oversees pharmacists and prescriptions, said they couldn't say whether there was an active investigation or not. The doctor named in court has not been disciplined, according to the medical board's Web site.

It's difficult to prove that doctors or pharmacies participated in such drug trafficking because patients who illegally sell their prescription drugs typically go to multiple doctors and pharmacies to dupe them into providing the drugs, said William Winsley, executive director of the pharmacy board.

He noted that the state is starting a program in August that requires pharmacies to report prescriptions so those scams are caught in the future.

"We run into a lot of people who do this," he said.

Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

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Source: Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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