Tag: Oxycodone

W.Va. Osteopath Sentenced For Illegally Prescribing Opioids

A Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine has been sentenced to federal prison for distributing oxycodone outside the bounds of professional practice.

Matthew Sisson was sentenced Wednesday for prescribing Oxycodone to an individual who was not his patient, according to a press release from the federal prosecutor’s office. The case was tried in federal court. 

Sisson admitted writing a prescription for 60 pills to an individual in a hospital lobby in 2017. The individual was not a patient, and Sisson said he did not perform a physical examination of that person.

Sisson previously admitted that while holding an education permit, granted by the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine, he participated in a training program at the Charleston Area Medical Center. But the program at CAMC, and the limited permit issued by the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine, did not permit him to issue prescriptions that were not for legitimate medical purposes. 

Sisson is 29 years old. He was sentenced Wednesday to serve nearly five years in federal prison.

Convicted Former W.Va. Pharmacist Fined in Pill Case

A former West Virginia pharmacist convicted in state court of improperly dispensing medications has been fined $336,000 in federal court.

Federal prosecutors say a judge in Wheeling imposed the penalty against 50-year-old David M. Wasanyi.

Prosecutors say Wasanyi worked as a pharmacist in Martinsburg and Charles Town and violated federal law when he filled nearly 1,200 prescriptions for controlled substances for patients who traveled from as far away as Florida. Many of the prescriptions were written for oxycodone.

Wasanyi was sentenced twice in state court in 2016 for delivery of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to up to 11 years for one conviction and up to 75 years for another.

33 Charged in West Virginia in Oxycodone Trafficking

Federal authorities in northern West Virginia have charged 33 people following an investigation into the illicit distribution of the painkiller oxycodone.

According to prosecutors, the 129-count indictment unsealed Thursday alleges that the group from Michigan and West Virginia conspired to operate the trafficking ring.

Many were arrested Thursday.

They include nine defendants from Detroit and one from Eastpointe, Michigan.

In West Virginia, 10 are from Morgantown and others are from Westover, Fairmont, Pursglove, Buckhannon, Kingwood, Stonewood, Salem, Dellslow, Crawford and Maidsville.

The Mon Metro Drug and Violent Crime Drug Task Force led the investigation.

Doctor Charged in Oxycodone Deaths Backs out of Plea Deal

A Raleigh County doctor accused of illegally distributing painkillers to three patients who later died has backed out of a plea deal.

Dr. Michael Kostenko was expected to enter into a deal with prosecutors on Monday and plead guilty to one count of distribution. Instead, Kostenko pleaded not guilty.

Kostenko, who ran Coal Country Clinic in Daniels, faces multiple counts of distribution charges, including three counts of distributing oxycodone that resulted in the deaths of three patients.

His license was initially suspended last March after the West Virginia Board of Osteopathic Medicine found probable cause of unprofessional and unethical conduct. The board later voted to revoke his license.

Kostenko remains in jail. His trial is set for April 24.

Ex-Barboursville Doctor Admits to Committing Fraud for Pills

A former Cabell County physician has admitted to writing a fraudulent prescription to illegally obtain more than 100 oxycodone pills from an employee.

U.S. Attorney Carol Casto said in a news release that 52-year-old Gregory Donald Chaney, of Barboursville, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. He faces up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his April 3 sentencing.

Chaney had been the owner of Tri-State Medical Center before it went out of business.

Chaney admitted to writing a prescription for 120 oxycodone pills for an employee in December 2015 without a physical examination. Chaney then instructed the employee to get the prescription filled and return the pills to him in exchange for about $830 in lieu of unpaid wages.

W.Va. Settling Drug Suit Against 2 More Distributors

Two major prescription drug distributors have agreed to settle a West Virginia lawsuit alleging they fueled West Virginia’s opioid epidemic with excessively large shipments of painkillers into the state over several years.

 

Boone County Circuit Court Judge William Thompson disclosed the “settlement in principle” in an order Tuesday cancelling further proceedings.

He directed Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and the state attorney general’s office to provide details by the week of Jan. 9.

 

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the settlements, with terms undisclosed, end the state suit against the companies.

 

The newspaper’s investigation found drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in six years, a period when 1,728 people statewide fatally overdosed on them.

 

The state has settled similar claims against other wholesalers.

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