Content warning: This article mentions details about dr*g abuse.
Texas doctor was convicted by a federal jury for unlawfully giving out over one million opioid and other controlled substance pills. Lawyers called it a large-scale pill mill operation.
Controlled substances are dr*gs or chemicals regulated by the government due to their risk for addiction, abuse, and reliance. These include narcotics, uppers, sedatives, and anabolic steroids. Possession, production, and distribution are strictly prohibited under the Controlled Substances Act.
Dr. Barbara Marino, a Harris County resident, worked at Angels Clinica, a Houston-area medical facility. She allegedly received more than $400,000 from clinic owners. In exchange, she issued prescriptions that lawyers said had no valid medical reason.
View this post on Instagram
Court documents and trial evidence showed Marino prescribed dangerous and addictive dr*gs without proper instructions. These included oxycodone, hydrocodone, and the muscle relaxant carisoprodol. The clinic ran behind a mirrored window in a strip mall, openly hiding illegal activities in plain sight.
Authorities described Angels clinic as a cash-only place where people were charged based on the dr*gs they received.
Official documents showed several patients got prescribed dr*gs delivered by street-level drug traffickers. These traffickers were often called crew leaders or runners. These traffickers also drove patients to the clinic and filled local prescriptions. They also used hidden tactics to sell dr*gs on the black market. Patients were charged based on the specific dr*gs prescribed. The trial also revealed several disturbing cases.
For instance, a pregnant woman in her third trimester was prescribed a mix of hydrocodone and carisoprodol. Her obstetrician testified that the dr*gs posed serious risks to both mother and unborn child and noted she missed many prenatal care appointments.
The prosecutor said the woman “didn’t go to her doctor, she went to her dr*g dealer” during his trial arguments.
Similarly, another patient of Dr. Barbara Marino had serious mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Marino still prescribed him the same opioid and muscle relaxant mix multiple times. His mother said her son experienced severe side effects. These included episodes of delusion that made him feel like he was losing his grip on reality.
Marino prescribed the hydrocodone and Soma cocktail to the man at least three times. Afterward, he began to believe he was former President Richard Nixon. The jury convicted Dr. Barbara Marino on five counts. These included one count of conspiracy to distribute commonly abused drugs and four counts of giving out controlled substances.
She faces up to 20 years in prison for each count. A federal judge will set her final sentence. The judge will consider U.S. sentencing guidelines and other factors from the trial.
View this post on Instagram
Colin M. McDonald announced the conviction. He serves as Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. He then issued an official statement.
“The Department of Justice remains committed to protecting the public from dangerous and unlawful distribution of controlled substances, especially when the dr*g dealer is a doctor,” he said.
“Patients put their trust and their lives into the hands of our medical and health care professionals,” said Dr*g Enforcement Administration (DEA) Assistant Administrator Cheri Oz.
The administrator said prescribed dr*gs should be used under supervision and linked to a purpose. “The highly addictive, dangerous misused dr*gs in this case – oxycodone and hydrocodone – are meant to treat pain, not cause it,” Oz added.
DEA remains relentless in pursuing those who poison our communities and exploit our health care system to line their pockets with profit from others’ pain.”
