"Candy Man" Doctor Sentenced to Prison for Drug Distribution
The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles county doctor Daniel Healy was sentenced on April 14, 2010 to four years in federal prison for illegally dispensing massive quantities of painkillers to his patients without conducting examinations. Dr. Healy, 54, a family practitioner who headed Kind Care Medical Center and Dr. Healy’s Diet Centers in Duarte and Rancho Cucamonga, California, was arrested by federal agents on February 11, 2009 after a three-year investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles discovered in pharmacy records that Dr. Healy had ordered more than a million hydrocodone pills (Vicodin or Norco) in 2008, the highest amount ever ordered by a single doctor in the nation.
Prosecutors on the case have estimated that Dr. Healy profited over $700,000 from the sale of controlled substances throughout the year, but allege that the profit may be much higher than predicted since Dr. Healy sold the painkiller tablets in exchange for cash and kept no records of his transactions. Aside from hydrocodone, Dr. Healy was also accused of selling oxycodone (OxyContin) and other powerful pain medication tablets in large amounts. Dr. Healy is alleged to have sold 30 tablets in exchange for $25 per patient; Dr. Healy is also said to have asked his patients if they would like a “family size” or “party size” supply of pills. Some patients referred to Dr. Healy as “The Candy Man” and were most often young adults. Dr. Healy did not conduct examinations of these patients before dispensing the painkillers in a “cash-for-pills” trade and was purportedly aware that some of them had developed addictions to the prescription medications. Dr. Healy had attempted to help some of his addicted patients wean off the prescription drugs, but prosecutors accused Healy of charging even more money for the anti-addiction medication than the prescription pills that lead to their addictions.
Prosecutors depicted Dr. Healy as nothing more than a drug dealer and recommended 17 ½ years in federal prison for his sentencing. In a federal court in Los Angeles, presiding U.S. District Judge Manuel Real sentenced Healy to only four years since Healy had no prior criminal record. Judge Real also sentenced Dr. Healy to 10 years probation and ordered Healy to pay a $100,000 fine as part of his plea deal. Healy will no longer be able to practice medicine after his release from prison. Healy had pled guilty in 2009 to one count of distribution of a controlled substance—oxycodone—and sixteen other charges were dropped as part of his plea bargain. Dr. Healy’s assistant, who was not a licensed medical practitioner but prescribed and supplied prescription pain medications to patients, was sentenced to eight months in federal prison after having pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance (hydrocodone) with the intent to distribute.
In the United States, prescription drug overdose is now believed to be the leading cause of accidental death among Americans. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that more than 7 million Americans are currently abusing prescription drugs, and the death toll from controlled substance overdoses is rising at an accelerated rate in the country’s most vulnerable regions. California is one of 34 states currently operating a prescription monitoring program (PMP), and 8 more states have enacted legislation for PMP operations. California’s PMP is monitored by state law enforcement and implements a statewide database tracks the prescription drugs being prescribed by doctors, registers patients’ prescription drug histories, and tracks what prescriptions are filled at all pharmacies. The database is intended to keep doctors aware of patients’ drug histories to avoid drug diversion efforts from patients (known as “doctor shoppers”), help law enforcement trace individuals who are filling multiple prescriptions at various pharmacies, recognize prescriptions being written or filled using false identities, and prosecute doctors who manipulate the system by dispensing illegal amounts of drugs to patients for profit.