Judge approves pharmacist’s rehab request

Perryville pharmacist Christopher Watson, arrested last week on federal charges of knowingly filling phony narcotics prescriptions, asked Tuesday to undergo inpatient treatment for substance abuse in lieu of remaining in jail.

U.S. Magistrate Judge H. David Young agreed to the request only after defense attorney Mark Hampton of Little Rock obtained a $50,000 cashier’s check and deposited it into the registry of the court to secure Watson’s $500,000 appearance bond.

After the deposit was made, Young resumed the hearing to set a number of conditions that included Watson’s immediate admittance to Crowley’s Ridge, a treatment center in Jonesboro. Young said that Watson must complete a 30-day inpatient program, and then a chemical-free living component of the program, before returning home. He must remain on home detention with electronic monitoring, at his expense, until trial.

Watson’s father, Tom Watson, a pharmacist who co-owns the Perry County Food and Drug Store in Perryville, agreed to act as his son’s third-party custodian, which involves ensuring that his son complies with the court’s directives.

The rules Young set for Christopher Watson require him to seek employment in a nonpharmacy setting after completing the treatment program and prevent him from having any access to a firearms business in which he has a financial interest. He also will be subject to periodic drug screening, must surrender his passport and can have no contact with any witnesses in his case.

An undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent went to the Perry County pharmacy Nov. 7 and gave Watson a phony prescription for hydrocodone, a Schedule II narcotic, and Xanax, a Schedule III narcotic, according to court documents. The DEA agent said in an affidavit that the prescription contained an invalid DEA identification number, as well as made-up names of a medical clinic and a prescribing physician.

The agent said that after reviewing the prescription, Watson told the agent to “work on” the DEA number, and then gave him instructions on how to make the prescription look valid. The pharmacist then filled the prescription for 120 hydrocodone pills and 60 Xanax tablets, and he accepted $130.65 in payment.

Watson was arrested on a criminal complaint and faces indictment by a federal grand jury.