Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Physician accused of over-prescribing
FORT SMITH — A Texarkana physician is facing numerous charges after authorities said he over-prescribed controlled substances.
Duane “DAK” Kees, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced Lonnie Joseph Parker was arrested in Texarkana on Tuesday morning on federal charges.
A federal grand jury in the Western District of Arkansas indicted Parker on nine counts of prescribing without a legitimate medical purpose outside the scope of a professional practice, according to a news release.
The dates of these nine counts, according to the indictment, range from July 21, 2018, to March 8.
Kees said the investigation started in November 2018, when personnel with the Drug Enforcement Administration received complaints from local law enforcement Parker was operating a pill mill under the name Primary Care Specialists at 502 E. 24th St. in Texarkana.
The complaints also stated Parker over-prescribed to his patients, was only accepting payments of cash, and was prescribing multiple prescriptions of hydrocodone and oxycodone to multiple patients in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
“The complaint also stated that one of Dr. Parker’s patients, who had been prescribed multiple pain medications by Dr. Parker, had died of a fatal overdose,” Kees said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The investigation revealed “an extraordinary level” of opioid prescribing by Parker over a two-year period, Kees said.
“The level and frequency of prescribing, along with the indications that patients could be diverting the narcotics by selling them in the community, concerned numerous peers in the medical community,” Kees said.
“These concerns were corroborated by witnesses and patient interviews, as well as prescription data that established the level of opioid and benzodiazepine prescribing and the operation of Primary Care Specialists as a pill mill.”
The news release said the investigation revealed Parker was an over-prescriber of controlled substances, including opioids, benzodiazepines and promethazine with codeine cough syrup. Parker reportedly prescribed about 1.2 million doses of opioids, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, to about 1,508 patients within the two-year period analyzed. This translates to about 847 doses per patient.
Parker also allegedly prescribed about 16 gallons of promethazine with codeine cough syrup to about 29 patients during the same period, according to the release. The prescriptions included several written in combination with narcotics and sedatives to high diversion risk patients.
Kees said he and Justin King, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Arkansas, wanted to
thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Texarkana Police Department, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Gardner from the Eastern District of Arkansas for their help and cooperation in the matter.
Kees said the abuse of prescription pills is one of the greatest drug problems facing Arkansans today.
“It goes without saying that it is terrible when anyone is hurt by the abuse of prescription medication, but when that abuse comes at the hands of those that have a duty to help us, those that have taken an oath to do no harm, that misconduct must be met with the full extent of the criminal justice system, and that is what I pledge here today: the full extent of the criminal justice system,” Kees said.
King said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 130 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose.
Kees said Parker’s arraignment will be today. Gardner is prosecuting the case for the United States, according to the news release.