PHARMACY owner, Robert Crockler, from North Carolina, US, will no longer be allowed to practice as a pharmacist after failing to spot a number of "red flags" when filling prescriptions for opioids and other controlled medications.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration took action against Crockler and his Farmville Discount Drug pharmacy, claiming he failed to ensure prescriptions for opioids were legitimate before dispensing them.
The News and Observer website noted one family had hundreds of scripts filled for pain medications including, oxycodone and hydrocodone, at the pharmacy.
"Prosecutors say the pharmacist looked past warning signs of 'drug-seeking behavior' when he filled prescriptions," the website reported.
Court documents noted Crocker and his staff filled prescriptions for "highly abused prescription-drug cocktails for long-distance patients who saw a doctor an hour away and lived an hour away" from the pharmacy, while also dispensing scripts from "a prescriber that Crocker knew had been cut off from other pharmacies".
The Court noted, "when other employees expressed concern to Crocker about Farmville Discount Drug's practices, he dismissed them, saying that if a doctor wrote the prescription, the pharmacy would fill it".
Crocker has also been fined US$600,000.
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