This morning DeKalb County police and federal DEA agents raided Southern Health Management, a pain management center in Tucker. News agencies have reported that a half dozen individuals, including some customers, were detained or arrested in connection with a “pill mill” operation.
This is just the latest in a series of pill mill busts in the Metro Atlanta area in the past year. Though the government has not yet announced charges, or indicated who will actually be charged, in previous cases doctors, pharmacists, and business owners accused of participating in pill mill operations have been charged with crimes ranging from drug trafficking to racketeering and money laundering.
Georgia has increasingly brought criminal charges against healthcare professionals who work in pain management, either as part of a larger medical practice or as a primary specialization. Recently, our criminal defense attorneys represented a Hart County doctor who was charged with 33 felony counts of issuing blank signed prescriptions. After hearing from several state witnesses and then from the doctor himself, the Hart County jury returned 33 “not guilty” verdicts in less than half an hour.
