Doctors charged with unnecessarily pulling teeth to dole out opioids, exchanging drugs for sex

The Department of Justice yesterday charged more than 50 medical professionals — 31 of whom are physicians — with illegally prescribing opioid painkillers. Many of the cases involve doctors allegedly handing out blank, signed prescriptions to nonlicensed staff who then gave them to patients that the physicians didn’t see. Physicians were also accused of getting monetary kickbacks or sexual favors in exchange for writing opioid prescriptions. In one case, a dentist is charged with unnecessarily pulling patients' teeth in order to prescribe opioids for them. In total, the DOJ found that 32 million pills from 350,000 prescriptions were dispensed illegally across five states, including West Virginia and Ohio, two states that have been hard-hit by the opioid crisis.