SMH: South Jersey Doctor Prescribed Over 1 Million Opioid Doses in 3 Years
When you are looking for someone to blame for the explosion of opioid addiction in this area, it starts with the doctors dishing out prescriptions. A South Jersey doctor has been charged with fraud after prescribing over a million doses of opioids in a 3 year period. At least one of his patients has died from an overdose.
At least one of those patients overdosed and died.
Former Bordentown physician Morris "Moishe" Starkman of Cinnaminson was taken into police custody last month and charged with eight counts of distributing controlled substances, four counts of health care fraud and two counts of insurance fraud.
The case could end up in front of a grand jury, according to the prosecutor's office.
Starkman allegedly supplied 1.4 million doses of opioids, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and fentanyl between Jan. 1, 2015 and Jan. 1, 2018, officials said.
He prescribed the deadly pills like they were "candy," Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said. "The motive was to keep his practice alive."
Eight patients named in court documents received 11 doses of opioids per day. One patient was prescribed more than 17,000 doses through Starkman's Bordentown Family Practice. - (NBC Philadelphia)