A pharmacy in Cumberland, Maryland, agreed to pay a $120,000 civil penalty and enter a consent decree proscribing opioid prescriptions, the Justice Department introduced Thursday.

Neither pharmacist John Beckman nor his enterprise, Beckman’s Pharmacy, has admitted legal responsibility, but the federal government says its claims of improper prescriptions are well-founded.

The Justice Department alleges that, from 2017 onward, Mr. Beckman and his staff ignored pink flags and stuffed prescriptions whereas realizing they have been illegitimate, violating the Controlled Substances Act.

Patients have been allowed to pay money for his or her drugs even once they had insurance coverage able to paying for the prescriptions.

Part of those order fills included prescriptions for combos of medicine that aren't medically reliable and are sought by drug customers for leisure functions.

One combo included an opioid, the depressant benzodiazepine and the muscle relaxant carisoprodol. 

The dosages of opioids given out by Beckman’s Pharmacy have been far bigger than really useful, the federal government claimed. 

More than 10 sufferers died inside 10 days of getting their prescriptions stuffed at Beckman’s Pharmacy, in response to the Justice Department.

In addition to paying a $120,000 civil penalty, Mr. Beckman and Beckman’s Pharmacy should abide by new guidelines within the consent decree. 

These embody figuring out pink flags, like a affected person touring lengthy distance to get a prescription stuffed or a affected person asking for combos of opioids and different medicine like benzodiazepines. Before filling pink flag prescriptions, the enterprise might be required to doc any indicators of potential abuse and steps taken to make sure the prescription was medically reliable.

Beckman’s Pharmacy can be forbidden by the settlement from filling sure prescriptions.

“Irresponsible pharmacies and pharmacists fan the flames of the ongoing opioid epidemic. Our office intends to use all tools at our disposal — criminal and civil — to hold accountable those at every step in the supply chain who violate the CSA,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron stated in an announcement.

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