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Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008

Analyst focuses on prescriptions in Spurgeon Green trial

An intelligence analyst for the National Drug Intelligence Center testified Monday that the bulk of prescriptions for narcotics filled by pharmacist Jack Joseph for about an 18-month period were mostly for Perry Dr. Spurgeon Green Jr.

Joseph, whose Jack's Discount Pharmacy was located near the suspended doctor's medical practice, Green and Dorothy Mack, Green's physician's assistant, are on trial in federal court in Macon for allegedly conspiring to distribute drugs "not for a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice" from January 2000 to July 2003.

The 118-count indictment charges that Green distributed drugs that led to the deaths of seven people as well as serious bodily injury to six other people, who died in instances in which the drugs prescribed were a contributing factor.

Joseph is implicated in four of the death charges, while Mack is implicated in three of the death charges and two of the serious bodily injury charges, according to the indictment.

Paul Short of the National Drug Intelligence Center, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, told jurors that 92 percent of all prescriptions for Schedule II drugs such as OxyContin that Joseph filled from October 2002 to July 2003 were written by Green.

The 2,415 prescriptions written by Green and filled by Joseph were contrasted to the 207 prescriptions for the same type of drugs and filled by Joseph for 55 other doctors during the same period, according to Short's testimony.

The indictment alleges that Joseph filled prescriptions written by Green, which he knew were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose. Joseph did so when other pharmacists, recognizing that Green's prescriptions were not for a legitimate medical purpose, refused to fill prescriptions for controlled substances from Green, prosecutors charge.

Short testified that of the prescriptions for Schedule III drugs such as Hydrocodone that were filled by Joseph during that time period, 84 percent, or 2,545 prescriptions, were written by Green. The remaining 16 percent, or 500 prescriptions, for the same type of drugs that were filled by Joseph during that time were for 136 other doctors, Short said.

Of prescriptions for Schedule IV drugs such as Xanax that were filled by Joseph during that time, 88 percent, or 4,182 prescriptions, were written by Green - compared to 578 prescriptions written by 96 other doctors, Short testified.

Short noted that patients traveled from about 18 states to Green's medical practice to get their prescriptions.

O. Hale Almand Jr., a Macon attorney representing Green, asked Short if he was aware that Robins Air Force Base was located near Perry, which is also the site of the annual Georgia National Fair, and then wanted to know if the patients who visited Green from other states were transient.

Short said he couldn't say whether the patients were transient. But under questioning by Almand about the 28 out-of-state patients, Short testified that eight received Schedule II, III or IV drugs.

The indictment alleges that many of Green's patients traveled long distances and waited hours to be seen by Green. Jurors previously heard testimony from patients who said they traveled from Brunswick and Jesup, for example, to visit Green because he had a reputation of prescribing whatever narcotics were requested.

Testimony is expected to continue today.

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 923-3109, extension 243.