[Pharmwaste] Fwd: [RxNews] Pharmacist faces drug charges, California

Stevan Gressitt gressitt at gmail.com
Thu Oct 28 12:42:10 EDT 2010


Stevan Gressitt, M.D.
Faculty Associate, University of Maine Center on Aging
Academic Member, Athens Institute for Education and Research
Athens, Greece
Founding Director, International Institute for Pharmaceutical Safety
University of New England, College of Pharmacy
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine
716 Stevens Avenue
Portland, Maine 04103
gressitt at gmail.com
Cell: 207-441-0291
www.benzos.une.edu
www.safemeddisposal.com/




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <MudriAssociates at aol.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 12:00 PM
Subject: [RxNews] Pharmacist faces drug charges, California
To: rxnews at listserve.com



Pharmacist Faces Drug Charges

By Glenn Barr


More than a year after her arrest on drug-possession charges, Lake Arrowhead
Village pharmacist Michelle Lynne Blain has been formally charged with four
felonies, a prosecutor for District Attorney Michael A. Ramos said Tuesday.

In a complaint filed Oct. 21, Deputy District Attorney Rebeca Hynds charges
the 49-year-old business owner with four counts of possession for sale of a
controlled substance.

The charges stem from her arrest in her Cedar Ridge Estates home on Oct. 15,
2009. Investigators doing a parole check on her boyfriend, thrice-convicted
bank robber Robert Flory, reported finding more than 20,000 prescription
pills in plastic bags stored in her garage.

A spokesperson for the California Board of Pharmacy said at the time that
while it is legal for a pharmacist to have such medications on the premises
of a pharmacy, it is unlawful to have them at home unless the pharmacist has
a prescription for them.

Flory was also arrested but was later released. He died on Sept. 5 at
Mountains Community Hospital after Blain called 9-1-1 from her home to
report he was unresponsive.

Sheriff's investigators have said they suspect painkillers may have
contributed to the death of the former University of Arizona football star.
In an interview last year, Flory told The Mountain News he suffered from
acute back pain from football injuries, and had robbed banks to get money to
buy drugs to control it.

eight

postponements

After eight scheduled arraignments were postponed, dating back to last
December, Blain is now scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 1 before Judge
Annemarie G. Pace, according to court records. She remains free, and
operating the pharmacy, on the $60,000 bail she posted a year ago.

The postponements were credited in court records to the continuing nature of
the investigation. Hynds said the delay might have been caused by the fact
that "there were multiple agencies investigating the case."

In addition to sheriff's narcotics detectives probing the drug seizure,
federal drug enforcement agents have reportedly been investigating a
nationwide drug-trafficking case, though DEA officials have refused to
comment on the status of their investigation or its details.

The third agency, the state board of pharmacy, has brought administrative
charges against Blain. They include fines of nearly $9 million and the
prospect of the revocation of her license.

Blain was also interviewed by authorities in connection with Flory's death,
though sheriff's homicide investigators have yet to state whether she is
considered a suspect. Autopsy reports on that case have yet to be completed.

When contacted following her arrest last October, Blain told The Mountain
News she had been involved in Internet sales of prescription pills in an
effort to compete with large pharmaceutical outlets that sell at lower
prices, but had stopped that practice at the direction of the state pharmacy
board.

She had taken the pills-which she said had been returned to her by customers
who no longer needed them-to her home to inventory them at the direction of
state regulators before having them destroyed, she said.

'no comment'

On Tuesday, however, Blain declined to discuss the charges against her. When
offered the chance to state her side of the case, she curtly replied, "No
comment. Talk to my lawyer."

San Bernardino defense attorney Greg Kassel did not return a call seeking
information about the case.

In the criminal complaint against Blain, Hynds lists four separate counts.
The first, an alleged violation of Health and Safety Code Section 11375(b),
Blain purportedly "did unlawfully possess for sale a designated controlled
substance, to wit, Alprazolam."

According to Internet websites, alprazolam, whose trade name is Xanax, is
used to treat anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

The second count cites the possession for sale of atropine sulfate with
diphenoxylate, described on the National Institute of Health website as an
anti-diarrheal.

The third count involves possession for sale of zolpidem, which treats
insomnia, while the fourth charges her with possession for sale of
phentermine, an appetite suppressant used for weight loss.

According to provisions in the Health and Safety Code, conviction on all
charges could translate to as much as 15 years in state prison, if the
highest level of confinement were ordered by a judge and the sentences ran
consecutively.


Mudri Associates Inc
dba ADEA Consultancy
257 Seagate Ct.
Dunedin, Florida 34698
Office: 727-260-7990 fax: 727-733-8176
Cell: 813-293-6402

P.O. Box 2513
Banner Elk, N Carolinia 28604
Phone: 727-260-7990 VOIP, 828-898-3600 Land Line

*Consultants for Controlled Substances, Scheduled Listed Chemicals
Federal, State and Foreign- See MudriAssociates.com*


_______________________________________________
RxNews mailing list
Unsubscribe: RxNews-unsubscribe at listserve.com
List Info: http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/rxnews
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20101028/03cbea3a/attachment.htm


More information about the Pharmwaste mailing list