caesee
05-24-2006, 05:39 PM
Woodys was used by many ROP's and was in buinsess for many years...If Woodys got busted makes me wonder if the ROP service is going to be gone within the next year..:mad:
Pharmacies suspected as Internet pill mills
2 drugstores raided in investigation of illegal prescriptions
KAREN GARLOCH
kgarloch@charlotteobserver.com (kgarloch@charlotteobserver.com)
WCNC video | Report on the raid (http://www.wcnc.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=67101&catId=69)Agents with the State Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday raided two area pharmacies suspected of dispensing drugs based on illegal prescriptions obtained over the Internet.
Woody Pharmacy in Mooresville and Woody Pharmacy-Waterside in Denver were closed by the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, and licenses of four pharmacists were suspended.
The two drugstores are believed to have been operating as "Internet pill mills" that dispense drugs from online prescriptions written by doctors who have not seen the patients, said Jay Campbell, pharmacy board executive director.
Internet-based pharmacies are not illegal, he said, but it is illegal in North Carolina to dispense medicine based on prescriptions written by doctors who haven't seen the patients or had relationships with the patients.
Internet pill mills "tend to hire physicians who just sit in a room and write `scripts' by the hundreds and thousands," Campbell said. "Those get farmed out to pharmacies.... They never talk to a human being."
The patients who use these Web sites, Campbell said, "get access to very dangerous and addictive narcotic drugs with no medical oversight."
Internet pill mills are a huge problem nationwide, he said.
In September, federal drug enforcement agents arrested at least 18 people and halted prescription writing by dozens of doctors and a pharmacist in Texas and Florida after a yearlong multi-agency investigation dubbed "Operation CYBERx." The DEA suspended the registrations of 20 doctors and 22 Internet pharmacies in the United States and Puerto Rico. Agents also closed at least 4,600 Web sites controlled by the suspects.
Carmen Catizone of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy said the amount of money involved nationally is hard to estimate. "There's probably 2,000 (Web) pages that are intertwined and hooked to hundreds of distribution sites.... The minute a state board goes after them, they'll close down that page and open up another."
The Web pages are operated by felons and the Mafia, by "an unsavory bunch of people," Catizone said. Many prescriptions are not written or reviewed by doctors.
Steve Hudson, director of investigations for the N.C. pharmacy board, said he first received complaints in 2002 that Woody Pharmacy in Mooresville was filling prescriptions written by doctors who had not examined the patients.
In March 2004, owner Alvin Woody signed a consent order with the pharmacy board agreeing not to dispense prescriptions written by physicians who did not do physical exams or who did not have existing relationships with the patients receiving the prescriptions.
The Mooresville pharmacy has been licensed since 1992, and the Denver store since 2004.
"I don't think we have as large a problem with this in North Carolina as some other states do," Campbell said. "We are trying to act quickly ... Based on what we've seen in the busts we've done, this has got to be a multi-multi-billion-dollar enterprise nationwide."
Earlier this year, the N.C. pharmacy board suspended permits for United Care in Wilmington and Kwic Fill in Fayetteville and suspended the licenses of their pharmacists. The drugstores, which remain closed, were also alleged to have been dispensing prescriptions illegally through the Internet.
Those whose licenses were suspended Tuesday are Woody, William Edmondson, Kristin Pecoraro, and Rebecca Sue Turlington. If Woody Pharmacy and its pharmacists ask to have their permits and licenses reinstated, Campbell said the board could hear their cases June 27 in Chapel Hill.
At the Mooresville pharmacy in the Watermark shopping center at Interstate 77 Exit 33, a law enforcement agent refused to answer questions from an Observer reporter Tuesday. Attempts to reach Woody were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on Tuesday's search. She said search warrants issued by federal judges in the Western District of North Carolina are sealed until federal agents return to the court with their findings.
Woody, 57, and his wife, Mona Woody, a registered nurse, host a weekly radio show on WACB-AM (860) in Taylorsville called "The Healthy Choice," focusing on natural health and wellness. He formerly owned pharmacies in Taylorsville, Statesville and Troutman.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BOARDS OF PHARMACY
Web site lists 12 Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) www.nabp.net (http://www.nabp.net/). (847) 391-4400.
How Internet Pill Mills Work
Drug seekers log on to a pharmacy Web site and fill out questionnaires.
Without a personal visit, they are deemed to need medicine, most frequently for pain, impotence, anxiety or weight loss.
Prescriptions, sometimes written or reviewed by doctors but sometimes not, are printed by the hundreds every day.
Prescriptions are transmitted electronically to pharmacies.
Pharmacies fill the prescriptions and ship them to patients across the country.
SOURCE: Jay Campbell, N.C. Board of Pharmacy
Pharmacies suspected as Internet pill mills
2 drugstores raided in investigation of illegal prescriptions
KAREN GARLOCH
kgarloch@charlotteobserver.com (kgarloch@charlotteobserver.com)
WCNC video | Report on the raid (http://www.wcnc.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=67101&catId=69)Agents with the State Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday raided two area pharmacies suspected of dispensing drugs based on illegal prescriptions obtained over the Internet.
Woody Pharmacy in Mooresville and Woody Pharmacy-Waterside in Denver were closed by the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, and licenses of four pharmacists were suspended.
The two drugstores are believed to have been operating as "Internet pill mills" that dispense drugs from online prescriptions written by doctors who have not seen the patients, said Jay Campbell, pharmacy board executive director.
Internet-based pharmacies are not illegal, he said, but it is illegal in North Carolina to dispense medicine based on prescriptions written by doctors who haven't seen the patients or had relationships with the patients.
Internet pill mills "tend to hire physicians who just sit in a room and write `scripts' by the hundreds and thousands," Campbell said. "Those get farmed out to pharmacies.... They never talk to a human being."
The patients who use these Web sites, Campbell said, "get access to very dangerous and addictive narcotic drugs with no medical oversight."
Internet pill mills are a huge problem nationwide, he said.
In September, federal drug enforcement agents arrested at least 18 people and halted prescription writing by dozens of doctors and a pharmacist in Texas and Florida after a yearlong multi-agency investigation dubbed "Operation CYBERx." The DEA suspended the registrations of 20 doctors and 22 Internet pharmacies in the United States and Puerto Rico. Agents also closed at least 4,600 Web sites controlled by the suspects.
Carmen Catizone of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy said the amount of money involved nationally is hard to estimate. "There's probably 2,000 (Web) pages that are intertwined and hooked to hundreds of distribution sites.... The minute a state board goes after them, they'll close down that page and open up another."
The Web pages are operated by felons and the Mafia, by "an unsavory bunch of people," Catizone said. Many prescriptions are not written or reviewed by doctors.
Steve Hudson, director of investigations for the N.C. pharmacy board, said he first received complaints in 2002 that Woody Pharmacy in Mooresville was filling prescriptions written by doctors who had not examined the patients.
In March 2004, owner Alvin Woody signed a consent order with the pharmacy board agreeing not to dispense prescriptions written by physicians who did not do physical exams or who did not have existing relationships with the patients receiving the prescriptions.
The Mooresville pharmacy has been licensed since 1992, and the Denver store since 2004.
"I don't think we have as large a problem with this in North Carolina as some other states do," Campbell said. "We are trying to act quickly ... Based on what we've seen in the busts we've done, this has got to be a multi-multi-billion-dollar enterprise nationwide."
Earlier this year, the N.C. pharmacy board suspended permits for United Care in Wilmington and Kwic Fill in Fayetteville and suspended the licenses of their pharmacists. The drugstores, which remain closed, were also alleged to have been dispensing prescriptions illegally through the Internet.
Those whose licenses were suspended Tuesday are Woody, William Edmondson, Kristin Pecoraro, and Rebecca Sue Turlington. If Woody Pharmacy and its pharmacists ask to have their permits and licenses reinstated, Campbell said the board could hear their cases June 27 in Chapel Hill.
At the Mooresville pharmacy in the Watermark shopping center at Interstate 77 Exit 33, a law enforcement agent refused to answer questions from an Observer reporter Tuesday. Attempts to reach Woody were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on Tuesday's search. She said search warrants issued by federal judges in the Western District of North Carolina are sealed until federal agents return to the court with their findings.
Woody, 57, and his wife, Mona Woody, a registered nurse, host a weekly radio show on WACB-AM (860) in Taylorsville called "The Healthy Choice," focusing on natural health and wellness. He formerly owned pharmacies in Taylorsville, Statesville and Troutman.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BOARDS OF PHARMACY
Web site lists 12 Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) www.nabp.net (http://www.nabp.net/). (847) 391-4400.
How Internet Pill Mills Work
Drug seekers log on to a pharmacy Web site and fill out questionnaires.
Without a personal visit, they are deemed to need medicine, most frequently for pain, impotence, anxiety or weight loss.
Prescriptions, sometimes written or reviewed by doctors but sometimes not, are printed by the hundreds every day.
Prescriptions are transmitted electronically to pharmacies.
Pharmacies fill the prescriptions and ship them to patients across the country.
SOURCE: Jay Campbell, N.C. Board of Pharmacy