Claim: Kan. pill mill tied to soldier overdoses

[unhappycamper]

http://www.ldnews.com/national/ci_23089404/claim-kan-pill-mill-tied-soldier-overdoses

Claim: Kan. pill mill tied to soldier overdoses
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press
Updated: 04/23/2013 06:46:01 PM EDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—A Kansas doctor was charged Tuesday with operating a pill mill for painkillers and antidepressants after police and Fort Riley officials raised concerns about overdoses—some of them involving soldiers and their families.

The U.S. attorney's office alleged in a criminal complaint that Michael P. Schuster, 53, conspired to illegally distribute controlled substances. The charges were filed the same day that the FBI searched Schuster's clinic, called Manhattan Pain and Spine. The clinic is in Manhattan, Kan., about 15 miles from Fort Riley, a U.S. Army base that is home to the 1st Infantry Division.

~snip~

The investigation began last year when police received reports that Schuster was issuing high-dosage prescriptions based on "minimal and cursory physical examinations," leading to several overdoses, according to the complaint. Meanwhile, medical staff at Fort Riley reported to the Army Criminal Investigative Division that Schuster had treated several soldiers and their family members who died from overdoses.

~snip~

Schuster was the only one in his office authorized to prescribe controlled substances. But an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit that Schuster would sign his name to blank prescriptions and leave those behind, directing staff to fill them out while he was traveling, including overseas to Russia, South Africa and Uruguay. Authorities allege Schuster was out of the office when 542 patients received prescriptions for drugs including the painkillers oxycodone and morphine.