Equal Time For a Partner in Crime?

A California physician was sentenced to more than a dozen years in federal prison after conspiring with a pharmacist to illegally dispense narcotics, including opioids, with no legitimate medical purpose.¹ The physician conspired with a pharmacist to dispense the controlled substances because he was aware that most pharmacies would not fill his prescriptions. Thus, he would direct his “patients” (those benefiting from the illegal prescribing) to this pharmacy to fill the prescriptions.

Should the pharmacist’s sentence be comparable to the physician’s?

(Answer and discussion on the next page)