Pubdate: Fri, 30 Sep 2005
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2005 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Zachary Gorchow
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR PAIN PILLS BRING CHARGES

Dealers Got What The Doctor Ordered, DEA Agent Says

A financially struggling Detroit physician prescribed narcotic-level 
doses of pain medication to drug dealers and addicts who paid cash, 
federal law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Dr. Elena Perry-Thornton, 54, appeared Thursday in U.S. District 
Court in Detroit and was charged with illegally distributing a 
controlled substance.

The criminal complaint accuses Perry-Thornton of prescribing 80,464 
doses this year with a minimum street value of $3.2 million. 
Officials said she prescribed OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma, a 
muscle relaxant that when taken with any other narcotic simulates the 
effects of heroin.

Perry-Thornton and her attorney, Edward Wishnow of Birmingham, 
declined to comment on the charges after Thursday's hearing. If 
convicted, Perry-Thornton faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in 
prison, a fine of up to $1 million, or both. She is free on a $25,000 
unsecured bond with a preliminary exam scheduled for Oct. 18.

Authorities said Perry-Thornton began prescribing medication at 
excessive levels after filing for bankruptcy on Sept. 9, 2004. She 
allegedly received varying sums for each prescription -- the 
complaint notes payments of $50, $100 and $150.

In one instance, authorities said, Perry-Thornton prescribed 480 
doses of OxyContin to one person in the span of 29 days -- roughly 
eight times the recommended dosage. "Dr. Perry-Thornton is knowingly 
facilitating pill-seeking patients and drug dealers selling OxyContin 
by providing these individuals with prescriptions for OxyContin 
within a short time period," Dean Schenk, a special agent with the 
Drug Enforcement Administration, wrote in the complaint.

A pharmacist suspicious of the prescriptions allegedly signed by 
Perry-Thornton contacted Dearborn police, triggering the 
investigation. Dearborn police notified the DEA in June.

Another pharmacist, Fay Kalla, a manager at a Rite Aid in Warren, 
also contacted police about prescriptions Perry-Thornton's patients 
sought to fill there, she said Thursday.

Kalla said she sees phony prescriptions every day. But it's rare, she 
said, for a doctor to actually sign them.

The complaint also says Perry-Thornton's former office in the 200 
block of East Harbortown Drive actually was her apartment.

Perry-Thornton was evicted in May from that apartment for violating 
her lease by running a business out of it and for allegedly 
threatening building employees. She moved her practice to a used car 
dealership in the 3500 block of Junction Street in Detroit. The phone 
at the dealership was disconnected Thursday.

Perry-Thornton's attorney asked Magistrate Judge Steven Whalen to 
lift his ruling barring her from prescribing medication.

But Whalen said: "Given the facts that have been presented so far, I 
believe there is a significant danger to the community."
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