Pill mill doctors need the book thrown at them. This scourge of society has got to be reined in firmly and know what they are doing is not only criminal, it’s lethal!
A California doctor linked to a string of drug deaths and dubbed the “Candy Man” was arrested by federal agents on charges of trafficking huge quantities of powerful painkillers to addicts and women who provided sexual favors in exchange for the drugs.
Two female patients taken to a hospital emergency room indicated they were among numerous people who used sex to pay for drugs from suspect Julio Gabriel Diaz.
Some patients diverted the pills to the black market or suffered fatal overdoses. One man who died in November was prescribed over 2000 pills in the six weeks before he died.
Is He A Murderer?
Diaz, 63, is accused of supplying OxyContin, Vicodin and Norco and other drugs to addicts with no legitimate need for the powerful narcotics. He was arrested at his Goleta home.
He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Court documents say a dozen deaths have been linked to Diaz — over ten overdoses and a patient who died of natural causes with drug abuse as a contributing factor.
Diaz said that even in some cases in which he suspected a patient was abusing drugs, he would continue prescribing so that he could manage what they were taking.
Diaz has not been charged in connection with the deaths, which remain under investigation. A study by an insurance company documented nearly $1,000,000 in claims for prescriptions written by Diaz over a three-year period, the affidavit said.
A Cottage Hospital (in Santa Barbara) psychiatric therapist told investigators that “people referred to Diaz as the ‘Candy Man’ and that people drove from out of town to see him ‘because they knew he was the man to go to for drugs.’”
Shameful behavior by a man trusted to help make people well, not ill!