NYC Doctor Charged With Selling Oxycodone Prescriptions
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Drug agents have arrested a retired Queens doctor on charges he illegally sold 130 prescriptions for the painkiller oxycodone.
David Duffy was arrested Thursday at his home in Flushing. He was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan.
The 70-year-old Duffy faces charges of overprescribing to three patients during the six months before he retired in 2013, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
Bridget Brennan, New York City's special narcotics prosecutor, says Duffy wrote prescriptions for more than 30,000 oxycodone pills for the three patients.
That's about 55 pills per patient per day.
"Medical professionals have a privilege to prescribe drugs which might be addictive and dangerous if inappropriately used," Brennan said in a news release. "When they knowingly
abuse this privilege in violation of the law we will prosecute them just as we would any street drug dealer."
Duffy ignored signs that the patients were likely selling the pills on the black market, prosecutors said.
Each oxycodone pill can sell for up to $30 on the street.
It wasn't clear if Duffy had an attorney who could comment on the charges.