Feds: LA-Area Doctor Gave Drugs To Non-Patients
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say a Los Angeles-area doctor has been arrested on suspicion of conspiring with two employees to give powerful painkillers to people he did not examine.
The U.S. attorney's office says Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested 71-year-old Nazar Al Bussam of Newport Coast Wednesday at his clinic in Downey.
Agents also arrested 75-year-old Rosemary Mendoza and 72-year-old James Park at Bussam's clinic in Los Angeles.
A criminal complaint alleges that since 2007 and without medical purpose Bussam prescribed large amounts of drugs such as OxyContin, Vicodin and promethazine with codeine, a cough syrup used to make the street concoction "purple drank."
The three are scheduled to appear in court Thursday. A person who answered the phone at one of the clinics declined comment.
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