Former doctor David Chisholm, 64, of Wasilla, Alaska, was sentenced to 34 months in prison with three years of supervised released and a $25,000 fine on Tuesday for illegally prescribing opioids to 350 patients, resulting in the overdoses of five patients
An Alaskan doctor was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids that led to five patients' deaths after he wrote 20,000 prescriptions for the drugs to 350 patients over the course of five years.
Former Camelot Family Heath doctor David Chisholm, 64, of Wasilla was given 34 months in federal prison on Tuesday, followed by three years of supervised released, a $25,000 fine and has to surrender his medical license for 'illegally dispensing and distributing controlled substances to patients,' according to the U.S. District Court of Alaska.
Chisholm prescribed 'thousands of pills,' including highly addictive oxycodone, methadone, hydrocodone, morphine, tramadol, fentanyl, hydromorphone and buprenorphine to 350 patients a total of 20,524 times between January 2014 and October 2019.
The Justice Department found him guilty of 'routinely distributing' the medication 'without administering a medical exam' or having a 'legitimate medical purpose' for the prescription.
An undercover investigation found that the former doctor prescribed 'nearly two million total dosage units of various opioids,' including 7,500 for oxycodone; 3,600 for methadone, and 1,300 for hydrocodone, the Department of Justice revealed. Some of the doses had the potential to be 'lethal,' the DOJ said.
He prescribed the drugs from his practice at Camelot Family Health (right)
In addition to the high number of power opioid prescriptions, Chisholm 'often prescribed' a 'combination of medicines' that 'increased the likelihood of drug abuse and overdose among his patients,' the DOJ reported.
At one point, when Walmart refused to fill his patients' prescriptions, the doctor reportedly told his staff to encourage patients to 'go to other pharmacies.'
Chisholm admitted during trial that his prescriptions had a 'significant contributing factor' to the overdoses of five of his patients between 2016 and 2018 and failed to keep good records.
'Dr. Chisholm’s reckless conduct reflects a shocking disregard for the welfare of his patients. Nothing can excuse his opioid prescribing practices in light of what is today universally understood about the risks of opioid use disorder and opioid overdose,' U.S. Attorney John Kuhn said on Tuesday.
Chisholm's lawyer Nick Oberheiden told DailyMail.com on Thursday: 'Like so many other physicians, Dr. Chisholm faced the challenge of finding a remedy and a cure when treating chronic pain patients.'
Chisholm wrote more than 20,000 prescriptions for drugs like oxycodone (pictured), methadone, and hydrocodone and admitted that it was a 'significant contributing factor' to the five patient deaths. The Department of Justice found that Chisholm 'often' prescribed controlled substances without doing a medical examination and did not keep good records
'Unfortunately, as he admitted in open court, he excessively prescribed opioids without the appropriate training and qualification. He apologized to his patients and the community, and he is accepting the consequences of his misconduct.'
The former doctor pleaded guilty in June.
Nearly 850,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses since 1999. Most of the patients were prescribed opioids prior to their addiction.
A federal judge recently rejected OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's offer for a $4.5 billon settlement with thousands of plaintiffs, including individuals affected by the opioid crisis and local, state and native governments, because of a clause that would have protected the Sackler family from litigation.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in New York said that the bankruptcy court which first agreed to the settlement did not have the legal authority to release the family from liability.
Purdue - who made $10 billion off opioids before filing for bankruptcy - said they would appeal the December decision.
The Sackler family are being sued for their role in the opioid crisis, as Purdue Pharma made $10billion off opioids (Pictured L-R: Dr. Thomas Lynch, Richard Sackler, Jonathan Sackler, and Dean Robert Alpern; Seated: Mr. and Mrs. Raymond and Beverly Sackler)
Last year, an Anchorage doctor was sentenced for a similar offense to Chisholm, as well as health care fraud.
Former psychiatrist Michael Don Robertson, 68, was sentenced on January 6, 2021, to 12 months of home arrest and five years of probation for the conspiracy to commit controlled substance fraud and health care fraud.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said Robertson 'intentionally distributed controlled substances outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.
Robertson wrote 465 prescriptions, totaling 32,109 pills, of meperidine - a pain relief narcotic that has a similar addiction rate as morphine - to 30 patients, which was later given back to Robertson in return for a controlled substance prescription.
'The investigation revealed that Robertson issued the meperidine prescriptions as part of a conspiracy in which the recipients filled the meperidine prescriptions and, then, distributed the meperidine to Robertson.
'In exchange for the recipients diverting the meperidine to Robertson, Robertson provided prescriptions for controlled substances, including fentanyl and oxycodone, to the recipients,' the DEA wrote.
The DOJ found that he failed to keep records for five patients and kept inadequate ones for 790 controlled substance prescriptions to patients.
Opioid overdoses - which was ruled an epidemic in 2013 - have been on the rise for many years, but have surged aggressively since the pandemic began.
More people died between October 2019 and September 2020 from opioids than they have at the height of the pandemic, with more than 87,000 Americans dying from an overdose.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 29 percent rise in overdose deaths during that time, with fentanyl and other synthetic opioids being the leaders of the group, as well as methamphetamine.
Nearly 500,000 people have died of opioids as of 2019 and it has since risen to almost 850,000 in 2020
The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Dr. Nora Volkow, said more deaths are coming from drug combinations, such as fentanyl or heroin, than anything else.
At the beginning of the opioid crisis, the majority of deaths involved white, suburban patients but have now reached into the ethnic communities - who have a higher chance of dying.
'The highest increase in mortality from opioids, predominantly driven by fentanyl, is now among Black Americans,' Volkow said in November. 'And when you look at mortality from a methamphetamine, it’s chilling to realize that the risk of dying from methamphetamine overdose is 12-fold higher among
