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Tennessee nurse practitioner known as 'Rock Doc' gets 20 years for illegally prescribing opioids (apnews.com)

submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave to c/health

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A Tennessee nurse practitioner who called himself the “Rock Doc” has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally prescribing thousands of doses of opioids including oxycodone and fentanyl in return for money and sex, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Jeffrey W. Young Jr., was sentenced Monday in federal court, about a year after he was convicted of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances out of a clinic in Jackson, Tennessee. There is no parole in the federal court system.

Young, 49, was among 60 people indicted in April 2019 for their roles in illegally prescribing and distributing pills containing opioids and other drugs. Authorities said the defendants included 53 medical professionals tied to some 350,000 prescriptions and 32 million pills.

Young, who dubbed himself as the “Rock Doc,” promoted his practice with the motto “work hard, play harder.” The indictment states he prescribed drugs that were highly addictive and at high risk of abuse as he tried to promote a “Rock Doc” reality TV pilot and podcast while obtaining sex and money for prescriptions.

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[–] givesomefucks 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Nope.

Just human variation.

I've been prescribed opioids before, and they legit do nothing for me. Because I'm lacking a liver enzyme that breaks it down into active elements and to use those active elements.

Sounds like you do as well

Some people are the other way, they have too much of that enzyme and "burn through" a pill faster than average.

So they get overdosed at first, then it wears off hours before the next pill, opening the door to abuse.

Opioid manufacturers knew all about this, but still pushed time release pills because they had a higher profit margin.

Which is why they've been sued for billions of dollars

[–] verdantbanana 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

could you find a link please like to read more about this

[–] givesomefucks 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196%2811%2960750-7/fulltext

That's a general article about opiod metabolism and what causes it to vary. So it talks about what I had said but also some other reasons people are effected differently like liver/kidney disease.

When companies started pushing extended release, it greatly exacerbated the differences. They knew that from research, but pushed doctors to try it as the first step.

Edit:

Side note, that article also shows what liver enzyme metobalizes certain opioids.

A huge example is Fentanyl using a different one from Oxycodone and other common opioids.

So not only is it dangerous because of its dosage amounts, someone that believes they have a strong opioid tolerance due to abuse might be a fast CYP3A4 metabolizer. So just the tiniest but of Fen could make them OD.

All this shit is way more complicated than most people ever realize.

I took a class on pharmaceuticals and the professor started every class by saying:

If anyone was actually "average" in everyway they'd be the most unique person who ever lived

Anything that deals with hormones, neurotransmitters, or metabolism is going to react differently, even if most fall into a normal distribution, there's always outliers.

We really should have started normalizing genetic testing and tailoring treatment to individuals decades ago.

This shit isn't expensive and avoids a lot of trial and error that could cause serious complications not to mention wasted time.