'Unfathomable': How 1.6 million pills from a small-town doctor helped fuel the opioid crisis in Ohio

[TexasTowelie]

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Margaret Temponeras started her medical career in a small town as a family doctor. She ended it a felon, a rogue physician who authorities say fanned Ohio’s opioid epidemic with a prescription pad.

From 2006 through 2012, Temponeras ordered more than 1.6 million pills of hydrocodone and oxycodone from her offices in the tiny town of Wheelersburg, along the banks of the Ohio River.

That was more than any other medical practitioner in the state and more than some pharmacies. The drug distributor that supplied her kept shipping pills, despite her ever-increasing orders.

Eight of her patients died in her care, federal records allege. One was Ira Marsh, a 38-year-old laborer, who saw her over a three-year period during which she treated him for a back issue. Then, on Oct. 28, 2009, Temponeras prescribed him the opioid oxycodone, the muscle relaxer carisoprodol and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, according to federal court filings.

Read more: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/09/unfathomable-how-16-million-pills-from-a-small-town-doctor-helped-fuel-the-opioid-crisis-in-ohio.html

[True Blue American]

1. My hometown

That I left a long time ago. It was not even a town then.

[Sherman A1]

2. Yeah, just ship the orders

nobody ever thought to ask a question.....

[True Blue American]

3. How she got away with it in that small Town

Is beyond me. DeWine made a big show of raiding it. That was a couple of years ago.

[Scarsdale]

4. "First, do no harm"

Isn't that in the oath taken by doctors? What this country needs is more addiction clinics, fewer prisons. You do not help an addict by giving them more drugs.