Clinic trafficked pain pills through workers, report says

Thousands of pain pills were sold to high school students and addicts all over Florida by a network of pain clinic employees, patients and family members, federal authorities say in court documents.

Pain clinic co-owner Troy Wubbena directed the sales and kept track of it all on 3-by-5 note cards, with people's initials, the date of the next prescription refill and the type and quantity of drug, one participant told investigators, according to court filings.

"This was a widespread, significant operation," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph K. Ruddy. "We're seeing a marked increase in this type of trafficking in Florida, in general, and in the Tampa area, specifically."

Wubbena and Jeffrey Friedlander, who both owned the Neurology & Pain Center clinics, are being prosecuted in federal court on drug and Medicare fraud charges.

The operation, which primarily involved the pain drug oxycodone, relied almost entirely on blank prescription forms signed by Friedlander and filled out by Wubbena and other clinic employees, federal authorities say.

"This is a major case, in our opinion, strictly because of the volume that was generated through the operation and also through the geographic scope," said Special Agent in Charge Jim Madden of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Tampa Bay Regional Operations Center. The pair operated eight pain clinics in Tampa, Lakeland, Sarasota, Orlando and Jacksonville.

Attorneys for Wubbena and Friedlander would not comment for this story.

Cases such as this are concerning, Madden said, particularly because of the high numbers of overdose deaths attributed to prescription drugs, which far surpass deaths attributed to traditional street drugs.

In the first six months of 2009, oxycodone caused more deaths in Florida than any other drug, according to the state Medical Examiner. During that time, more than three times as many overdose deaths were caused by oxycodone than by the total caused by cocaine or heroin in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties.

The problem is particularly acute in the Tampa area, according to Madden, who said the eight counties that make up his office coverage area account for 25 percent of the prescription drug deaths statewide, but less than 18 percent of the population.

In the past year, three doctors have either pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in Tampa federal court. But each of those cases involved individual physicians, not chains of clinics.

New details of the Neurology & Pain Centers case have emerged in recently filed court documents. At least a dozen people, including high school friends of Wubbena's sons, got prescriptions from Wubbena, and in return, they gave him money and a portion of the drugs, according to federal and state records.

Some of the dealers told investigators they agreed to become dealers after getting hooked on Wubbena's prescriptions. The arrangement enabled them to feed their own habits and have some money left; one clinic employee made enough selling drugs to pay the mortgage, records state.

The state Department of Health has suspended Wubbena's physician's assistant license until a hearing can be conducted. Friedlander's physician's license was suspended briefly but has been reinstated, although his ability to prescribe pain medicine has been curtailed as a condition of his bail.

An 18-year-old high school student told investigators his involvement started when Wubbena offered him "roxies," slang for the pain pill roxicodone, which contains oxycodone. The young man, identified in state Health Department documents only as AB, split one of the pills with a friend, records state.

He told investigators Wubbena supplied the drug free of charge at least three or four times. Later, AB reported, after he was hooked, Wubbena charged him $15 a pill.

When AB ran low on money, Wubbena told him that if he would sell 20 pills for him, Wubbena would give AB five pills. With mostly high school students as customers, AB's sales rose to about 200 to 300 pills a day at $15 each, according to records.

In July 2008, AB was arrested by after a traffic stop where police found oxycodone and $800 in cash. He pleaded guilty in state court and agreed to help the investigation.

Two clinic employees, Carl and Sarah Ehresman, have pleaded guilty to federal charges and are also cooperating with authorities. Carl Ehresman is an emergency medical technician. Another alleged participant, Janusz Susdorf, was arrested last week.

Several other participants have been prosecuted in state court and are now cooperating with an investigation by a federal, state and local task force. Their stories were outlined in an affidavit filed in connection with Susdorf's arrest. The affidavit does not give their names, ages or sex.

One former clinic employee, for example, told detectives of seeking treatment at one of the clinics for back pain, court documents state.

The employee "quickly became addicted" to the pain medicine, which increased in potency until the prescription was for 80 mg pills of Oxycontin, according to the affidavit. The drug's manufacturer says that dose is potentially life-threatening and should only be prescribed for patients who have developed resistance to opiods.

The Neurology & Pain Center clinics are now closed.