West Bloomfield Psychiatrist 'Major Player' in $13M Drug Ring: Feds

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WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI – A West Bloomfield psychiatrist illegally prescribed more than 2 million narcotic pills in a three-year, multi-state, $13 million drug operation, authorities allege in a 19-page indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court earlier this month.

Dr. Mark Buzzard was a primary player in the operation masterminded by Joseph J. Roe, 47, of Monroe, that supplied a growing heroin epidemic in Monroe and other areas of southeast Michigan, the government said.

Roe is in federal custody in Detroit on drug distribution charges, according to the report by The Monroe News. Buzzard was released on unsecured bond after his arraignment.

Roe, Buzzard and five others were named in the 33-count indictment, which alleges that Buzzard sold prescriptions for oxycodone, methadone, hydromorphone, amphetamines, morphine and others powerful, highly addictive drugs at a huge profit.

Federal authorities have said that a major drug trafficking pipeline from Michigan supplies five other Midwest states — Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — is responsible for a spike in prescription opioid and heroin addiction.

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“The prescription pill epidemic that has resulted in so many overdose deaths in our region calls for us to step up enforcement of illegally prescribed controlled substances to save lives,” U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade told The Monroe News after Roe, Buzzard and the others were indicted. “We are tackling this problem from all sides: prevention, treatment and enforcement.”

Abuse of painkillers is the leading cause of heroin addiction, and Roe’s alleged operation contributed significantly to the epidemic,  the government said. When people who are addicted to prescription opioids, they often turn to cheaper and more easily obtained heroin, said Richard Isaacson, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency in Detroit.

The indictment unsealed this month significantly increases the number of pills believed to have been distributed and is more wide-ranging than a September indictment that charged Roe and a Tennessee couple, Donald and Dorothy Cox, with drug trafficking in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Buzzard and the three additional accomplices, including the physician’s office manager, Mary Gettig, were added. Gettig is accused of scheduling appointments for fake patients, accepting payments and filling prescriptions when Buzzard was away from the office.

“Dr. Buzzard knowingly prescribed prescription drug controlled substances outside the course of usual professional practice and for no legitimate medical purpose,” the government alleges.

Alleged couriers, including Nicholas Malinowski and John Thorn, reportedly transported the pills to Tennessee and Kentucky, where the Coxes allegedly distributed them.

» Image: Chris Potter via Flickr / Creative Commons