ST. LOUIS - A federal lawsuit by the United States accused a Missouri pharmacist on Feb. 23 of violating the Controlled Substances Act and distributing opioids without a legitimate medical purpose.
Defendant Elizabeth Dembo was the pharmacist at Olive Street Pharmacy in Creve Coeur from September 2015 to March 2018. Olive Street Pharmacy is an outpatient pharmacy located in an unmarked office building licensed to purchase and distribute controlled substances, the suit says.
According to the suit, the pharmacy purchased almost three times more fentanyl as the Missouri state average and over three-and-a-half times more fentanyl than the national average. The pharmacy also purchased over double as much oxycodone as the state and the U.S. averages, a lawsuit in St. Louis federal court says.
As a pharmacist, the defendant allegedly failed to notice or neglected to act upon indicators of drug diversion and potential opioid abuse. The lawsuit alleges that she was presented with many red flags and failed to conduct further investigation to determine if the prescriptions she was presented with were legitimate and medically necessary.
She disregarded multiple warning signs in which the total amount of daily controlled substance intake vastly exceeded safe amounts, the suit says.
Dembo also allegedly approved prescriptions for medications that are known to increase the opioid-induced high when taken simultaneously. This included signing off on prescriptions for the "holy trinity," a combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxer known to create an addictive, euphoric high, the suit says.
The suit outlines many more similar allegations of opioid prescription abuse in its nearly 30 pages. The plaintiff is charging the pharmacist with unlawful dispensing of controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and false or fraudulent claims to Medicaid and Medicare for prescription drugs in violation of the False Claims Act.
The plaintiff is represented by the United States Attorney's Office in St. Louis.