A West Bloomfield doctor was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to the unlawful prescribing of prescription drug-controlled substances, announced United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison.
Joining Ison in the announcement was Special Agent in Charge Orville O. Greene, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Scott Henry Cooper, 61, was sentenced before United States District Judge Denise Page Hood in Detroit.
During his guilty plea, Cooper admitted that he practiced as a primary care physician at Comprehensive Medical Associates, located in West Bloomfield, MI, during 2013-2018. Some of his patients sought highly abused and valuable prescription drug-controlled substances such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, alprazolam (Xanax) and dextroamphetamine-amphetamine (Adderall). Cooper admitted in an interview with the DEA that his controlled substance patients were problem patients, he did not want to see them, and in fact he did not see them routinely, but continued to prescribe their controlled substances. He has not been allowed to prescribe controlled substances since 2020.
In the case of the patient that formed the basis of his guilty plea, the defendant prescribed oxycodone and other highly abused drugs for almost three years without having patient visits or contact with the patient. While the patient served almost three years in prison, the defendant wrote monthly controlled substance prescriptions, totaling over 7,000 dosage units, that were picked up by the patient’s relative. When the patient was released from prison and told Cooper he had been in prison, Cooper continued prescribing the same dangerous combination of drugs he had been prescribing while the patient was in prison.
“Oxycodone is extremely powerful, addictive, and easily abused. Michigan has seen devastating statistics relating to opioid drug overdoses in the last five years. My office remains committed to pursuing medical providers who abuse their license and ultimately inflict this type of significant harm on our community,” stated U.S. Attorney Ison.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Greene stated, “Healthcare professionals who blatantly disregard their commitments to safeguard controlled substances do so at the risk of endangering their patients and undermining critical public health efforts to address the opioid epidemic. Today’s sentencing emphasizes law enforcement’s commitment to saving lives by investigating, arresting, and prosecuting those responsible for fueling the overdose crisis.”
The Eastern District of Michigan is one of the twelve districts included in the Opioid Fraud Abuse and Detection Unit, a Department of Justice initiative that uses data to target and prosecute individuals that are contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Wayne F. Pratt. The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Tags: Adderall Alprazolam Drug Trafficking Hydrocodone Medically Unnecessary Methadone Oxycodone Pill Mills Provider Arrest