A 71-year-old Downey, Calif., physician faces charges he conspired to prescribe painkillers to patients without examining them, according to a report by the Mercury News.
Nazar Al Bussam, MD, a hematologist, came to authorities' attention in 2007, when a review of prescription data put him among the top 10 prescribers of controlled substances in the Los Angeles area. Special agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested him at his clinic last October.
The drugs he allegedly prescribed included oxycodone, oxycodone/APAP, hydromorphone, hydrocodone, alprazolam and promethazine with codeine, which is used to make a concoction known on the streets as "sizzurp," "purple drank" or "lean."
Read the Mercury News report on Dr. Nazar Al Bussam.
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