Pennsylvania Couple Faces Charges For Obtaining Thousands Of Gabapentin Pills Through Fraud

In the days of the pill mills, you could walk out of a pain clinic in Florida with hundreds of oxycodone pills and bring them back to Pennsylvania for resale.  Today, if anyone had that many oxycodone pills in the same place at the same time, anywhere except locked up in a pharmacy, it would be front page news.  In fact, most cases of illegal possession of opioids these days involve the Internet, not pharmacies, because the controls on dispensing opioids from pharmacies are so tight.  Not all prescription drugs are controlled substances, though, only the ones that the law acknowledges have substantial abuse potential.  Therefore, if people engage in shady business to get these drugs from pharmacies, it can go on for a while before authorities find out, but when they do, you can still face criminal charges.  If you are facing criminal charges for illegal possession of pharmaceutical drugs that are not legally classified as controlled substances, contact a Pittsburgh drug crime lawyer.

Gabapentin Is Not a Controlled Substance, But It Certainly Has Abuse Potential

Gabapentin is an anticonvulsant drug; its original use was to prevent seizures in patients with epilepsy, but it is also used to treat neuropathic pain, for example, that which arises from shingles.  The Federal Controlled Substances Act does not list gabapentin as a controlled substance; it is just another prescription drug, not harmless enough to be sold over the counter, but not dangerous enough to receive the controlled substance designation.  In this regard, it is similar to metformin, Synthroid, blood pressure medications, or any of the other boring medications that people pick up from pharmacies every day without anyone covering them.

Despite this, gabapentin can produce a euphoric feeling when taken at doses higher than the therapeutic one, and anecdotal evidence suggests that it amplifies the effects of other recreational drugs.  Therefore, some states have passed laws adding gabapentin to their lists of controlled substances, but Pennsylvania has not.

In the News

Between March 2022 and March 2024, John Robert Decoons and Lisa Marie Dale allegedly obtained 1,560 gabapentin pills from six pharmacies by getting prescriptions from 11 different doctors.  According to the criminal complaint, Decoons would call the doctors, some of whom had previously treated Dale, by saying that the couple were out of town and Dale was having a seizure, or that Dale needed a new prescription because she needed to lower her dose due to side effects.  Dale, 47, and Decoons, 43, are being held in jail, where their bail has been set at $75,000 and $175,000, respectively.  Both defendants are being charged with fraud and theft by deception.

Contact Gary E. Gerson About Criminal Defense Cases

A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for fraud in the context of an alleged effort to get access to prescription drugs.  Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.

Sources:

thetimes-tribune.com/news/crime-emergencies/police-couple-fraudulently-purchases-prescription-drug/article_a1375a5f-8321-5c57-a9d3-c484b2ac144a.html

deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/gabapentin.pdf