A suburban Atlanta doctor was arrested by federal agents for allegedly running a million-dollar-a-month pain clinic that wrote illegal prescription drugs for patients across the country.
Dr. Oscar Stokes has been indicted for reportedly signing prescriptions at the Upper Hembree Road clinic in Alpharetta, Ga., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office using information provided by government informants.
Stokes pled not guilty
One security officer told authorities that he saw many of the same people come and go from the clinic on a daily basis holding several prescriptions in their hands, many of them blank and written by Stokes. Another government witness said Stokes would write up to 72 prescriptions a day, charge $500 a visit and rake in $1 million a month. He said people would sell the pills for up to $200 each.
Stoke’s attorney refutes the government claims, saying he wasn’t aware that he did anything illegal.
“If his practice doesn’t fit into the mold that these government want it to fit into, that doesn’t mean he is guilty of a crime,” said Page Pate, Stokes’ defense attorney, according to WSB-TV. “I’ve worked a number of these cases and I’ve never seen a physician so well trained,” Pate said.
Pate also added that the patients were prescribed medication within the parameters of the law.
The clinic was closed on Wednesday, but that hardly stopped the parking lot of the clinic from filling up, security guards told the media.
