A federal court in Florida has ordered a Tampa-area pharmacy shuttered after the government alleged that opioids were repeatedly distributed there in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.
With the case filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the court also “enjoined WeCare Pharmacy, its pharmacist owner Qingping Zhang, pharmacy technician Li Yang and a related corporate entity, L&Y Holdings LLC, from ever owning, managing or operating any business where controlled substances are dispensed.”
The order also stipulates that WeCare be permanently closed and dissolved. The ruling resolves a civil complaint filed by the government earlier this year alleging that over a period of several years “the defendants dispensed highly addictive and highly abused prescription opioids while ignoring red flags.”
Earlier this year, prosecutors charged Zhang and Yang, who are married, with repeatedly breaking the law by knowingly dispensing controlled substances without a prescription and outside the normal professional practices of a pharmacy.
“Pharmacists and those who own and operate pharmacies have a duty to ensure that controlled substances are distributed lawfully,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will continue to work with its partners to ensure that business owners and medical professionals handling controlled substances do not violate the Controlled Substances Act.”
According to The Hill, the couple allegedly purchased thousands of doses of Schedule 2 controlled substances, including hydromorphone and oxycodone to the point that the location’s purchasing volume of hydromorphone exceeded state averages by four times. In 2019, the pharmacy is reported to have purchased ten times more than the state average of the highly addictive drug used to treat moderate to severe pain.
Zhang in particular is alleged to have ignored typical warning signs that would have indicated prescriptions for opioids brought to WeCare were suspect, such as people traveling from far distances for their prescriptions, repetitive prescribing patterns and multiple people with prescriptions for controlled substances sharing the same address.
