Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
OVERDOSED special report
Suboxone doctor drew DEA search
By Rich Lord
May 23, 2016
Psychiatrist Clarence Verdell
“I’m just caught up in the tradewinds of my time,” Dr. Verdell said in a February interview. “I didn’t commit any crime.”
After years treating both mentally ill and addicted patients, Dr. Verdell a few years ago got DEA permission to prescribe buprenorphine, a relatively safe opioid that counteracts the craving for heroin. Often known by the brand name Suboxone, buprenorphine is viewed by rehabilitation doctors as a useful tool, but is also sold on the street, largely to addicts trying to avoid withdrawal.
“The addicts called it a miracle drug,” said Dr. Verdell, 65, of Voorhees, N.J. “Of course, in anything you have people who are insincere,” and sell it. He said he can’t stop that. “I’m not a cop. I can’t follow people around.”
Dr. Verdell said he did not stigmatize his patients. The waiting room walls featured art of Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye — all musicians who had substance abuse problems.
A DEA agent alleged in an affidavit that Dr. Verdell charged $150 in cash per visit, routinely meeting patients for around 10 minutes with no physical examination, and then prescribed uniform doses of buprenorphine and the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam. Combined, “especially in large doses,” they can dangerously slow breathing, the agent wrote.
“Who’s dying from suboxone?” Dr. Verdell asked rhetorically. Almost no one, he answered. “They’re dying from heroin overdoses. … I’ve seen them where they couldn’t get treated and overdose [on heroin] and die.”
Dr. Verdell’s troubles started in late 2013, after the DEA got a tip that one of his office workers was forging prescriptions, and that the psychiatrist was prescribing buprenorphine to more than 100 people — a violation of federal limits. The agency sent in an informant who used to be a medical professional, but had become an oxycodone addict and then pleaded guilty to illegally distributing controlled substances, according to the affidavit. Later the DEA sent in two undercover agents, who were able to get prescriptions without a physical examination and without even complaining much.
In August 2014, the DEA searched Dr. Verdell’s office, house and car. To date, no charge has resulted.
A few weeks after the search, though, the Board of Medicine temporarily suspended his license. That suspension has not been lifted. Dr. Verdell retained a team of lawyers, but said he is waiting until the cloud of federal investigation passes before he demands reinstatement of his license.
“They left me broke. But guess what? I managed to keep the clinic together,” said Dr. Verdell. Other doctors have to do the examining and prescribing, and he is the manager, he said.
Dr. Verdell said stories like his have had a chilling effect on psychiatrists — especially African-American doctors — who treat addiction.
“Doctors now, we have a policy and we share it among our colleagues: Treat every patient like they’re a DEA agent,” he said. “It’s sad we have to think that way because we should be focused on treatment.”