He was “the first prescriber of Prégabalin” in Haute-Garonne in 2022, “ahead of the two public hospitals of Toulouse combined”, as well as the first prescriber of Subutex in the department.
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A doctor from Haute-Garonne was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention, said Friday, February 2, the public prosecutor of Toulouse, in a press release consulted by franceinfo. This practitioner, aged 64, wrote “several dozen prescriptions” psychotropic medications, says the Toulouse public prosecutor. He specifies that he “was the first prescriber of Prégabalin” in Haute-Garonne in 2022, “in front of the two public hospitals of Toulouse combined”as well as the first prescriber of Subutex in the department.
The police officers from the Toulouse police station traced the practitioner by discovering, in January 2023, a medical prescription for a person who was illegally selling Pregabalin. The public prosecutor affirms that the prescriptions concerned “far exceeded the maximum daily dosage”.
Some patients even say that the practitioner did not examine them and simply prescribed Pregabalin and/or Subutex, “upon simple request from them”. One of these patients even told investigators that he only came to see this doctor to get prescriptions and then to resell the psychotropic drugs, which, he claimed, the doctor was aware of.
A complaint from the Cpam in November 2023
The public prosecutor of Toulouse specifies that the Primary Health Insurance Fund (Cpam) of Haute-Garonne filed a complaint against the doctor in November 2023. Indeed, according to the press release, “the prescriptions thus seemed to fuel traffic in the Toulouse area and also allow it to draw substantial income paid by the Cpam”. The prosecutor does not specify the extent of this supposed income.
After being placed in police custody, the doctor was presented to an investigating judge on February 1, then examined for “aid in the misuse or abuse of medicine, plant, substance or preparation classified as poisonous in the context of the exercise of a regulated activity”but also “fraud committed to the detriment of a public person or an organization responsible for a public service mission to obtain an allowance, a benefit, a payment or an undue advantage”and even “illicit transfer or offer of a substance, plant, preparation or medicine listed on Lists I or II or classified as a psychotropic drug”.