Tampa Area Doctor Charged with Overprescribing Pain Meds

The national media spotlight has shone brightly recently on the problem of over-prescribing pain medications. A California court has charged three people, including two physicians, with conspiring to over-medicate celebrity Anna Nicole Smith before her death several years ago. A similar case has now been filed in the Tampa Bay area.

83-year-old St. Petersburg doctor John Rew was arrested this week and charged in a Tampa federal court with overprescribing oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax.

A Tampa grand jury indicted Rew on ten counts of acting outside the scope of professional practice by dispensing and distributing oxycodone, hydrocodone and the antianxiety drug alprazolam, also known as Xanax to a government informant between April 2008 and January 2009.

The DEA and Tampa Police Department sent a wired witness into Rew’s office last year after determining that Rew was a high-volume narcotics prescriber. The man claimed to be a professional poker player who needed pills to help his back through long spells sitting at card tables, Rew told a St. Petersburg Times reporter. Between April 2008 and January 2009, he visited 10 times and was apparently prescribed increasing doses of narcotic painkillers.

Local media reports that among the thousands of Tampa Bay area residents with addictions to painkillers was Rew’s own son. Tim Rew died of an overdose from painkillers, including one that Rew prescribed him, in 2006.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Tampa has alleged that Rew himself tested positive for opiates and barbiturates after his arrest. One of Rew’s bond conditions is that he agree to stop practicing medicine, including writing prescriptions, until the court orders otherwise.

Rew is a retired anesthesiologist and has been practicing pain management for over 30 years. He estimated that he treated 350 to 375 patients each year.Rew faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the oxycodone charges, five years for the hydrocodone and three years for the Xanax.

Prescription drugs are the focus of an increasing number of federal drug investigations. Anyone who believes that they may be the subject of such an investigation in the Tampa Bay area and surrounding counties should contact a Tampa federal criminal defense attorney immediately. Much beneficial work on a case can often occur prior to the execution of an arrest warrant.