‘Self-Proclaimed Rock Doc’ Amped Up on Social Media, Reality TV, Women: Evidence
Feds: Nurse prac.’s ‘prescription-pad’ abuse ‘endangered’ patients, town
Hazardous Health Workers Exploit People’s Pain to Drain Money, Authorities Charge
By JOSH MITCHELL
Editor
River Mississippi News
TENNESSEE – – Two decades in prison awaits a Jackson, Tenn. nurse practitioner called the “Rock Doc,” who illegally and dangerously distributed opioids, such as fentanyl and oxycodone.
“Prescription-pad-” abuse is how Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri described the actions of Jeffrey W. Young Jr., 49.
The actions of the “self-proclaimed ‘Rock Doc’” were grossly criminal in nature based on authorities’ descriptions of the medical infractions, which included him deploying “hundreds of thousands of doses of highly addictive prescription opioids to obtain money, notoriety, and sexual favors,” a U.S. Department of Justice news release issued Tuesday states.
And this affected a “small community,” DOJ officials noted, adding, “The defendant’s conduct endangered his patients and the community as a whole. Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of this criminal conduct and the department’s commitment to protecting communities from the scourge of illegally prescribed drugs.”
U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz for the Western District of Tennessee went further, asserting on the news release that, “The epidemic of opioid abuse is fueled by doctors like the defendant who are willing to over-prescribe highly addictive drugs and exploit patient pain for their own financial gain,” said U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz for the Western District of Tennessee.
Law enforcement and federal prosecutors will be vigilant in holding these unscrupulous and unauthorized pill providers accountable, the release adds.
Young fronted the illegal painkiller operation from his medical practice, Preventagenix.
From there, DOJ officials showed, Young criminally gave the OK for unneeded narcotics “to hundreds of patients, including a pregnant woman and women with whom he was having inappropriate physical relationships. Young maintained a party-type atmosphere at his clinic and prescribed these drugs at least in part to boost his popularity on social media and promote a self-produced reality TV show pilot based on his self-identified persona, the ‘Rock Doc.’ Young prescribed more than 100,000 doses of hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl into the community,” the release shockingly states.
Nurse practitioner Young ran a medical office front with audacious “disregard for the health and well-being of his patients who entrusted him with their medical care,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Erek Davodowich of the Drug Enforcement Administration-Louisville Field Division.
“The full weight of the justice system” will come down on fake healthcare providers who cause public and patient harm by dangerously giving unsuspecting patients false prescriptions, DOJ authorities seem to argue in the Tuesday afternoon release.
Assistant Chief Kate Payerle and Trial Attorney Drew Pennebaker of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
