By Anne Cohen February 11, 2013

A Manhattan psychiatrist was indicted Monday on 55 counts on charges that he sold prescriptions for oxycodone and other pain killers to drug dealers from his Rockland County and Midtown Manhattan offices.

Dr. David Brizer was also charged with illegal possession of controlled substances and underreporting his income by more than $500,000 on his personal New York State tax returns in 2010 and 2011.

“Instead of saving lives, Dr. Brizer used his position to supply drug dealers and feed a prescription drug epidemic that is devastating families across our state. The message is clear – whether you are a doctor or a criminal on the street, my office will prosecute those profiting off the cycle of abuse,” New York Attorney General Schneiderman said in a statement. “This office will use every tool at our disposal to bring criminal charges against those who line their own pockets by fueling dangerous addictions and illegally trafficking in prescription narcotics.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The statement added that Brizer and his associates could have been detected sooner by the authorities had the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act, or I-STOP, been in place at the time their crimes were being commited. I-STOP was passed in 2012 to require doctors to update a patient’s prescription drug history in real time when prescribing controlled substances.

Brizer allegedly sold prescriptions to drug dealer Franklin Walker, among others, for over two years.

According to the same statement, Brizer was arraigned in Rockland County Court today on 55 felony counts: two top counts of Criminal Tax Fraud; 34 counts of Criminal Sale of a Prescription for a Controlled Substance; 15 counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance; 2 counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing; along with Scheme to Defraud and Conspiracy charges.

If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount