On Monday, June 5, a Manhattan doctor Martin Tesher was arrested for unnecessary prescription of more than 14,000 oxycodone pain pills and many other types of painkillers from 2012 to 2017.
On June 5, the Brooklyn federal court charged the 81-year old New York City doctor with distribution of controlled substance at a single count. According to the police, Dr. Tesher prescribed more than 2.2 million unneeded oxycodone prescriptions during the five-year period from his family medical practice in Manhattan.
Charges Against Dr. Tesher
The authorities state that Dr. Tesher provided patients with powerful opioids worth $20 million in the last five years. This is an extremely high number of prescriptions for a doctor who does not specialize in pain management treatment.
Dr. Tesher's website describes him as a "good old-fashioned family doctor." The court documents establish that Dr. Tesher provided three confidential informants with oxycodone painkillers at his office, located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Manhattan Doctor Arrested For Prescribing Unneeded Painkillers
The NYPD informant who visited the Manhattan doctor was given a prescription of 15 oxycodone pain pills. Dr. Tesher stated that he believed that the patient was addicted to pain meds. According to Dr. Tesher's arrest papers, not once did he check the patients for injury and did not look into their medical history before prescribing unneeded painkillers.
The investigators stated that they also consulted another doctor, who stated that there was no reason — at least medically — to prescribe oxycodone painkillers in bulk to a patient with no serious injury or pain.
In a separate testimony, another NYPD informant who visited Dr. Tesher in the guise of a patient said that the 81-year old physician prescribed him "hundreds" of oxycodone pills on every visit, even after knowing that his "patient" was addicted to pain meds.
However, never once did Dr. Tesher go for an anti-opiate addiction drug such as Suboxone or recommended that the patient seek help from an anti-addiction counsellor or enrol themselves for addiction treatment.
The 81-year old Manhattan doctor was released on bond worth $250,000 and faces up to 20 years of jail for the unnecessary distribution of a controlled substance. As part of the bond agreement, Dr. Tesher is not allowed to write prescriptions for a number of drugs, which include oxycodone.
Manhattan Doctor Used Positon To Foster Opioid Addiction: Court
The June 5 court proceedings revealed that Dr. Tesher had earnings of nearly $800,000 a year. However, it was discovered that the Manhattan doctor was carrying a burden of huge debts, which amounted to approximately $130,000. Dr. Tesher owed this sum to private nurses who were hired to take care of his hospitalized wife.
Acting attorney Bridget Rohde stated that Dr. Tesher "'used his position as a doctor not to heal but to foster opioid addiction." The DEA or Drug Enforcement Administration said that although Dr. Tesher was based in Manhattan, his prescribed opioids were smuggled all over Staten Island, Brooklyn, Long Island, and Queens.
