Doctor called opioids 'safest pain pills on earth'

SANDUSKY — The "red flag" warnings about Dr. Gregory Gerber over-prescribing opioids were everywhere, including the death of one patient from acute drug intoxication in 2013, a fentanyl overdose.That's according to an affidavit with a search warrant application to U.S. District Court from Justice Department Drug Enforcement agents to search Gerber's medical office in Sandusky and the pharmacy at Bassett's in Port Clinton.A judge approved the search warrants and DEA agents conducted raids at both locations Aug. 22, taking away boxes of paper documents and other materials. The same day, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in Cleveland during a news conference, talked about a crackdown on doctors illegally distributing painkillers.District court issued temporary restraining orders stopping Gerber and an Akron doctor, Michael Tricaso, from writing prescriptions, Sessions said, the first such TRO's ever issued. "Today's announcements are a warning to every trafficker, every crooked doctor or pharmacist, every drug company, every chairman and foreign national and company that puts greed before the lives and health of the American people," Sessions said.Justin Herdman, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, went further. "These doctors were simply drug dealers in white lab coats," Herdman later said. "Putting so-called physicians like these out of business is one of several steps we are taking to turn the tide on the opioid and drug crisis that has caused so much death and heartbreak in our community."High dosingThe court orders stopping Gerber and Tricaso from prescribing controlled substances come years after the pharmacies at Walmart and Meijer in Sandusky stopped serving Gerber's many patients, after consistently seeing prescriptions from him "for the same high doses." The 34-page affidavit with the search warrant, written by DEA investigator Jessica Stransky Chrisman, provides detail about Gerber's practices and interactions with patients. The following Information is taken from her affidavit.High dosage prescriptions were a specialty of Gerber's, according to the affidavit, many times greater than the average among doctors in Ohio.Patients began going to the pharmacy at Bassett's, where Gerber's wife, Jackie Gerber, the chief pharmacist, after the other pharmacies refused to fill his prescriptions. At one point, Jackie Gerber called Meijer's asking why it refused to work with her husband. But, in just the last two years — since Jan. 1, 2016 — Gerber wrote 16,459 prescriptions. And, as his practice grew so did his geographical reach. Records show Gerber wrote prescriptions for hundreds of patients who live outside Erie and Ottawa counties, including 741 who listed Mansfield as their home.His patients tended to be younger, another red flag, and oftentimes they were related to each other, lived at the same address, or very near to each other.Long distanceCity, number of patientsAshland, 114Bucyrus, 53Greenwich 210Lorain, 74Mansfield, 741Navarre, 20New London, 560Source: U.S. District Court affidavit"Writing controlled substance prescriptions to multiple individuals sharing a residential address, or a residential address in close proximity, can be a red flag, or a warning sign, that the prescription is not being obtained for a legitimate medical purpose," Stransky Chrisman wrote in the affidavit.Gerber and his wife also kept it in the family for Jackie's parents, with Dr. Gerber writing them prescriptions and Jackie Gerber filling the prescriptions, a practice that doctors are prohibited from doing unless it's an emergency situation, as are pharmacists.Dr. Gerber wrote 63 controlled substance prescriptions for his father-in-law since Jan. 1, 2016, including for muscle relaxers, for Opana, and for 6,240 dosage units of Oxycodone. He wrote 28 controlled substance prescriptions for his mother-in-law.UndercoverOne of Dr. Gerber's newer patients was an undercover agent. On one patient visit with the agent, Gerber tells her the opioids he is prescribing her are "the safest pain pills on earth." On a subsequent visit, after a discussing her medical condition for just 47 seconds, Gerber tells the agent he is upping her dosage by two times.Gerber did not return a phone message from the Register left for him last week. He and his wife own a lakefront home in Marblehead with an appraised value of $614,000. Gregory Gerber and Jackie Gerber have not been charged with any crimes, but Herdman, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said Gregory Gerber is alleged to have violated the Controlled Substance Act, regulating the distribution of narcotics, and the False Claims Act, regulating Medicare and Medicaid payments for health care services.The investigation of Gerber is ongoing, Herdman said. Bassett's Market wasn't given any forewarning that agents intended to raid its pharmacy."We have been advised this is part of an investigation into a physician, and that neither we nor any of our employees are under suspicion," the company wrote in a statement at its Facebook page after the Aug. 22 raid when agents executed the search warrant. "Bassett's Market is cooperating fully with the investigators."Read more: Dr. Gerber with a gunDr. Gregory GerberJackie Gerber The Erie County auditor's website lists Dr. Gregory Gerber and Jackie Gerber as owners of this lakefront home on Lucien Drive in Marblehead.