GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A grand jury indicted an area doctor Wednesday accused of over-prescribing thousands of opioid prescriptions.
In the criminal complaint, a Drug Enforcement Administration task force member said Richard Piazza over-prescribed opioids like oxycodone, hydrocodone and Dilaudid and anti-anxiety medications like diazepam since December 2017.
Piazza was indicted on multiple counts on Feb. 27, including one for distributing controlled substances and three for possessing those same substances.
Court documents note the DEA was tipped off by a pharmacist who noticed he was writing thousands of prescriptions for opioids.
The pharmacist thought it was odd given Piazza worked at the Society of Healing Arts Institute in Grand Rapids' Eastown neighborhood, a holistic medicine clinic.
Clinic owner Paul Farage said he hired Piazza to certify people for medical marijuana, but had to fire him in the summer of 2018.
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