Dentist pleads guilty to drug distribution

A Tazewell, Va., dentist pleaded guilty Tuesday to writing bogus prescriptions for hydrocodone to feed his own addiction for more than a decade.

Peter Francisco, 57, was charged in August with writing illegal prescriptions for more than 13,000 pills of Zydone to three different patients. He pleaded guilty to three counts of illegally distributing the drug in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, in exchange for the government’s agreement to recommend a reduced sentence.

Francisco’s dental license has been suspended indefinitely while he undergoes a drug treatment program offered by the state, according to Virginia Department of Health Professions records.

The state disciplinary records paint a harrowing story of addiction, with Francisco acknowledging he took an average of eight hydrocodone pills daily for at least the past two years.

From 1996 to 2009, Francisco received more than 2,300 dosages of hydrocodone-based drugs – both for legitimate and abusive purposes, he told the Board of Dentistry, the records show.

Francisco entered the Virginia Health Practitioners’ Monitoring Program – a confidential treatment option for doctors suffering from mental or physical impairments – on May 4, three-and-a-half months before he was indicted on the federal drug charges.

The Board of Dentistry found that Francisco diverted samples of Lortab and Vicoprofen for his personal use, and authorized numerous prescriptions for three individuals who served as a “smoke screen” to support his drug habit. Between October 1999 and April 2009, Francisco wrote 492 prescriptions for two unnamed patients, instructing them to return the drugs to him.

Francisco is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 23. He faces a maximum fine of $750,000 and 15 years in prison.

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