More than $61K in costs and 14-month suspension for pharmacist who unknowingly filled drug traffickers’ forged prescriptions

An Ontario pharmacy owner—whose lack of diligence enabled a drug trafficking ring to procure hundreds of thousands of narcotic drugs in one of the most elaborate schemes ever investigated by the province’s pharmacy regulator—has been suspended for 14 months and ordered to pay $61,750 in college costs. Mojgan Bijanzadeh, who owned and managed a pharmacy in Mississauga, Ont., was initially arrested by regional police but was subsequently found to be an innocent and unwitting participant in the drug trafficking operation, which saw large quantities of narcotics prescribed fraudulently to more than 140 patients. A review of the prescriptions of just 15 patients found that over a three-year period Bijanzadeh’s pharmacy had dispensed 304,470 oxycodone and oxycocet tablets and 17,120 fentanyl patches. According to case documents posted by the Ontario College of Pharmacists, Bijanzadeh was unaware that the roughly 5,300 prescriptions she had filled for about 140 patients were forged under the credentials of two doctors who are licensed in Ontario but no longer practise in the province and have not written prescriptions in Ontario for at least a decade. While Bijanzadeh was found to be innocent by police and had even testified at the drug traffickers’ criminal trial, the discipline committee of the Ontario College of Pharmacist concluded that her failure to spot red flags—such as repetitive early fills, frequent temporary increases due to pain issues, and an “extremely high rate of use and high doses of fentanyl patches” for a smaller of patients—amounted to a failure to maintain the standard of the profession. Read: Prince Albert, Sask., debates if some pharmacies should be banned from dispensing methadone In addition, Bijanzadeh had noted her pharmacy—which had operated on a small scale—never had large quantities of narcotics on hand until it started getting the forged prescriptions. (“Bijanzadeh) should have seen a pattern over time and this should have led her to investigate further,” the college investigator stated during the hearing. An expert witness for the college testified that Bijanzadeh breached several standards and guidelines pertaining to the dispensing of narcotics, including assessing the appropriateness of providing refills and ensuring the authenticity and completeness of prescriptions. The witness noted that many of the patients who were receiving fentanyl through forged prescriptions had been referred directly to Bijanzadeh’s pharmacy. Since doctors are not allowed to refer to any particular pharmacy, Bijzanzadeh should have questioned why her pharmacy was being used to fill these patients’ prescriptions for fentanyl, which is widely available. In addition, neither one of the two doctors whose credential were used for the forged prescriptions had primary address listed on the website of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Both had practice addresses located in the United States, noted the witness. Read: Revoked: 'Doctor Fentanyl’ disappeared more than two years ago to avoid prison Had Bijanzadeh confirmed the addresses listed on the prescriptions, she would found out that one of the clinics does not exist and that the other pertains to a different walk-in clinic and pharmacy. “This, in turn, would have prompted further questions,” the witness testified. In addition to suspension and costs, the discipline committee also placed several restrictions on Bijanzadeh’s practice, including a five-year ban from acting as designated manager at a pharmacy, and required her to take an ethics course as well as courses on opioid dependence treatment and practice and pharmacy management. Bijanzadeh must also retain, at her own expense, a practice mentor once she returns to the pharmacy. Read: Calgary woman suing Alberta gov't over opioid restrictions, seeking ‘narrow, individual exemption’

More than $61K in costs and 14-month suspension for pharmacist who unknowingly filled drug traffickers’ forged prescriptions

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