Home Philadelphia Press Releases 2009 Former City Pharmacist Convicted of Illegal Drug Dealing
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Former City Pharmacist Convicted of Illegal Drug Dealing

U.S. Attorney’s Office December 04, 2009
  • Eastern District of Pennsylvania (215) 861-8200

PHILADELPHIA—Lawrence Young, 68, a former licensed Philadelphia pharmacy owner from Cherry Hill, NJ, was convicted yesterday by a federal jury of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and distribution of controlled substances, announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy. Evidence presented at trial showed that between 2001 and October 2006, Young operated the pharmacy, at 1306 South Street, as a haven for drug dealers and drug addicts who went there to fill sham medical prescriptions for frequently abused prescription drugs containing controlled substances, such as Percocet, Lorcet, and Xanax, and the frequently abused syrups Tussionex and Phenergan with Codeine. The drug dealers and drug addicts fraudulently obtained the sham prescriptions in their own names and in the names of others from corrupt doctors, such as Joseph L. Borkson, who issued the invalid prescriptions. Young filled the prescriptions knowing they were shams. Borkson pleaded guilty and was sentenced in September to 60 months in prison.

Young filled bundles of multiple sham prescriptions for frequently abused prescription drugs, for regular drug-dealing customers whom he personally observed and dealt with, in exchange for cash and other benefits. These regular drug-dealing customers waited in line outside Young’s Pharmacy in the morning to have their fraudulent prescriptions filled. To avoid detection, Young set an artificial limit on the number of prescriptions he would fill per day from Borkson to keep the Borkson prescriptions from being consecutively recorded and reported to governmental authorities responsible for tracking prescriptions.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 16, 2010. Young faces a maximum possible sentence of 80 years’ imprisonment, a lifetime of supervised release, including a mandatory minimum sentence of three years of supervised release, a $4 million fine, and a $400 special assessment. (The advisory sentencing guideline range is 188 to 235 months.)

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander T.H. Nguyen and Andrea G. Foulkes.

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