Celina, Tennessee Was Once A Hub For The Opioid Crisis

Image Credit: K-State Research and Extension / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Rebecca Scott] –

It’s no secret that America is facing an opioid crisis, and Tennessee is no exception to the rule.

In April of 2016, authorities were alerted to a possible break-in at a Celina pharmacy. When officers responded, the co-owner, Thomas Weir, arrived in minutes and quickly ran the officers off which created suspicion amongst law enforcement. 

Information and evidence were collected and six years later a criminal case alleged that two pharmacies in Celina that shared the same owners, were found to be filling opioid prescriptions in massive proportions.

Many of these prescriptions would have been flagged at other pharmacies and deemed dangerous or unfillable. But these two pharmacies – Dale Hollow Pharmacy and Xpress Pharmacy – willingly filled prescriptions, going so far as to offer incentives to patients for filling their opioid prescriptions with their pharmacies.

The three co-owners of the pharmacies, Thomas Weir, Charles “Bobby” Oakley, and Pamela Spivey, along with former pharmacist and owner, William Donaldson, were all charged with a scheme designed to make them enormous profits. Donaldson allegedly recruited many of the customers who sought to have their opioid prescriptions filled at the pharmacies and was responsible for pushing pharmacists to fill as many prescriptions as possible.

Two other pharmacists pleaded guilty to charges of drug conspiracy and health care fraud.

Prosecutors believe that this scheme contributed to a large number of overdoses and deaths as the pharmacies were even attracting long distance patients with clear red flags indicating that the drugs were being abused.

In fact, in 2017, Clay County, home to Celina, was considered one of the nation’s leading distributors of opioids.

In assessing how the crisis began, it was found that the pharmacies, along with other pharmacies in the same vicinity, once served a hospital in Celina. When the hospital closed its doors some of these pharmacies found that they could maintain steady business and income by catering directly to the opioid crisis. Over a six-year period the pharmacies raked in $2.4 million from Medicare alone.

With the level of opioids being purchased by the pharmacies, they inevitably called unwanted attention to themselves, and in 2018 they were raided by the DEA. The pharmacies were shut down soon after and, since that time, the number of opioid prescriptions filled in Clay County has been drastically reduced.

Dr. Gilbert Ghearing, a doctor whose office sat between the two pharmacies was also charged in a separate case for writing opioid prescriptions that were unjustifiable.

His attorney, Ronald Chapman, when referencing the case against the pharmacies, was quoted by KFF Health News as saying, “The only CVS down the street, or the only Rite Aid down the street, is cutting off every provider who prescribes opioids, leaving it to smaller pharmacies to do the work.” 

Whether these smaller pharmacies originally did that work with the intention of actually helping people, or whether they were more concerned with their scheme from the get go, it is clear that the pharmacies quickly became major contributors to an overwhelming crisis that takes lives daily.

Rebecca Scott is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. 

You can reach Rebecca at Rebecca@tennesseeconservativenews.com.