An Albion doctor has been sentenced to federal prison after he wrote prescriptions for people who didn’t need them.

Acting US Attorney for Western Michigan Andrew Birge says Tuesday in a release that 66-year-old Dr. Horace Junior Davis was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Dr. Davis, as owner of the Albion Center for Family Medicine, prescribed methadone to several people from 2011 to 2013. The US Attorney says that Davis profited from the illegal prescriptions by fraudulently billing insurance for the drugs.

Opioid abuse has been a growing problem in Southwest Michigan, and nationally; The Centers for Disease Control says that deaths from prescription drugs since 1999 have quadrupled. Birge says that “Whether it’s a supplier of heroin to street-corner dealers or a physician illegally writing prescriptions, my office will continue to hold accountable those who would profit from spreading the tragic curse of opioid addiction”.

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