Effects on drug abuse fuzzy after ’03 arrests

The number of deaths has
dropped, but a county drug agency remains just as busy.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — After Work-Med Chiro-Med, a pain management/chiropractic office, was shut down in 2003, and two physicians and a chiropractor were arrested, authorities touted it as the closing of a major supplier of prescription narcotics being abused in the area.

Four years later, it’s hard to say what effect that raid has had on the illegal use of prescription drugs.

“We are seeing the same drug trends,” said Darcy McKinney, case manager supervisor of the Lawrence County Drug and Alcohol Commission. “Our office is just as busy.”

McKinney’s office serves about 1,500 people each year and still sees a fair number of people addicted to prescription pain pills like oxycodone — a powerful painkiller that the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office cited most in its prosecution of physicians Philip Wagman, William Mangino and chiropractor Thomas Wilkins.

Wagman, 49, and Wilkins, 44, were found guilty at trial last year of violating 19 counts each of the Pennsylvania Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act and one count each of conspiracy to violate the state drug act.

Wagman was sentenced to 19 to 45 years in state prison and an $845,000 fine, and Wilkins, the chiropractor, got a nine- to 30-year prison sentence and $835,000 in fines.

The third man, Mangino, 64, will go to trial this week in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.

During Wagman and Wilkins’ sentencing, Jeffrey Baxter, senior deputy attorney general, called their business a “prescription mill” where a patient would first see Wilkins for a $25 fee and then one of the doctors for an additional $40 fee.

Baxter noted that, some days, prescriptions were written for close to 650 pills for oxycodone and other prescription narcotics, and 80 to 120 patients a day were in the office.

Less a problem, chief says

Tom Sansone, New Castle police chief, said the diversion of prescription drugs is still a big problem, but it has lessened some since the closing of Work-Med Chiro-Med.

Sansone said people legitimately receive the pain pills and then sell some of their prescription for cash, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was four years ago.

“In this case, they were putting tons of pills on the streets. It’s different when someone gets a prescription for 30 pills and puts 20 on the streets than when 50 or 60 people are getting prescriptions and putting them on the streets,” the police chief said.

John Bongivengo, Lawrence County district attorney, believes the problem with prescription drug abuse will never go away.

“It’s still very prevalent. It’s not as prevalent as crack, cocaine and heroin,” he said. “It was [in 2003-04] at the point where Oxy’s were the thing. It was like the new fad.”

The one area where the apparent decreased availability of Oxycodone and other prescription drugs appears to have made a difference is at the county coroner’s office.

Coroner Russell S. Noga said he’s seen a noticeable drop in drug deaths since Work-Med Chiro-Med was shut down.

In 2004, the year the doctors were arrested, there were 18 drug overdose deaths in Lawrence County. In 2005, there were eight.

Noga did notice, though, a spike in suicides in 2005. That number went from eight in 2004 to 17 in 2005. It then decreased to six in 2006.

“I can’t honestly say it’s directly related to the drug problem, but there seemed to be an increase in the number in 2005 compared to 2004,” Noga said.

The coroner realizes there are a number of factors that play into suicides like depression and other problems.

cioffi@vindy.com