Psychiatrist arrested for being a high volume drug pusher

Psychiatrist Aaron Friedberg, 40, of Alpine, N.J., has been arrested on charges that he illegally sold prescriptions out of an office on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Published reports said that Friedberg, a psychiatrist, would see up to 30 people an hour, charging $150 for a prescription for 100 to 120 pills of Xanax or Klonopin, both antidepressants. Fifteen other people, including David Santone, 42, and Kenneth Punllinger, also 42, were arrested in connection with the investigation, police said.

According to this more detailed reported, Friedberg's so-called patients never had to mention what ailed them. He did not take medical histories, say investigators, and openly referred to the practice as "group therapy," then wrote prescriptions for anti-depressants. Nearly all the prescriptions written were for the antidepressants Xanax and Klonopin, drugs often used by heroin addicts and crackheads.