Local psychiatrist arrested in prescription fraud case

From the North County Times

A Murrieta psychiatrist was arrested Tuesday morning, suspected of illegally writing prescriptions for drugs such as Vicodin, Xanax and Oxycontin in exchange for cash.

Dr. Joel Stanley Dreyer, 69, was arrested at his large, two-story home on Pinnacle Court in Bear Creek Heights that sits high on a hill above the gated community.

Dreyer was led from his home in handcuffs just before 9 a.m. and driven away in a patrol car. A short time later, investigators could be seen going through items in the garage, including a yellow Chevrolet Corvette with the personalized license plate FREUD MD.

According to police, Dreyer would typically charge $100 for each prescription, issuing them without conducting a physical examination as required by law.

Murrieta police Lt. Dennis Vrooman said what Dreyer is accused of is tantamount to the actions of a common street-level drug pusher.

"Very simply, this is the same as a drug dealer," Vrooman said. Only instead of actually providing what Vrooman called Dreyer's customers with drugs, the doctor instead used his position to prescribe drugs to them illegally, the lieutenant said.

"Some of these drugs filter down to the teens and young people in our community," Vrooman said. "This can lead to addictions and destroy people's lives."

The investigation could lead to the arrests of at least 50 more people who either allegedly bought prescriptions from Dreyer or possibly even other medical professionals who may have knowingly collaborated with Dreyer, Vrooman said. He declined to be more specific.

Dreyer has been under investigation for some time by both the Medical Board of California and the state attorney general's office, Candis Cohen, spokeswoman for the Medical Board, said Tuesday.

Cohen said cases involving physicians selling prescriptions for cash "are not all that unusual," adding that anywhere from six to 12 come to the board's attention each year.

Vrooman said authorities believe Dreyer has been issuing illegal prescriptions "for as long as 10 years."

He estimated that the number of allegedly illegal prescriptions written by Dreyer "is probably at least in the hundreds, if not in the thousands."

At this point in the investigation, authorities believe most of the prescriptions were for painkillers, although Vrooman said they will be looking into what other drugs may have been involved.

A "special master" has been appointed by a judge to the case. He is there to make sure the legitimate doctor-client privilege between Dreyer and his patients is not violated as investigators sift through documents seized during searches of both his home and his office on Enterprise Circle North in Temecula.

The investigation into Dreyer's alleged unethical practices was sparked by the suspicions of employees at several area pharmacies, Vrooman said.

"They were seeing a lot of young, able-bodied people coming in with prescriptions for highly addictive medications" that were written by Dreyer, the lieutenant said.

Some of the pharmacies decided to no longer fill prescriptions issued by the doctor, Vrooman said.

Earlier this year, Murrieta police, Medical Board investigators and Drug Enforcement Administration agents joined forces to investigate the allegation against Dreyer.

Headed by Murrieta police Detective John Nelson, the investigation included several purchases by undercover officers of prescriptions written by Dreyer, police said.

Investigators found that Dreyer would meet his customers in parking lots, restaurants and a local gym where he would reportedly exchange prescriptions for cash without examining the people, Vrooman said.

Police believe most of those who bought the illegal prescriptions personally used them, while some may have turned around and sold the documents to others.

Dreyer was arrested on suspicion of issuing fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances and was taken to the Murrieta Police Station for questioning, Vrooman said. Dreyer was then booked at Southwest Detention Center in French Valley, where he is being held without the possibility of bail, authorities said.

According to Medical Board records, Dreyer has been a licensed physician in California since May 1969.

Cohen, the Medical Board spokeswoman, said that if the evidence in a case against a licensed physician justifies it, the state's attorney general's office, acting on behalf of the board, can file what is called an accusation.