When a hospice nurse called an Alabama pharmacy to ask why pain medication wasn’t working, the technician taking the call could hear a patient moaning in agony in the background, federal prosecutors said.
That man, Johnathon Click, suspected the patient was in anguish because his actions, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Click has been accused of tampering with vials of medicine intended for cancer patients by removing morphine to feed his opioid addiction and shipping off diluted, ineffective medicine.
The 30-year-old, who intends to plead guilty, acknowledged a history of drug addiction and sought help at a drug rehabilitation facility, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Johnathon Click, 30, from Birmingham, Alabama, has been accused of tampering with pain medication intended for cancer patients by removing morphine to feed his opioid addiction (stock image)
And the complaint against him, which was filed in US District Court in northern Alabama, is the just the latest repercussion of an opioid addiction crisis that has ravaged communities across the nation.
Click now faces up to 10 years in prison, but hopes to receive less than that by entering into a plea agreement.
He has accepted responsibility for is actions, and did so in his first interview with authorities, said his lawyer, Clayton Tartt.
‘This is one more aspect of the epidemic problem America has with abuse of prescription opioids,’ U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town said in a statement.
As the lead pharmacy technician at Birmingham-based ContinuumRx of Central Alabama, Click prepared IV fluid bags containing medications for patients, prosecutors wrote in court records.
The IV bags included the opioids morphine or hydromorphone.
In September 2016, Click distracted a pharmacist who witnessed him taking morphine from a cabinet and putting it in his pocket, prosecutors said.
An inventory check then found signs that the pharmacy’s supply of morphine sulfate had been tampered with.
Click ‘would take the opioids to his car where he would draw out the desired amount from the vials,’ prosecutors wrote in court papers.
As the lead pharmacy technician at Birmingham-based ContinuumRx of Central Alabama (pictured), Click prepared IV fluid bags containing medications for patients, prosecutors wrote in court records
‘The defendant would replace the stolen drugs with saline or sterile water,’ court papers read.
The diluted drugs were meant for hospices or terminally ill patients, and were not as effective at relieving pain as fully potent ones. Most of the hospice patients served by ContinuumRx suffered some form of terminal cancer, prosecutors said.
One patient, who is referred to in court documents as DN, suffered from intense bouts of ‘breakthrough pain’ and found that no amount of drugs seemed to ease the agony.
The patient at New Beacon Hospice in Birmingham Alabama, said that for nearly two months she experienced this agony, and would push the button on her intravenous pump multiple times a day but never receive the a dose of the medication that could ease the pain her liver cancer brought her.
When the drugs failed to relieve the patients’ pain, nurses would call ContinuumRx, often seeking guidance from Click since he was the technical expert at the pharmacy.
‘During one of these calls, the defendant heard the patient moaning in pain,’ prosecutors wrote.
‘The defendant suspected that this patient had received an IV bag prepared with diluted opioids from one of the vials with which he had tampered.’
ContinuumRx, which terminated Click’s employment in September 2016, did not respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.