Tennessee nurse practitioner known as ‘Rock Doc’ gets 20 years for illegally prescribing opioids
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee nurse who called herself the “Rock Doc” has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegally prescribing thousands of doses of opioids, including oxycodone and fentanyl, in exchange for money and sex, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jeffrey W. Young Jr. was sentenced in federal court on Monday, about a year after he was convicted of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances from a clinic in Jackson, Tennessee. There is no parole in the federal court system.
Young, 49, was among 60 people charged in April 2019 for their role in illegally prescribing and distributing pills containing opioids and other drugs. Authorities said the defendants included 53 medical professionals tied to some 350,000 prescriptions and 32 million pills.
Young, who called himself the “Rock Doc,” promoted his practice under the motto “work hard, play harder.” The indictment states that he prescribed drugs that were highly addictive and had a high risk of abuse while trying to promote a āRock Docā reality TV pilot and podcast, while receiving sex and money for prescriptions.
Young maintained a party atmosphere at his clinic and illegally prescribed more than 100,000 doses of hydrocodone, oxycodone and fentanyl, including to a pregnant woman, prosecutors said.
āThe self-proclaimed ‘Rock Doc’ abused the power of the prescription book to supply his small community with hundreds of thousands of doses of highly addictive prescription opioids to obtain money, fame and sexual favors,ā said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri , head of the criminal division of the Ministry of Justice. āThe suspect’s conduct endangered his patients and the community at large.ā
Since March 2007, the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program has charged more than 5,400 defendants who billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion, officials said.