Seashore Drugs, Inc.
Outcome
Federal court ordered Seashore Drugs, owner John Waggett, and PIC Billy King II to pay $1,050,000 in December 2020 and permanently barred from dispensing opioids or controlled substances; pharmacy dispensed 5.4 million opioid pills from 2006–2012 with one of the highest dispensing rates in the Cape Fear region; multiple customers died of overdose after filling prescriptions there.
Details
Seashore Drugs, Inc. — $1,050,000 Consent Decree for Opioid Pill Mill (2006–2020)
Outcome: A federal court in December 2020 entered a consent judgment requiring Seashore Drugs, Inc. of Wilmington, North Carolina, owner John D. Waggett, and pharmacist-in-charge Billy W. King II to pay $1,050,000 in civil penalties and permanently cease dispensing opioids or other controlled substances; the pharmacy had dispensed 5.4 million opioid pills from 2006–2012 and multiple customers died of overdoses after filling prescriptions there.
Seashore Drugs was an independent pharmacy in Wilmington, North Carolina. From 2006 to 2012, Seashore Drugs sold a staggering 5.4 million pills and had one of the highest dispensing rates of oxycodone and hydrocodone of any pharmacy in the Cape Fear region. For years, the defendants allegedly ignored well-known red flags of drug diversion and drug-seeking behavior when filling prescriptions for controlled substances, including for oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, and "potentiator" drugs frequently combined with opioids for their euphoric effects.
The red flag failures were documented and known internally. Seashore staff reported to pharmacist-in-charge King that individuals were literally exchanging recently dispensed drugs on the bench outside the pharmacy — a direct, firsthand observation of diversion occurring — yet King took no action. Multiple customers who filled opioid prescriptions at Seashore died from prescription-drug overdoses within days of having their pills dispensed.
The consent order permanently prohibited Waggett from dispensing opioids or other controlled substances; prohibited King from dispensing Schedule II controlled substances for 180 days and required three years of further DEA monitoring. The civil penalties totaled $1,050,000. The consent judgment was announced in December 2020.
How Crucible Prevents This
Seashore's own staff reported to the pharmacist-in-charge that customers were visibly exchanging recently dispensed drugs outside the pharmacy, yet no action was taken. Crucible's anomaly reporting protocol — which requires staff to document and escalate patient behavioral anomalies observed in the pharmacy environment — would have created a mandatory escalation record when staff first observed the outdoor drug exchange.
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