Federal court approved a consent decree on July 6, 2023, requiring Beckman's Greene Street Pharmacy and owner John A. Beckman to pay $120,000 in civil penalties and abide by strict prescribing red-flag protocols, resolving allegations that the pharmacy filled hundreds of opioid prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act since 2017.

Beckman's Greene Street Pharmacy, Inc. — CSA Opioid Red Flags / Consent Decree (2023)

Outcome: U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby approved a consent decree on July 6, 2023, requiring Beckman's Greene Street Pharmacy and owner-pharmacist John A. Beckman to pay $120,000 in civil penalties and comply with strict opioid red-flag documentation requirements after filling hundreds of unlawful opioid prescriptions from approximately 2017 onward.

Beckman's Greene Street Pharmacy, Inc. is a community pharmacy in Cumberland, Maryland operated by John A. Beckman, who also served as the pharmacist-in-charge. The DOJ, on behalf of the DEA, filed a civil complaint in June 2023 alleging that Beckman and his pharmacy repeatedly filled prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances while ignoring obvious red flags of drug abuse and diversion — a violation of the Controlled Substances Act's requirement that dispensed prescriptions have a legitimate medical purpose issued by a practitioner acting in the usual course of professional practice.

Specific violations included dispensing the "holy trinity" — a combination of an opioid, a benzodiazepine, and carisoprodol — which is a recognized indicator of prescription drug abuse with no legitimate concurrent therapeutic justification. The pharmacy also routinely dispensed prescriptions causing patients' daily morphine milligram equivalent (MME) levels to far exceed the CDC's recommended maximum of 90 MME/day, with some patients receiving upward of 1,000 daily MME. The complaint alleged the pharmacy knowingly filled fraudulent prescriptions continuously from 2017 to at least 2022.

Under the consent decree, Beckman and Beckman's Pharmacy agreed to pay the $120,000 civil monetary penalty and are permanently required to document a red-flag assessment before filling prescriptions meeting defined criteria — including patients traveling long distances to the pharmacy and concurrent opioid-benzodiazepine prescriptions. The settlement amounts resolved allegations only; no determination of criminal liability was made.

Primary Source: Consent Decree Approved — Beckman's Greene Street Pharmacy | DOJ