By: Mark Vest | West Bloomfield Beacon | Published February 2, 2024
WEST BLOOMFIELD — West Bloomfield doctor Scott Henry Cooper, 61, was sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to the unlawful prescribing of prescription drug-controlled substances, U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced in a press release Jan. 12.
Joining Ison in the announcement was Special Agent in Charge Orville O. Greene of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the release states.
Cooper was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood in Detroit.
In his guilty plea, Cooper admitted that he practiced as a primary care physician at Comprehensive Medical Associates, located in West Bloomfield, from 2013-2018, according to the release.
Some of his patients sought valuable prescription drug-controlled substances, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, alprazolam (more commonly known as Xanax) and dextroamphetamine amphetamine (more commonly known as Adderall), according to the release.
“Cooper admitted in an interview with the DEA that his controlled substance patients were problem patients, he did not want to see them, and in fact he did not see them routinely, but continued to prescribe their controlled substance,” the release states. “He has not been allowed to prescribe controlled substances since 2020. In the case of the patient that formed the basis of his guilty plea, the defendant prescribed oxycodone and other highly abused drugs for almost three years without having patient visits or contact with the patient. While the patient served almost three years in prison, the defendant wrote monthly controlled substance prescriptions, totaling over 7,000 dosage units, that were picked up by the patient’s relative.”
According to the release, when the patient was released from prison and told Cooper he had been in prison, Cooper continued prescribing the same “dangerous” combination of drugs he had been prescribing while the patient was in prison.
“Oxycodone is extremely powerful, addictive and easily abused. Michigan has seen devastating statistics relating to opioid drug overdoses in the last five years. My office remains committed to pursuing medical providers who abuse their license and ultimately inflict this type of significant harm on our community,” Ison stated in the release.
Greene also shared a statement.
“Healthcare professionals who blatantly disregard their commitments to safeguard controlled substances do so at the risk of endangering their patients and undermining critical public health efforts to address the opioid epidemic,” Greene said. “Today’s sentencing emphasizes law enforcement’s commitment to saving lives by investigating, arresting, and prosecuting those responsible for fueling the overdose crisis.”
An attorney for Cooper could not be reached for comment by press time.
The Eastern District of Michigan is one of the 12 districts included in the Opioid Fraud Abuse and Detection Unit, a Department of Justice initiative that uses data to target and prosecute individuals that are contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis, the release states.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne F. Pratt.
The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to the release.