Lutz Doctor Sent to Prison for Illegal Oxycodone Distribution

Sanjeev Grover, a Lutz physician, was sentenced this week to five years in federal prison for distributing the painkiller oxycodone outside the scope of his practice. Grover also was ordered to relinquish his medical license with the state and his Drug Enforcement Administration number. He had previously pleaded guilty.

Grover sold prescriptions for oxycodone to a confidential informant and an undercover agent on five occasions between April and June 2011, according to court documents.

Grover met a confidential informant twice in a Burger King parking lot in Lutz. On the first occasion, Grover sold the informant four prescriptions, each for 60 80-milligram oxycodone pills. The second sale included eight prescriptions, each for 180 30-milligram pills.

On two other occasions, Grover met with the confidential informant and the undercover agent in a business center parking lot in Palm Harbor. During the first Palm Harbor meeting, he sold six prescriptions. Four were for 180 30-milligram pills and the other two were for 180 15-milligram pills. On the second occasion, Grover sold 12 prescriptions, each for 180 30-milligram pills.

On another occasion, he sold six prescriptions to the undercover agent in a Walgreens parking lot in Palm Harbor. Each prescription was for 180 30-milligram pills.

Grover was arrested as part of a federal drug sweep in October. Nine doctors and two pharmacists were among 22 people arrested and accused of illegally distributing prescription drugs.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder believes Florida is the epicenter of the country’s prescription drug abuse problem. Of the 55 million oxycodone pills illegally sold nationwide, 85 percent were in Florida, Holder said.

For several years now, we’ve seen a local and federal law enforcement focus on alleged “pill mills” and over-prescribing and/or illegally distributing physicians in the Tampa Bay area.