Bethesda Doctor: An Addicted Doctor to Drug Addicts?
How would you react if your primary care physician entered the exam room looking disheveled with dried blood under his nose, sores on his hands and face, and wearing a dirty medical coat with dried, splattered blood all over the shoulder? And what if your doctor then stuttered, mumbled, and was very difficult to understand?
You would probably report the strange behavior to the Board of Physicians, as one woman did in her 2004 complaint against Eric C. Greenberg, a Bethesda physician who is the focus of an investigation into the distribution of narcotic painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet.
Greenberg was arrested and charged with drug possession last week after a raid on his home—where he also works—found cocaine, traces of Ritalin, and a meth pipe. Greenberg himself appeared to have needle marks on his arms, hands, and feet—some were so fresh that they were bleeding.
The office manager who was at the home at the time of the raid told investigators that Greenberg treated “regular” patients and “narcotics” patients, the latter of whom traveled from as far as Ellicott City—an hour away—to get prescriptions for narcotic painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin.
Greenberg’s medical license was immediately suspended, and he has been charged with possession of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. His wife, Jaquenette I. Fischman, was also arrested on the same charges.
Last fall, pharmacists alerted authorities that Greenberg was writing prescriptions for drug addicts, according to records at the Maryland Board of Physicians. A suspect in another drug case told investigators that “all of his friends” who once got illicit prescriptions from a doctor whose license had been suspended were now getting them from Greenberg.
In another investigation linked to Greenberg, two county employees were charged with possession of an estimated $6,000 worth of painkillers and other narcotics at their workplace. One man was charged with possession with intent to distribute OxyContin and possession of Adderall, a drug used to treat ADHD; another was charged with possession of Dilaudid and Suboxone. The distribution charge was later dismissed but the two men are no longer employed by the county.
In 2007, Greenberg was placed on probation by the Maryland Board of Physicians for prescribing medication to a family member and for failing to maintain proper records on six patients. The anonymous patient’s 2004 complaint against the doctor was part of a larger investigation that led to the probation.
