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Georgia doctor pleads guilty to running a pill mill

FILE - This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. More than 28,000 Americans died from overdosing on opiates in 2014, a record high for the nation. That’s 78 people per day, a number that doesn’t include the millions of family members, first responders and even taxpayers who feel the ripple of drug addiction in their daily lives. A rise in prescription painkillers is partially to blame: The sale of these drugs has quadrupled since 1999, and so has the number of Americans dying from an addiction to them. When prescriptions run out, people find themselves turning to the cheaper alternative heroin and, increasingly, the even more deadly drug fentanyl. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
FILE - This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. More than 28,000 Americans died from overdosing on opiates in 2014, a record high for the nation. That’s 78 people per day, a number that doesn’t include the millions of family members, first responders and even taxpayers who feel the ripple of drug addiction in their daily lives. A rise in prescription painkillers is partially to blame: The sale of these drugs has quadrupled since 1999, and so has the number of Americans dying from an addiction to them. When prescriptions run out, people find themselves turning to the cheaper alternative heroin and, increasingly, the even more deadly drug fentanyl. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A Georgia doctor has pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his role in running a pill mill out of a phony pain management clinic.

U.S. Attorney Edward J. Tarver says in a statement that 63-year-old Paul Spencer Ruble of Thomas, Georgia, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court.

Beginning in 2011 Ruble and other conspirators began operating a phony pain management clinic, Apex Health & Wellness, Inc., in Brunswick.

Between November 2011 and April 24, 2013, drug-seeking customers paid between $200 and $300 to Apex Health in exchange for prescriptions for controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose.

Ruble wrote prescriptions for vast quantities of controlled substances including oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam.